Not Some Remote Barbaric Land

"This utter denial of everything liberalism had ever stood for was arousing wild enthusiasm, not in some remote barbaric land outside the pale, but in one of the most highly educated countries . . ."

No, those words weren't written to describe America, though they fit well enough. The quote comes form W. H. Auden, written about the state of Germany in 1933.

Reichstag Fire - Twin Tower Destruction

The similarities between the Reichstag fire in February, 1933 and the destruction of the World Trade Center had similar consequences, although fortunately for us. so far, George Bush's actions have been thwarted, somewhat.

In response to the fire, Hitler persuaded an old and weak but still much-revered Hindenburg "to sign emergency decrees that virtually ended all civil rights that the Weimar Constitution had granted." Nazi propaganda then whipped the population into conformity. The Germans had a word for it -- Gleichschaltung -- like many German words, not really translatable into English, but approximately meaning "coordination," literally, "putting into the same gear," an amazingly impersonal, mechanical word for the "elimination of all opposition, either by decree or murder."

The fire so suited Nazi aims that for many years people assumed it was the Nazis who set fire to the Reichstag -- as now people believe that our government in some way was responsible for the destruction of the twin towers -- but in fact a deranged Dutchman set the fire. No matter, the Nazis moved against the Communists and the Jews the way the Bush Administration moved against Muslims and anyone of middle-east ancestry.

The same yearning for a "healthy fascism," a "new religious commitment" made by "strong human beings in a united nation," as Fritz Stern describes the German yearnings that preceded Hitler, can be heard in all of the Republican candidates for President. What Bush started, others appear ready to continue, in even more radical terms.

We have lost habeas corpus, the right to privacy, the security of the ballot box, a free press of dispersed ownership. We are giving the government and its private contractor armies the right to jail and torture us in the name of protecting us from a different "ism" and a different race. The effectiveness of such a strategy and its sad results are clearly spelled out in German history, another nation that felt it had a special destiny, a German exceptionalism between East and West. We're right there, unless we can stop those who profit from promoting anxiety and fear. The Germans didn't find that possible. The odds may be against us as well.

Quotations are from "Dreams and Delusions, the Drama of German History," by Fritz Stern, 1987.

George Bush in The Eclipse of the Sun

Substitute George Bush for Paul von Hindenburg in Georg Grosz's "The Eclipse of the Sun" and you have an accurate depiction of America today -- war-profiteering corporations, brainless political opposition, religion and war.

With just two word substitutions, Ian Buruma's description of the Weimar Republic describes who is ruling America today: "autocratic media moguls, disaffected generals, dim-witted elites, Fundamentalist reactionaries and ultra-nationalist schemers."

It was this gang of venal bunglers who handed over the Weimar Republic to Hitler. Oh, but the Weimar Republic was the Germans' first attempt at democracy. We're so much better at it than they were . . . we'll be able to handle it, won't we? Any ideas how?

[The two substitutions: "elites" for "aristocrats" and "Fundamentalist" for "Catholic."]

Circle the Wagons

Just a few similarities:
1. Communists then, "Islamofascists"/terrorists today
2. Defeat in World War I then, 9/11 now
3. Emperor deposed, ending the hierarchical social structure; 2000 electoral coup, ending the democratic structure
4. Private armies: Freikorps then, BlackWater now
5. Germany's special destiny; America's special destiny
6. Government-created inflation to defeat war reparations then; government-created inflation to defeat credit crisis now
7. Rampant business corruption and speculation; ditto
8. Commercialized sexual drepavity; ditto
9. Jews as the enemy of the nation (despite their economic contributions) then, illegal immigrants as the enemy of the nation now (despite their economic contributions)
10. "The stab in the back" ploy then, political opposition branded as traitors now
11. The publication of hundreds of competing books, journals, newspapers as the society fragmented across ideological lines then; the publication of thousands of competing blogs, web sites, newsletters, magazines as the society fragments across ideological lines now
12. Weak political leadership that allowed a ruthless dictator to seize power -- the Nazis did well in only one election; they were not "popular" but economic hardship caused by the worldwide Great Depression gave Hitler the opportunity he needed
13. Our Great Depression is on its way. And our dictator? Only if we continue to ignore history's lessons.

The Stab in the Back

There are some frightening similarities between the Weimar Republic -- which gave birth to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Third Reich -- and the American government under George W. Bush, the most recent being the Bush "stab in the back" strategy.

After the incompetence of German military leaders cost the lives of 3 million Germans in World War I, the disgruntled losers, unwilling to accept the blame, came up with a propaganda ploy accusing Jews in the German army, war profiteers (excluding of course Krupp and Thyssen) and socialists as those who undermined the German military and caused it to lose the war. Of course, it was a lie. But a popular one.

Now, the Bush administration is attempting a similar ploy, blaming US political leaders -- Hillary Clinton specifically and "leftist" citizens generally -- with causing the American military to lose the war in Iraq because of their criticism that the war has hurt America's standing in the world and only strengthened the terrorists who hate us. And, while this is a frightening similarity to Weimar realities, it's not the only one.

