Don Hazen has written a brief review of Naomi Wolf's latest book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, as well as a summary of a question and answer session he conducted with Ms. Wolf. Hazen explains that Wolf started out by delving deeply into the years that led to the institution of fascist regimes, such as the ones headed by Mussolini and Hitler. "And the patterns that she found in those, and others all over the world, made her hair stand on end. In 'The End of America,' she lays out the 10 steps that dictators (or aspiring dictators) take in order to shut down an open society. 'Each of those ten steps is now under way in the United States today.'" Thus, warns Wolf, if we desire to remain an open society, "we must pay attention and we must fight to protect democracy."
Unfortunately, nowhere in this review are the "ten steps" spelled out in a numeric or cohesive pattern. That does not negate the value of what Ms. Wolf has to say via Mr. Hagen, however. What follows are references to what those ten steps include.
First of all, fascists want to compromise any system of democratic elections. Ms. Wolf is concerned that the 2008 presidential election will be neither "transparent" nor "accountable." She suggests that as the election nears we will see an increase in violence which will scare people and make them less likely to vote for change.
And violence, of course, provides the pretext necessary for the authorities to crack down. Ms. Wolf mentions the 2007 Defense Authorization Act, "which makes it much easier for the president to declare martial law." She asks, "Why do you need to make martial law easier?"
History shows that the road to fascism is marked by hyped threats, exaggerated or "spun" intelligence, and sometimes faked documents, all of which strike fear into the hearts of the people to the extent they willingly give up their rights in order to remain safe. From the beginning, even before 9/11, these are precisely the things that have characterized the reign of the Bush administration: hyped threats, exaggerated or "spun" intelligence, and faked documents.
Wolf goes on to say that "Americans have this very wrong idea about what a closed society looks like." For example: "Many despots make it a point to try to hold ... elections, but they're corrupted elections. Corrupted elections take place all over the world in closed societies. Ninety-nine percent of Austrians voted yes for the annexation by Germany, because the SA were standing outside the voting booths, intimidating the voters and people counting the vote. So you can mess with the process."
We experienced this with a vengeance in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
A movement toward fascism also tries to eliminate the opposition. In our own country, the Bush administration has refused to turn over emails that relate to the attorney general scandal. It is likely that these emails will reveal administration plans to purge all of the non-Bush approved attorneys immediately, "overnight." This is exactly what Goebbels did in Germany in April of 1933: "He fired everyone, focusing on lawyers and judges who were not a supporter of the regime."
Additionally, for several years now, the Bush justice department has tried to reduce the number of eligible voters that might vote Democratic. This is another fascist tactic that does violence to democracy.
In this same vein, Ms. Wolf mentions the law passed last fall that expanded the definition of terrorists to encompass people who fight for animal rights. More and more people are being redefined as potential threats. This represents a "classic tactic in ... a fascist expansion."
Ms. Wolf has much more to say, but here are the most pertinent points:
1. The same things are happening today, again and again, that have happened historically in the rise of fascist societies. Those who would facilitate such a society "use the same approach all the world over because it works. This is what they do.
"Now we've just seen it in Burma. It is like clock work: monks in the street ... and because I know the blueprint, how long before they start curtailing free assembly, shooting monks, and cutting off that communication?" [It happened two days later.]
2. Fascism is defined in several different ways, but Wolf's definition is up front: Fascism arises "When the state uses violence against the individual to oppose democratic society."
3. This leads from number 2. It is not impossible nor unlikely for a modern constitutional democracy to be closed down illegally by people duly elected. "Most Americans don't remember. Mussolini, a National Socialist, came to power entirely legally. And they used the law to shut down the law. That's what I call a fascist shift." Hitler, too was duly elected by the people and led Germany into fascism in much the same way.
4. Many Americans are in denial. "It can't happen here." Ms. Wolf points out the same idea was popular in Germany during the rise of Hitler. When she read journals and memoirs from German citizens, she found these kinds of things: "This can't last ... we surely will come to our senses," "they can't gain ground in the next election ... you know, we're a civilized country"; "this is ridiculous, they're a bunch of thugs; no one takes them seriously."
