Reply #104: Actually, rob, only a fool would believe that there is only one kind of authoritarianism

[tom_paine]

and that it looks and acts a certain way.

If it doesn't act like that, then it cannot be aithoritarianism or totalitarianism.

Well, that is simply the fool's paradise. Byt please, don't let me tell you. Listen from the lips of a man who lived through Hitler's Rise as we are living throughthe rise of the next logical "kinder and gentler" incarnation of totalitarianism, designed to be so in order to act in this nation at this period of time.

robcon, who believes there is only one kind of totalitarianism, meet Karl Jaspers, a German psychiatrist who will tell you in his own words and experiences, how foolish it is to be lulled into a false sense of security in this fashion.

http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/jaspers02.htm

What worked in Nazi Germany cannot work here, mostly because even people like you would notice it, and that is the one thing tyrants must avoid until it is too late for anyone to do anything about them. As many people as possible for as long as possible must be fooled, for any form of totalitarianism, past or present, to succeed.

Oh, and perhaps you would like to meet Milton Mayer, who also explains how foolish it is to fail to "resist the beginnings" and "foresee the ends".

http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free.html

Pay special attention to this quote, rob, for this man is peaking directly to you from behind the veil of years:

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no (patriotic American) could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

So don't feel bad. In your denial, not only do you stand with the majority of Amerikans 2001-7 and the majority of Germans 1928-1937, but really, you stand with the vast majority of the human race, who does this same thing over and over and over, in so many different forms under so many different banners, that the story is a part of our shared cultural heritage, recently enshrined in the Star Wars Prequels.

The bottom line is this: what works in America 2007 could never have worked in Nazi Germany, where the people had no tradition of freedom such that they could be gleichschaltung ("brought into line") by "firmer" means.

Please feel free to cover your ears and sing little songs until any unpleasant thoughts I have raised in you go away.

Move along. Nothing to see here. Just a normal swing of the pendulum.

Oh, one more reading suggestion which I know you won't read because to do so threatens the denial that keeps you happy.

"I Will Bear Witness" by Victor Klemperer, which shows conclusively that, even in a society that turned to the purewst evil humanity has ever known, Nazi Germany, even for a Jew day-to-day life was so damned normal and humdrum until the Nazis had fully consolidate their unchecked power.

Therefore, I maintain you have little understanding of what authoritarianism or totalitarianism is. I would suggest you educate yourself on the topic (Hannah Arendt's books are excellent also) first.