Wehret den Anfängen

[tjwash]

A friend of mine, who is German, told me that saying once. It translates to “resist the beginnings.” Ever since Nazism and the holocaust, this is a very common saying in Germany, and is taught to everyone out there, and is treated as an extremely important matter. It’s about resisting and standing up against the rise of fascism, so that it never returns to them in their lifetimes again. A saying that we would better relate to in our language would most likely be “nip it in the bud.”

To see so many Americans just sit back and accept what is happening right now in our history, sickens me to no end. When a country passes a law as heinous as this, even when it is clear that it not only goes against the most basic of all basic human rights, it also goes against internationally binding treaties like the Geneva Convention, it can never end well for that country in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Basic human morality, and thousands of years of written history have tried to tell us two things; you should never make exceptions in which torture is allowed, and you should never exculpate your soldiers for "just following orders." It is the beginning of a very slippery slope for any society when the passage of laws that only apply to "good" citizens, and can be suspended for any others, start creeping in.

There was also another term, in the same vein, that my German friend told me as well; “Mitläufer.” It means “runners-with” and is a term that is commonly used to describe people that sort of just go with the flow. My point is, that the people that refuse to get outraged, and even SUPPORT this insane legislation, are not all freepers and neo-cons. Just like in the 30’s, there was a majority of people that didn’t have a burning fanaticism about fascism, or Hitler, or the Nazi party. Neither did they hate Jews or Gays. They merely got swept up in the current of the times and went with it. Much in the same way we hear friends and neighbors say things today, such as “why would I care about the Government tapping my phone? I have nothing to hide.” The new laws didn't apply to them back then, did they now? So why protest? Why be scared? Why worry about anything that does not affect me?

Unfortunately, as history has proven again, and again, it will affect them eventually. This is a law, that will take a few horrible illustrations by example to get it repealed. Another thing history unfortunately teaches us, and was best said by Abraham Lincoln; is that that the best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it without exception. Unfortunately, it is going to take having a few of the “Mitläufer” trapped in that unconscionable system, getting their story publicized, and waiting for the outrage to build nationally before any of this horrible legislation will go away.

For the record, I have intentionally NEVER compared Bush to Hitler. Or Musollini. Or Pol-Pot, Idi Amin, or Fidel Castro. Nor am I doing it now, And I never will do it. Why? To do so is to automatically give up any chance we may have to tell people what a completely misguided, and unfortunate law that this is, because the ones who need to hear it the most will automatically dismiss you as a weak kneed moron who gives in to terrorists. Besides, we should be discussing and debating the policies, morality, and logic of the Bush Administration, not which historical dictator the president is most similar to.

I would rather put the ebb and flow of our society in a historical context, as that is usually the best judge. If things continue as they are, America will soon be the pariah of moral failure; the one that everyone points to in the future as the ones to never, ever be like.

That’s not the future that I want to see for our country.

[revree]

1. So utterly well said

This is just so right on the mark. The "masses" wallow in a sort of haze of ignorance, fear, denial, and a few other things, and get swept along with the flow, not even aware that flow will one day take them to a deep place of despair.

Thanks for posting this.

[AX10]

2. Well said!

[Annces]

3. Repubs are counting on the religious right and the rich

to keep them going. There will come a time when even the rich and the fundamentalists will be in the way of the fascists.

[Flubadubya]

25. Unfortunately, by that time...

they will have already eliminated all of us. :(

[StellaBlue]

4. K&R

awesome post, awesome pic

WHAT CAN WE DO?!?!?!?!

I will be protesting at the Texas Capitol on 10/5, but other than that...

???

[Niche]

5. "... nothing was done when A happened what do we do when C happens..."

here's a link to a German man talking about rise of Hitler. Posted the other day by another DUer.

(What do we do now? Now that we let it all slide? I'm lost. We hit the streets - the news shows nothing, we blog, we put signs in our cars - that freepers key, our government does not speak or act on behalf of its people.)