Thus, though the situation continues to deteriorate, people meekly continue to go on with their lives, denying the reality, believing and hoping that democracy will take care of them. But it won't and that's what makes this so serious. If we fail to understand we have to fight for democracy, democracy will not survive.
5. Because we don't understand our need to fight for democracy, we have become vulnerable to the Bush administration's fear-mongering. Day after day, year after year, Bush or his henchmen/henchwomen have cried that the "terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming," which has left many people unable to discern what is the reality of their lives.
Ms. Wolf puts it this way: "We have been willing to trade our key freedoms for a promised state of security in spite of our living conditions of overwhelming stability, security, affluence and social order."
Part of this she blames on 9/11. Because we have not experienced wars at home, that kind of direct violence, 9/11 was extremely traumatic, indeed it was so traumatic that millions of Americans willingly traded in their "heritage in exchange for a manipulated false sense of security."
Furthermore, "Our leaders have been busy creating footage and sound bites that can be petrifying, and as a result, some of us live in a state of existential fear."
6. Too many Americans have almost no knowledge of our government or how it works. They don't even know what the Bill of Rights is, much less what it entails. Ms. Wolf mentions that we can no longer ignore our "home-grown ignorance. We now have two generations of young people who don't know about civics. A study came out that showed that even Harvard freshmen really don't understand how our government works."
7. Because so many people live in ignorance, our leaders are able to expand their powers and privileges exponentially. Right now, in the United States of America, a so-called democracy, "they can come at you, anyone, and claim you're an enemy combatant. They rendered people in Italy ... they can render people all over the world. And they can put people like Jose Padilla in solitary confinement for three years, literally drive sane healthy people insane.
"If the president can say, Well, 'Don is an enemy combatant,' there is nothing you can do. It's like 'Tag, you're it!' To that extent we can not be innocent. (My emphasis)
8. The end of democracy comes not with a bang, but a whimper. And here's how it works. First, the arrests. "If tomorrow you read in the New York Times or the Washington Post that New York Times editor Bill Keller has been arrested, the staff will all be scared, others will get scared. ... people don't understand that that's how democracy closes down.
That's where we are at today:
The process for exercising martial law is in place.
At this very moment, the NSA is reading your phone conversations if you use AT&T or Verizon. Even scarier is that this began before 9/11! Ray McGovern describes how the "Rocky Mountain News and court documents and testimony in a case involving Qwest Communications strongly suggest that [in February 2001] ... the Bush administration instructed NSA to suborn AT&T, Verizon and Qwest to spy illegally on you, me and other Americans.
"Bear in mind this had nothing to do with terrorism, which did not really appear on the new administration's radar screen until a week before 9/11, despite the pleading of Clinton aides that the issue deserved extremely high priority."
McGovern goes on to note that the following Democrats were briefed on this spy program: Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Bob Graham, and Jay Rockefeller. One cannot help but wonder why they made no public comment, no public clamor about this concrete step toward fascism.
While the New York Times informed us two years ago that the Bush administration was eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, the NYT knew this before the 2004 election but submitted to White House requests to suppress what was another brick on the road to fascism.
In January, 2008, Congress acquiesced again to Bush's continued illegal eavesdropping on American citizens. Does the word, "spineless," come to mind?
McGovern tells of one Sebastian Haffner who was a young lawyer in Berlin during the 1930's and kept a journal of the Nazi takeover. Following the burning of the German parliament building (the Reichstag) in February of 1933, Haffner mentioned that "none of his acquaintances 'saw anything out of the ordinary in the fact that, from then on, one's telephone would be tapped, one's letters opened and one's desk might be broken into.'"
Haffner watched as the other political parties, who were in the majority, yielded to the Nazis, who were in the minority. He called it "an infinitely dishonorable and cowardly spectacle ... They went along with everything: the terror, the persecution of Jews."
