tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) (05/16/85)
It appalls me that people have so little knowledge of history that they can advocate "the cold shoulder" as an effective treatment for fascist hate cliques, on the grounds that they are small and insignificant. First of all, that is anything but the truth, as anyone reasonably up to date knows: these groups have been proliferating like cute little bunny rabbits with machine guns in the Midwest for several years now. Not coincidentally, this period of rapid growth coincides with Reagan's terms in office. But even if we grant this fallacious premise, the argument is a foolish, ignorant, and irresponsible one. What alternative timeline spawned these people? Perhaps in their world Hitler was born with a little mustache and millions of fanatical followers. Unlike this world, he was never an extremely obscure young adult with a few like-minded buddies who eventually forged their way to supreme power with the clear mandate of the German people. In their world, he was never a figure of ridicule, and in their 1920's he was not virtually alone and a laughing stock in prison. He never used his enormous charisma and the rightward leanings of his country to rise to power from obscurity. If you feel there is some great difference between the German mentality in the 1930's and the American mentality today, again you must be referring to another world. Militarism and "we're number one" spirit was the primary motivation for Nazism, and these attitudes reign supreme at the American polls today. (Hitler took power legally and democratically, in case you didn't know.) Xenophobia has hit its highest level in recent memory, with more than 50% of the people in the country supporting Reagan because "He has showed foreigners we mean business." (You can verify this in opinion polls if you wish.) The country has swung further to the right than it has since the McCarthy days. The commander in chief is seriously considering the invasion of nearby countries. Statistic after statistic shows that racial minorities are suffering inordinately under Reagan; the white majority knows this perfectly well and couldn't care less. (All that matters now is whether you personally are doing better; forget that stuff about equality, only the majority counts.) This is precisely the time in our history when we need to be most on the guard against fascism and racism, and yet there are people who think we are being nervous nellies by opposing it at all. These people are nearly as guilty as the fascists they tacitly support. -=- Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim CompuServe: 74176,1360 audio: shout "Hey, Tim!"
tos@psc70.UUCP (Dr.Schlesinger) (05/31/85)
No, we shouldn't simply ignore ultra-right wing activity. But,
yes, the concern expressed in the original article is somewhat
overstated. And, yes, this country is fundamentally and absolutely
different from Germany in such significant ways, that to express the
concern in terms of an analogy with Nazi Germany comes off mostly as
lack of historical perspective and hysteria.
If by complacency one means an "it can't happen here" attitude,
then I agree with the article. It could happen here in some degree:
the Alien and Sedition laws, the post-WWI Palmer raids which created
the FBI, and finally of course McCarthyism, are the obvious cases in
point.
But none of that has very much in common with the Germany of the
1920's that my parents experienced (I was born in Berlin in 1925), and
that which I lived through in Europe until 1940, there and in Italy.
Rather than being the leading power in the world, Germany and Italy
and Japan were revisionist upstarts, trying to challenge the leading
powers, seeing themselves getting a raw deal from these... for example
having been pretty much out of the game of cutting up Africa, and
having both the British and us take the attitude that while it was OK
for "responsible" Americans and Englishmen to run big navies around
the world, German and Italian navies had to be sharply limited.
Introduce the soup and bread lines and the despair of totally
runaway inflation (almost all little people -- but ONLY them!) losing
their savings!) and of depression and total unemployment into
countries in that sort of mentality, and you have people ready to go
for a savior whi promises to exterminate the vermin-traitors lurking
in the bushes and make their countries great again.
Sooooooo.... my long-winded point is: NO, don't worry so much
about the hate groups and right-wing nuts, but do insist that the
authorities hold such groups strictly to First Amendment protected
activity (expression), not permit wild exceptions to gun and tax laws and
other behaviors. AND, most of all DO WORRY VERY MUCH about keeping our
economic system on an even keel... don't let the
banking-house-of-cards collapse... a world-wide economic slump and
serious collapse of growth and employment could bring back fascist
rule very quickly and all the right wing groups wouldn't matter very
much in that either way... for or against it. It would be like a tidal
wave, utterly unstoppable.