How about a class action law suit against them? Legally what can we do?

http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm

[kath]

8. Here are some of the most chilling paragraphs from that piece:

(excerpt from Milton Mayer's ""They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945":

"They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945":

"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn't see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don't want to "go out of your way to make trouble." Why not? - Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

"Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, "everyone is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there will be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to you colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, "It's not so bad" or "You're seeing things" or "You're an alarmist." And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can't prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don't know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have.

"But your friends are fewer now. Some have drifted off somewhere or submerged themselves in their work. You no longer see as many as you did at meetings or gatherings. Informal groups become smaller; attendance drops off in little organizations, and the organizations themselves wither. Now, in small gatherings of your oldest friends, you feel that you are talking to yourselves, that you are isolated from the reality of things. This weakens your confidence still further and serves as a further deterrent to ö to what? It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then you are obviously a troublemaker. So you wait, and you wait.

"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and the smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked ö if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in "43" had come immediately after the "German Firm" stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in "33". But of course this isn't the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying "Jew swine," collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in ö your nation, your people ö is not the world you were in at all. <more>

[marions ghost]

6. kick

:kick:

[BeHereNow]

7. Kick ASS post (Recommended)

Unfortunately, I think there are far more "Mitlaufers" in this
country than "Wehret den Anfängen-ers"

A few years a go, a friend of mine who was then 90,
was pounding his kitchen table as he looked me
in the eyes and exclaimed, "It's happening again!
HOW can it be happening again? Don't the people recognize
what is happening? "

In that he escaped Hitler, I guess he would know.
Too bad every one else appears not to.

Including those who think the 2006 elections will
fix what has been decades in the making.
AS if.
BHN

[Flying Dream Blues]

9. Kick. Everyone should read this post and thread...thanks! nt

[Katzenjammer]

10. It comes from Latin: Finem respice et principiis obsta

'Think about the ending and resist the beginnings'

[Klukie]

11. Thanks for a great post. n/t

[ms liberty]

12. K&R: excellent piece...

I don't want to see it lost in the shuffle of Foley and the Abramhoff Emails.

Thanks for posting.

[BeHereNow]

13. KICK, KICK, KICK.

This post says it all.
And, any person who is capable of objectively and honestly
assessing our collective situation will agree with that statement.

BHN

[Individualist]

14. K&R

[BadgerKid]

15. .

getreten & empfohlen

[Kurovski]

16. K&R.nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. Principiis obsta: Resist the beginnings.

My sig line for the last year or so. Stop these fuckers before it's too late.

[tjwash]

18. I'm thinking of making that my sig line as well.

[NewHampshireDem]

43. Ovid, right? n/t

[Cleita]

19. Back in the early days after 9/11 many of our

European DUers were sounding the warning salvos and were shot down by those who said it couldn't happen here. There are those DUers like Octafish who didn't give up on getting the facts out to us and now it's becoming true. Unfortunately it's almost too late. If we don't take back Congress this November, then it's too late. We are going to have a hard time getting rid of those institutions and organizations who have brought this about.

[tblue]

20. I asked my hubby today if we shouldn't move to Germany

where at least the law says the people are free.

Your post gave me chills.

American law says we the people are not free????? It is very real, isn't it? This isn't just a bad dream?

[Singular73]

21. ---

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." ­ Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trials

[Katzenjammer]