Francine Prose, in a recent review of the book, Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s, coined such similarities "a Weimar moment." ("Berlin Stories," Harper's, April, 2007). One such moment occurred to her as she watched TV news the day after Thanksgiving: "One minute, an Iraqi woman was scrabbling in the dirt and throwing sand in her own face in an agony of grief. A minute later, a woman was nearly trampled by people struggling with boxes of flat-screen TVs. It was what, I suppose, might be called a Weimar moment . . . the wounded passing right alongside the gluttonous patrons of the pork store."

Here are a few more similarities:

• Hatred of immigrants.
• Inflation (ours is just getting started).
• Reckless speculation in financial markets.
• Sexual license.
• Private armies (the Freikorps then, Blackwater USA today).

Most troubling of all is the rise of religion coupled with nationalism. Islam-Iran vs. Christian-US is the nightmare world our intellectually bankrupt leadership has led us to. In Germany, decades of preaching by 'social critics' who linked a 'pure' Christianity with the German Volk led them to the Nazi dictatorship. The last of these critics just happened to pen a book titled The Third Reich. Are our neo-con incompetents with their theory of pre-emptive war and their dependence on the religious right for political power any different? Both then and now, the damage done to the Republic is dreadful. (Although there is one difference. The 'social critics' in Germany were all anti-semites. The leading neo-cons happen to be Jewish. On the other hand, their philosophical idol, Leo Strauss, fled Weimar Germany for the U.S. Just another connection.)

Anyone who is concerned about the direction the United States is taking should study Germany's Weimar Republic. We are headed toward dictatorship, financed by corporations linked to government, just as the industrialists of Germany financed Hitler's rise to power. That dictator isn't George Bush. Bush is only laying the groundwork for a future politician, who will no doubt be wildly popular at first, and who will become our Absolute Ruler.

From Post-modern Barbarism to the Pulpit & the Throne

"When men and women are reduced to nothing but their lowest appetites, we live in a state of barbarism. Weimar Period artists painted people in this state, for this, in their view, was what society had become. Their honesty would cost them. When the Nazis made barbarism official, these artists were among the first to go -- into exile, concentration camps, or inner emigration.
"The war had destroyed the old order, but there was a new one. The tragedy of the Weimar Period was that too few people were prepared to defend it. The new order was in any event, too fragile to withstand its brutal enemies."
- Glitter and Doom, German Portraits from the 1920s, by Sabine Rewald, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, page 17.

Are men and women in a society dedicated to consumption and "personal experience" reduced to a "post-modern" level of barbarism today? Isn't this how today's Christian Right views America? Will the reaction push us forward to a new "official barbarism" or pull us back to the old order of "Pulpit and Throne," the order destroyed by World War I and being reborn today through a corporate aristocracy, which has taken control of the federal government.

The Weimar Period lasted just 15 years but it was a crucial turning point for European civilization. Did a similar period -- a crucial turning point -- begin for us in 2001? The events in Germany during those years will certainly not repeat themselves here and now, but their causes and consequences hold a great deal for us to ponder.

Leadership Today and Yesterday

"His rhetoric was religious; he dissolved politics in a religious aura ... He promised deliverance and redemption, rebirth and salvation, even as he reviled the nation's enemies as godless and satanic; he did all that in the name of Providence, for he believed that Providence had selected him to deliver the people. In the beginning of his leadership, when he was still seeking to beguile his conservative allies, he appeared at his most devout. [At a mass meeting before his election] he was greeted with an incomparable storm of applause. Then he gave a far-ranging speech which roused all to a momentous pitch. At the end he began to pray, as it were, and concluded with the word 'amen.' Exactly the right mixture for his audience: Brutality, threats, great bragging about power and then again humility before the oft cited 'Almighty.' He declared after his election: 'the Almighty withdrew His blessings from our people' because they had forgotten 'the highest treasures of [the nation's] past, its honor and its freedom.'"
-- I've taken liberties with this quotation from Fritz Stern's Dreams and Delusions (page 145), by deleting the name of the man he was referring to and by including part of the text of a footnote on the same page in order to emphasize the parallels with today's crisis in global leadership. The "leader" referred to was of course Adolf Hitler.

Illegals in the US and the Jews of Germany

Are today's illegal immigrants playing the same role -- scapegoats -- that Jews were forced to play in pre-Nazi Germany? Certainly, in most respects there is no comarison: Jews were among the most educated and accomplished citizens of Germany: scholars, scientists and business leaders. Walter Rathenau, a successful Jewish businessman, was named foreign minister in 1921. Criticized by the Nazi party, he was assassinated by two right-wing army officers in June, 1922. The illegals, on the other hand, are poor and uneducated. They're here to do our dirty work; we squeeze them for some additional profit.

But the public's view, it seems to me, is growing increasingly strident. On an internet news site yesterday I noticed 82% of those answering the poll called for a wall between the US and Mexico. Today's newspaper is filled with Republican outrage at the cost of providing health care to the children of illegal aliens. All this fear and hatred -- encouraged by our politicians -- is a terrible mistake. If the illegals are here so we can take economic advantage of them, why do we behave as if they are taking something from us? It is this widespread belief that strikes me as similar to what happened in Weimar. Jews put Germany on the map -- Albert Einstein, for example -- but were reviled and discriminated against. The Nazi's linked them to Communists in much the same way as our right-wing politicians link illegal Mexican immigrants to terrorists.