The road to fascism is paved with timidity and fear and intimidation, all of which abound in the United States today, promoted by the Bush administration. McGovern refers to a quote by one of our founding fathers, James Madison, which is especially relevant at this point in our history:
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ... The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
Unfortunately, nowhere in this review are the "ten steps" spelled out in a numeric or cohesive pattern. That does not negate the value of what Ms. Wolf has to say via Mr. Hagen, however. What follows are references to what those ten steps include.
First of all, fascists want to compromise any system of democratic elections. Ms. Wolf is concerned that the 2008 presidential election will be neither "transparent" nor "accountable." She suggests that as the election nears we will see an increase in violence which will scare people and make them less likely to vote for change.
And violence, of course, provides the pretext necessary for the authorities to crack down. Ms. Wolf mentions the 2007 Defense Authorization Act, "which makes it much easier for the president to declare martial law." She asks, "Why do you need to make martial law easier?"
History shows that the road to fascism is marked by hyped threats, exaggerated or "spun" intelligence, and sometimes faked documents, all of which strike fear into the hearts of the people to the extent they willingly give up their rights in order to remain safe. From the beginning, even before 9/11, these are precisely the things that have characterized the reign of the Bush administration: hyped threats, exaggerated or "spun" intelligence, and faked documents.
Wolf goes on to say that "Americans have this very wrong idea about what a closed society looks like." For example: "Many despots make it a point to try to hold ... elections, but they're corrupted elections. Corrupted elections take place all over the world in closed societies. Ninety-nine percent of Austrians voted yes for the annexation by Germany, because the SA were standing outside the voting booths, intimidating the voters and people counting the vote. So you can mess with the process."
We experienced this with a vengeance in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
A movement toward fascism also tries to eliminate the opposition. In our own country, the Bush administration has refused to turn over emails that relate to the attorney general scandal. It is likely that these emails will reveal administration plans to purge all of the non-Bush approved attorneys immediately, "overnight." This is exactly what Goebbels did in Germany in April of 1933: "He fired everyone, focusing on lawyers and judges who were not a supporter of the regime."
Additionally, for several years now, the Bush justice department has tried to reduce the number of eligible voters that might vote Democratic. This is another fascist tactic that does violence to democracy.
In this same vein, Ms. Wolf mentions the law passed last fall that expanded the definition of terrorists to encompass people who fight for animal rights. More and more people are being redefined as potential threats. This represents a "classic tactic in ... a fascist expansion."
Ms. Wolf has much more to say, but here are the most pertinent points:
1. The same things are happening today, again and again, that have happened historically in the rise of fascist societies. Those who would facilitate such a society "use the same approach all the world over because it works. This is what they do.
"Now we've just seen it in Burma. It is like clock work: monks in the street ... and because I know the blueprint, how long before they start curtailing free assembly, shooting monks, and cutting off that communication?" [It happened two days later.]
2. Fascism is defined in several different ways, but Wolf's definition is up front: Fascism arises "When the state uses violence against the individual to oppose democratic society."
3. This leads from number 2. It is not impossible nor unlikely for a modern constitutional democracy to be closed down illegally by people duly elected. "Most Americans don't remember. Mussolini, a National Socialist, came to power entirely legally. And they used the law to shut down the law. That's what I call a fascist shift." Hitler, too was duly elected by the people and led Germany into fascism in much the same way.
4. Many Americans are in denial. "It can't happen here." Ms. Wolf points out the same idea was popular in Germany during the rise of Hitler. When she read journals and memoirs from German citizens, she found these kinds of things: "This can't last ... we surely will come to our senses," "they can't gain ground in the next election ... you know, we're a civilized country"; "this is ridiculous, they're a bunch of thugs; no one takes them seriously."
Thus, though the situation continues to deteriorate, people meekly continue to go on with their lives, denying the reality, believing and hoping that democracy will take care of them. But it won't and that's what makes this so serious. If we fail to understand we have to fight for democracy, democracy will not survive.
5. Because we don't understand our need to fight for democracy, we have become vulnerable to the Bush administration's fear-mongering. Day after day, year after year, Bush or his henchmen/henchwomen have cried that the "terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming," which has left many people unable to discern what is the reality of their lives.
Ms. Wolf puts it this way: "We have been willing to trade our key freedoms for a promised state of security in spite of our living conditions of overwhelming stability, security, affluence and social order."
Part of this she blames on 9/11. Because we have not experienced wars at home, that kind of direct violence, 9/11 was extremely traumatic, indeed it was so traumatic that millions of Americans willingly traded in their "heritage in exchange for a manipulated false sense of security."
Furthermore, "Our leaders have been busy creating footage and sound bites that can be petrifying, and as a result, some of us live in a state of existential fear."
6. Too many Americans have almost no knowledge of our government or how it works. They don't even know what the Bill of Rights is, much less what it entails. Ms. Wolf mentions that we can no longer ignore our "home-grown ignorance. We now have two generations of young people who don't know about civics. A study came out that showed that even Harvard freshmen really don't understand how our government works."
7. Because so many people live in ignorance, our leaders are able to expand their powers and privileges exponentially. Right now, in the United States of America, a so-called democracy, "they can come at you, anyone, and claim you're an enemy combatant. They rendered people in Italy ... they can render people all over the world. And they can put people like Jose Padilla in solitary confinement for three years, literally drive sane healthy people insane.
"If the president can say, Well, 'Don is an enemy combatant,' there is nothing you can do. It's like 'Tag, you're it!' To that extent we can not be innocent. (My emphasis)
8. The end of democracy comes not with a bang, but a whimper. And here's how it works. First, the arrests. "If tomorrow you read in the New York Times or the Washington Post that New York Times editor Bill Keller has been arrested, the staff will all be scared, others will get scared. ... people don't understand that that's how democracy closes down.
That's where we are at today:
The process for exercising martial law is in place.
At this very moment, the NSA is reading your phone conversations if you use AT&T or Verizon. Even scarier is that this began before 9/11! Ray McGovern describes how the "Rocky Mountain News and court documents and testimony in a case involving Qwest Communications strongly suggest that [in February 2001] ... the Bush administration instructed NSA to suborn AT&T, Verizon and Qwest to spy illegally on you, me and other Americans.
"Bear in mind this had nothing to do with terrorism, which did not really appear on the new administration's radar screen until a week before 9/11, despite the pleading of Clinton aides that the issue deserved extremely high priority."
McGovern goes on to note that the following Democrats were briefed on this spy program: Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Bob Graham, and Jay Rockefeller. One cannot help but wonder why they made no public comment, no public clamor about this concrete step toward fascism.
While the New York Times informed us two years ago that the Bush administration was eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, the NYT knew this before the 2004 election but submitted to White House requests to suppress what was another brick on the road to fascism.
In January, 2008, Congress acquiesced again to Bush's continued illegal eavesdropping on American citizens. Does the word, "spineless," come to mind?
McGovern tells of one Sebastian Haffner who was a young lawyer in Berlin during the 1930's and kept a journal of the Nazi takeover. Following the burning of the German parliament building (the Reichstag) in February of 1933, Haffner mentioned that "none of his acquaintances 'saw anything out of the ordinary in the fact that, from then on, one's telephone would be tapped, one's letters opened and one's desk might be broken into.'"
Haffner watched as the other political parties, who were in the majority, yielded to the Nazis, who were in the minority. He called it "an infinitely dishonorable and cowardly spectacle ... They went along with everything: the terror, the persecution of Jews."
The road to fascism is paved with timidity and fear and intimidation, all of which abound in the United States today, promoted by the Bush administration. McGovern refers to a quote by one of our founding fathers, James Madison, which is especially relevant at this point in our history:
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ... The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
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