black@pundit.DEC (DON BLACK DTN 261-2739 MS: NIO/N13 LOC: POLE C6) (09/04/85)
I see by my preponderance of MAIL that you all enjoyed my little item
on censorship. There's plenty more where that came from.
Now on to today's words of wisdom.
Let's suppose for a minute that we were to be enslaved by an outside/in-
side force. How would we know when the moment of enslavement actually came?
In theory, we could study previous enslavements to find the series of events
that led up to it. Perhaps we should ask an historian, and maybe a former
resident of the nation, what happened just prior to the enslavement.
Here's a list of events compiled by Dr. Warren Carroll, an historian, and
Mike Djordjevich, a Yugoslav refugee. These are generally considered to be the
fourteen Signposts to Slavery.
1. Restrictions on taking money out of the country, and on the establish-
ment or retention of a foreign bank account by an American citizen.
2. Abolition of private ownership of handguns.
3. Detention of individuals without judicial process.
4. Requirement that private financial transactions be keyed to social
security numbers or other government identification so that government records
of these transactions can be kept and fed into a computer.
5. Use of compulsary education laws to forbid attendance at presently
existing private schools.
6. Compulsory non-military service.
7. Compulsory psychological treatment for non-governmental workers or
public school children.
8. An official declaration that anti-Communist organizations are
subversive, and subsequent legal action taken to suppress them.
9. Laws limiting the number of people allowed to meet in a private home.
10. Any significant change in passport regulations to make passports more
difficult to obtain or use.
11. Wage and price controls, especially in a non-wartime situation.
12. Any kind of compulsory registration with the government of where
individuals work.
13. Any attempt to restrict freedom of movement within the United States.
14. Any attempt to make a new major law by executive decree (that is,
actually put one into effect, not merely authorized as by existing executive
orders).
Establishment of any five of the above should indicate that the remainder
are not far behind. And, by the way, it is not difficult to implement any of
them in such a manner that the American public does not know they are being
implemented. (Example: #4 and #12 are imbedded in IRS "regulations.")
So sleep well tonight. Your friendly Insiders will.
--Don Black
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***INSERT YOUR FAVORITE CUTESY LITTLE SAYING HERE***
shebs@bcsaic.UUCP (stan shebs) (09/09/85)
In article <291@decwrl.UUCP> black@pundit.DEC writes: > Let's suppose for a minute that we were to be enslaved by an outside/in- >side force. How would we know when the moment of enslavement actually came? >In theory, we could study previous enslavements to find the series of events >that led up to it. Perhaps we should ask an historian, and maybe a former >resident of the nation, what happened just prior to the enslavement. Or let's look at a former case of such enslavement. For instance, consider the Hellenic world in the 2nd century B.C., having survived several centuries with independence relatively intact (Alexander being a temporary situation, sort of like Napoleon), looking nervously at Rome's expansion. Rome at the time was very different from Greece; militaristic, organized, emphasizing the rule of law at the expense of democracy. The Greeks were quite the opposite, preferring individual freedom and weak government. So you can imagine how the average Greek must have viewed the latest news of Roman military and political successes; probably about the same way we usually react to Soviet successes - with fear, apprehension, and a sense of not being able to *do* anything. And as in our own time, there were plenty of Greeks who approved of the Roman ways, and those who would rather yield than fight a hopeless struggle, and a few who fought and lost. Ultimately all of Greece was absorbed into Rome, as much by treaty as by conquest. For a century afterward various learned Greeks wrote histories whose goal was to explain how the Romans had done it, with reasons ranging from superior military organization (Polybius) to the favor of the Goddess Fortune (Dionysius of Halicarnassus I think). Ultimately of course Rome became Hellenized, and Greece ended up about as free as it ever was to begin with. The Moral? Democracy + individual freedom is unstable. The best we can hope for is to maintain our way of life as much as possible, and alter the Soviet system to fit. One could probably generalize even more and suggest that the natural condition of humanity is slavery, but that's too cynical even for me :-). My prediction is that barring accidents and stupid Presidents, we won't get blown up, and will sign some sort of "unification" treaty with the Soviet Union (much later, this treaty will be characterized as the final step of conquest), but only a minority of Americans will be unhappy, the rest will be relieved at the lifting of embargoes by the entire world (which is already Communist, except for a few oddballs like Pitcairn Island and maybe Switzerland). A few libertarians will flame about how good things used to be, but it will be strictly academic; the average person isn't going to rock the boat, and eventually won't even be aware that the boat *can* be rocked. (Be sure to print all this out and save for your great-grandchildren; you heard it here first!) stan shebs BTW, the analogy of Rome isn't new with me - it's been done many times, most authoritatively by Arnold Toynbee (who however didn't have the same experience with the Soviets that we have now). Also, to put things in perspective, the same analogy has been made with nearly every strong empire that has ever arisen in Western civilization....
scott@scirtp.UUCP (Scott Crenshaw) (09/10/85)
Congrats ! Finally, a reasonable article by Don Black!
As Todd Jones just said,"Actually, because it doesn't contain
Don Black's opinion."
Who knows, maybe this net has a future...
--
Scott Crenshaw {akgua,decvax}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp
SCI Systems , Inc. Research Triangle Park, NC
The views represented may or may not be those of my employer.