23. Goering-Zitat

"Nun, natürlich, das Volk will keinen Krieg. Warum sollte irgendein armer Landarbeiter im Krieg sein Leben aufs Spiel setzen wollen, wenn das Beste ist, was er dabei herausholen kann, dass er mit heilen Knochen zurückkommt. Natürlich, das einfache Volk will keinen Krieg; weder in Russland, noch in England, noch in Amerika, und ebenso wenig in Deutschland. Das ist klar. Aber schließlich sind es die Führer eines Landes, die die Politik bestimmen, und es ist immer leicht, das Volk zum Mitmachen zu bringen, ob es sich nun um eine Demokratie, eine faschistische Diktatur, um ein Parlament oder eine kommunistische Diktatur handelt.
...
Das Volk kann mit oder ohne Stimmrecht immer dazu gebracht werden, den Befehlen der Führer zu folgen. Das ist ganz einfach. Man braucht nichts zu tun, als dem Volk zu sagen, es würde angegriffen, und den Pazifisten ihren Mangel an Patriotismus vorzuwerfen und zu behaupten, sie brächten das Land in Gefahr. Diese Methode funktioniert in jedem Land."

[michael_1166]

26. Nun, Patriotismus war für mich schon immer eine Pest

und die Meinung anderer ist mir in dieser Hinsicht völlig egal. Ich sehe nicht ein, warum für mich das Land, in dem ich zufälligerweise geboren wurde, irgend einen höheren Wert haben sollte als jeder andere Fleck auf der Erde. Es wäre ein wichtiger Schritt für euch Amerikaner, wenn ihr einsehen würdet das Patriotismus der erste Schritt auf dem Weg zum Faschismus ist. Schaut euch nur an, was gerade in eurem Land passiert: Alles fing mit dem übermässigem Wedeln von Flaggen an, und damit, dass ihr euch auf euer Land zuviel einbildet.

(okok, translation...)
I always found patriotism to be a pest, and I really don't care what others think about me in that regard. I cannot see why the country I've been born in by coincidence should be of a higher value than any other place on Earth. It would be an important step for you Americans to realize that patriotism is the first step on the road to fascism. Just have a look at what's happening in your country right now: It all started with excessive flag-waving and feeling too smug about your country.

[schrodingers_cat]

28. Micheal 1166, thank you for being a part of the DU family

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the input from people from other countries. In my limited grasp of the german language, I believe that 'pest' can also be translated as 'plague', and I think that many of us feel this about the current form of patriotism in this country. Right after 9/11, the feeling of pulling together after the incident was true and pure, not just in america, but in many countries. But it began to take on a different face, as the corporate owned media transformed it into something that to most of us here is now repulsive and terrifying.
I was just in Berlin, and my friends were asking me how we were letting this happen, and why we weren't turning out in the streets to protest. And I had very little to answer. I could talk about how we do turn out in the streets, but can only get lots of people out in the big cities. And I can talk about how the media will not cover our protests, and how we are labeled as extremists. And I am ashamed that I don't have a more comprehensive answer. And I ask myself, as I hold on to a job for dear life that many other people would like to have, whether I can afford to put it on the line, and go to these midweek protests, and stand up for my conscience? And I wonder where I stand between 'mitlaufer' and 'gegener', if that is the correct word in your language.

[michael_1166]

35. Yes, "plague" fits much better... that's what I wanted to say

Regarding your friends in Berlin - well I guess if some criminals in suits would hijack our government, there also wouldn't be much protest in our streets anymore. It is very sad, but it looks like the time for political movements (like in the 70s and especially the 80s) is over.
We're a country with a high unemployment rate (around 12 %, I'm one of them), and the struggle for finding/keeping a job and upholding their status in society makes most people generally disinterested in politics. Not that they'd have to fear losing their job if they'd turn up at protests and demonstrations - it's just that they don't care anymore, as long as there's cheap beer in the fridge and silly entertainment on TV.
Bush's new torture/detention without trial law got reported here in the mainstream media, although it's not headline news. And so far I haven't heard any German politician or party commenting or condemning the fact that their "friend", the United States of America, just have turned into a dictatorship. I don't think their silence is because they are embarrassed, I think it's because they're accomplices. The future looks quite gloomy to me.

[schrodingers_cat]

40. Yes, I believe they would agree with you...

that there is a level of complicity between our greater government bodies...is it the same global corporatist drive? Where the corporations are so spread between countries that the drive becomes to insure stability through government collusion on all matters diplomatic? These friends, they are also confused as to the German govenment's failure to take a stronger stand against some of the U.S.'s actions, and they also notice the demonization of the left in Germany, although it doesn't seem to be as strong in your country as ours. I think that what they wanted to remark to me the most, though, was a feeling that the good America that they had once admired, has fallen down, that we have frittered away the goodwill of our allies, and have left behind a void.....

[Karenina]

49. In a little known move

The Carlyle Group recently invested BILLIONS into Germany and currently are installing their "American model" undermining the social contract. Walmart was unable to unravel it quicklx enough and sold out. However, Germany is currently under siege by multinationals.

[tjwash]

29. "It all started with excessive flag-waving and feeling too smug..."

...about your country."

True that. All the extreme flag waving jingo spouting nonsense really got kicked into high gear under Reagan, and has just gotten worse since then.

I have never believed in any of that stuff by the way. I don't stand, or remove my hat during the national anthem (I get some stranger stares at ball games for that one.) I don't do loyalty oaths like the pledge of allegiance. When challenged about it occasionally, I just say "I was born in a supposedly free country wasn't I?" and leave it at that.

Right now I am keeping a close eye on the Pasadena church under investigation by the IRS for an anti-war sermon the minister gave. It's nothing more than a pre-emptive strike on the first amendment. I'm interested to see how many people even know that is happening right now.

[michael_1166]

37. Maybe the flag-wavers feel a naive kind of pride

There'd be nothing wrong with it, like in sports for example when cheering for a team. But it looks to me like your country got hijacked by people who have the power to turn a citizen's love for their country into something dark and dangerous for the rest of us. And I hear they also have turned Christianity into an insane, intolerant ideology. Where will this end?

[Tin Man]

24. Chilling quotation.

It's now September 2006, and Karl Rove couldn't have said it any better. Probably keeps it tucked in his wallet as an emergency refresher.

[earth mom]

22. K & R! eom

[IWantAChange]

27. DNC take note...

Every single day 'talking points' for the entire Democratic Party can be found in the writings that appear in DU. Great post TJ - like you and many others I KNOW that when pushed too far REAL AMERICANS will stand up and say that Hope not Fear is the foundation of this country.

[nam78_two]

30. Awesome, awesome post

Resist the beginnings indeed

[phillinweird247]

31. Wow! That gave me goosebumps.....

That is right on the mark.

[HereSince1628]

32. Yep, kick that posting.

[silverweb]

33. Well, said.

These are sad and frightening times for our nation, but we cannot give up now.

Thank you for an excellent essay.

[Jcrowley]

34. Gesetzvertretende Verordnungen

The neocons have now completed "the arrogation of all power into the hands of a ‘unitary executive’ Presidential dictatorship,” and have their own gesetzvertretende Verordnungen or “law-substituting decrees,” or rather Constitution-substituting decrees, in particular scrubbing the Fourteenth Amendment.

“The military trials bill approved by Congress lends legislative support for the first time to broad rules for the detention, interrogation, prosecution and trials of terrorism suspects far different from those in the familiar American criminal justice system,” explains the Washington Post. “President Bush’s argument that the government requires extraordinary power to respond to the unusual threat of terrorism helped him win final support for a system of military trials with highly truncated defendant’s rights…. Included in the bill, passed by Republican majorities in the Senate yesterday and the House on Wednesday are unique rules that bar terrorism suspects from challenging their detention or treatment through traditional habeas corpus petitions. They allow prosecutors, under certain conditions, to use evidence collected through hearsay or coercion to seek criminal convictions.”

[htuttle]

36. Fliegende Kinderscheisse! Great Post!

[AllyCat]

42. Hahahah!

Fliegende Kinderscheisse! We have that at our house on occasion :) Good visual..

[Timbuk3]

38. A secret trial and execution for Christ?

I wonder what Bush's base would be doing today if Jesus had been tried and executed in secret?

Even the Salem witch trials, as insane as that was, were conducted in public.

[bushmeister0]

39. It's like the Der Nacht und Nebel-Erlaß all over again:

"I have intentionally NEVER compared Bush to Hitler."

That's right, people are really missing the point when they do. His administration is more like Vlad Putin's Authoritarian Oligarchy.

Speaking of German words and terms: Another one I've been thinking about lately is "Der Nacht- und Nebel-Erlaß." The infamous "Night and Fog" directive signed by Hitler on Dec. 7 1941. This is how it's described at wikipedia:

"Even before the deportation and mass murder of the innocents of Europe, the mentally impaired, the Jews, the Gypsies, and so forth, the Nazis had been dealing severely with political prisoners. Most of the early prisoners were of two sorts: they were either prisoners of belief/political prisoners whom the Nazis deemed in need of "re-education" to Nazi thinking, or resistance leaders in occupied western Europe. Up until the time of the "Night and Fog" decree, prisoners were handled by German soldiers in approximately the same way other countries did: according to national agreements and procedures such as the Geneva Convention. Hitler and his upper level staff, however, made a critical decision not to have to conform to what they considered unnecessary rules. The Third Reich, after all, was not a party to the Geneva Convention, and so observed it only as needed to reduce tensions with other nations."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_and_Fog_prisoner

Sound familiar?

[ForeignSpectator]

41. while I share the most worries expressed here...

...and above all DETEST the current "administration" and everything they stand for ( quite superfluous to state, maybe... ), I still find that many of you act like all is lost already.
In my opinion, you're (still) far away from how Germany was 70 years ago and like bushmeister said, Putin and his oligarchy is a better comparison anyway.
So what's my point? I would like to compare the current regime to a disease and America is the patient. For years, the disease could do what it wanted, there was nothing opposing it, no immune system.
But, isn't the immune system just waking up? ( Read Nancy Gregg's latest article )

And since this thread is so keen on proverbs, how about this : "what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger."

In other words, may the time come when the mess is sorted out ( what will be a LOT of work, I admit ), couldn't this leave American democracy stronger than before? And the Bush era would be an era in the history books as something that was overcome like the McCarthy era...

Victor


PS : After all, the republicons were lucky not only that 9/11 happened but also that the public trusted the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time too much. Otherwise, the Enron scandal unfolding in 2001 might have broken the ape's neck already.

PPS : in case I err, is there anything good the republicons have done while they were in office since WWII? I just don't know. I mean, the policies that lead the world here, namely to beef up saddam or bin laden against Iran or the Soviets were all republicon ideas, right?! Rumsfeld might know...

[resist_vote on paper]

44. There is still a chance - Time to go demo!

Hi there from Germany!

I have just found some videos from Manchester, GB, where thousands of people marched for peace, and wanted to share them with you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk1T08VgwsE

I think, something like this is the only chance we have. We must unite peaceful and find a sign that shows " No, not with me! " But we can't easily unite, because the media does not broadcast this subject, because they are already owned and controlled by the "elites".

I would like to introduce you to my idea of an ideal sign for global united peace marcher:
Its international, its my own creation and its free for everyone to use as long as you use it for the goal of peace.
By publishing it here today, on the first of October, I can prove that its my design, nobody should dare trying to get the alone rights of it or abuse it. Its free, and should stay this way!



The .eu points to my homepage, where I want to explain the danger we are in, the idea and set links to related websites.
My HP is not uploaded yet, but will be ready to go online in the next days.

BTW What do you think, are the fences at the canadian and mexican boarders for? Keep THEM out or keep YOU in?

[Vidar]

45. Great post. Thank you.

[Karenina]

46. Tritt versetzung

:kick:

[July]

47. Isn't that what Sandy Hypocrite O'Connor said recently?

Something about resisting these beginnings to avoid their ends?

[Raffi Ella]

48. oh wow...

:kick: :kick: :kick: