After studying how once democratic nations slide into fascism, writer Naomi Wolf came to a horrifying conclusion: in the last five years, the United States has taken all of the steps that have historically led to the end of democratic governments. She feels we are headed to a Hitler style fascist government in the USA. So Wolf issued a call to citizens to be patriotic and dissent in her book “The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”.
Take a look at a speech given by Naomi October 11, 2007 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. In the speech Wolf takes a historical look at the rise of fascism, outlining the 10 steps necessary for a state to take control of individuals’ lives and slide into fascism:
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Control the press.
9. Treat all political dissents as traitors. (Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. George Bush)
10. Suspend the rule of law.
The book explains how this model was followed in Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy as well as elsewhere, and compares it to the current affairs of state in the American Political power scene since September 11, 2001.
It is amazing to me how much of this has already taken place or is taking place. Isn’t Black Water a perfect example of #3? Just something to think about.
She is so right about what she says - especially about things like the move to silence opposition through the Patriot Act and being able to label people as “enemy combatants”. The main thing is the current administrations removal of the checks and balances from the system, checks and balances necessary to prevent the abuse of power. There has been a huge power grab ever since George Bush took office. The Bush administration has eroded the constitution many times over.
In the book, the Ten Steps to Fascism are referenced with historical data. She points out that fascism can exist without a dictatorship. Her warning is urgent, a citizen’s call to action. We are living through a dangerous “fascist shift” brought about by the Bush administration. After all, it was Bush who said about the Constitution: “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper.”
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4 Responses to “The End of America Naomi Wolf”
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A friend of mine, she posts at wonderland or not, sent me that book and the Shock Doctrine last winter.
Must reads I say.
i watched Life is Beautiful Last Night (La Vita e Bella).. It made me cry so much how fascism destroyed humanity in the second worlds war… i cannot fathom how people can make such tragedy in history… how narroe minded people can think they are superior and must control others….
Look she is pointing out principles of war that we have been practicing since war was a popular game that nations played. she is pointing out what WARRING nations do, not FASCIST nations.
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
like the japanes in ww ii were considered a threat to the nation. like mccarthism. We have always had an enemy, way back since indians fought the british. This is not new. 1st time: birth of the nation and strong ever since.
Needing an enemy is apart of the human psychology. Its why we invented, yes INVENTED, the devil. Humans need a common enemy to feel that they bond with their peaceful neighbors. A mechanism that humans first created by fearing wild animals in the night.
2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
torture my dear friends has been going on since the civil war in andersonville, since Shermans march to the sea, since wwi, since ww ii, since for -freakin-ever. Torture is a part of war, not fascism. Even democratic nations torture, they just hide it, while fascist brag about it to inspire fear. Democratic nations torture to get information, fascists torture to get obedience. The christians, which america is based upon, have been torturing for ages. That’s just the way the game is played. 1 st time: birth of america and definitely earlier.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
Secret service, secret police, all were created very soon after the beginning of wwi. Matt Damon proved this in the good shepard. Not New. 1st time: approximately 1920, but it was so secret, we don’t know for sure.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
Okay. Mccarthism, report on your buddy. 1940s video cameras. This is not new. 1st time: 1940s.
5. Harass citizens groups.
America has been harassing its own people for decades. Japanese were round up in the 40s, native americans were round up in the early 1800s and blacks are still harassed every day by the nypd, the lapd and your neighborhood PD. Harassing the people is an american past time. Watch baseball harass protestors. NIXON SHOT FOUR IN KENT STATE. Not new. 1st time: slaves on the boat to america.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
Again. Happend to japanes in ww ii, happened to native americans in early eighties, happened to radio talk show hosts during ww ii. not new. first time: 1800s.
7. Target key individuals.
Like john lennon in the seventies, like malcolm x, like, as i said before radio hosts in the forties. People who speak are alwasy targeted, Wooly bully was targeted by the fbi for subversive language. Jim Morrisoin was targeted for wagging his tail on stage, public nudity. not new. first time: civil war. People who protested the buy out system during the civil war were targeted.
8. Control the press.
This nation has always tried to control the press. ww ii radio shows, mccarthism monitoring of actors and directors. Early 1800s cases tried to make it illegal to print even try things about politicians. not new. 1st time: early 1800s
9. Treat all political dissents as traitors. (Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. George Bush)
Vietnam protesters, blacks who tried to get equal educaton, japanense for being japanese during ww ii, native americans for being native in 1776. Any one that is someone different has been treated as a traitor Just mentioning communsim in mccarthism days meant you were traitor. Tragically not new. first time: native americans in 1800s
10. Suspend the rule of law.
Again, in 41 the us gov made it illegal to public protest the war. They enacted this at 10 am and enforced in by 2 pm THAT SAME DAY. Radio shows were shut down and some were momentarily detained to make sure they got the point. Not new: 1941.
She is mentioning what happens during war.
All nations do the same thing because WAR is WAR and you have to do all you can to win
detain enemies, torture, deprive feeedom … all simple parts of war.
Here’s the huge irony. If we were REALLY approaching fascism and she were REALLY privy to what fascist nations do, she would never say any of this because a fascist nation as one under hitler, stalin, or mussilino would have already offed her and would have shut down this web site, but because she is up there speaking casually without fear means SHE’S FREE IN A DEMOCRATIC, NOT A FASCIST, NATION.
@ this is to simplified. You are missing the whole point. Things are different now. Since 9-11 and the patriot act things have gotten much worse.
The Patriot act is based on Hitler’s enabling act. It is this that is going to bring about our destruction. Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler’s dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law.
They are taking away our freedoms for one. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a few hours before the Supreme Court’s 2001-2002 session, said that Americans are “likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country.”
March 7, 2005
Columbus Free Press / Ohio
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2005/1084
Senator Byrd is Correct to Equate Bush With Hitler
by Harvey Wasserman
The U.S. Senate’s senior Constitutional scholar has correctly equated Bush with Hitler, and the usual attack dogs are howling. But they are wrong, and Americans must now face the harsh realities of an increasingly fascist and totalitarian GOP.
Octogenarian Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia made the equation in the context of Bush’s attack on Senate procedures which might slow or halt his on-going attempt to pack the courts with extreme right-wing fanatics. Byrd said Bush’s moves to destroy time-honored Senate rules parallel Hitler’s ramming fascist legislation through his gutted Reichstag. ….
While Bush advocates for “democracy” overseas, the GOP is crushing it at home. These judicial nominees mean to further solidify Republican control of the court system, which they have added to their grip on the Executive, both houses of Congress and the media. The GOP is also gutting safeguards within the FBI and CIA, turning them into a personal police force that could parallel Hitler’s Gestapo.
Because the regime wraps itself in the rhetoric of our democratic roots, it’s emotionally difficult for Americans to equate Bush with Hitler. He is not, after all, running death camps like the ones Hitler used to exterminate millions of Jews, Gypsies, gays, unionists, Jehovah Witnesses, the elderly and infirm, birth defected and handicapped. But the distinction may be lost on the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died in the wholesale slaughter there, and whose land has been carpeted with radioactive depleted uranium which will kill for centuries.
Bush is now operating a classic concentration camp in Guantanamo. This infamous holding center operates entirely outside the rule of law, with prisoners held without charge, without evidence, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world. ….
Both Mussolini’s Fascist’s and Hitler’s Nazis used acts of terror and alleged terror to grab absolute power. Ranting at Bolshevism as the GOP now does against Islam, the Nazis used the burning of the Reichstag much as the GOP has capitalized on the terror attacks of September 11. ….
Like Hitler, Bush believes he talks to and for God. He has said at least twice in public that he does not oppose dictatorship as long as he can be the dictator. His family has long, well-documented financial and political ties to the Nazi regime, as well as to Osama bin Laden and a long list of oil-rich Islamic fundamentalists.
Senator Byrd’s invocation of the Nazis to describe the Bush regime may be considered impolitic. But it’s folly to avoid the important parallels.
By all accounts American democracy is hanging by a thin thread which Bush/Rove is laboring mightily to cut.
Sen. Robert Byrd is a conservative, uniquely learned man. When he equates Bush with Hitler, he speaks with great sadness and scholarship — and must be heeded.
Also fascist countries project that they are in a permanent or long-term state of war. (Example: We are in an endless war on terrorism.) Fascist countries invade other countries without provocation. (Example: pre-emptive war against Iraq.) We tried the Germans at Nuremberg for exactly this offense.
As Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson, the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal, said on Aug. 12, 1945: “We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. … Our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy.”
Fascist countries violate their own treaties and international law. (Example: violation of the United Nations Charter by waging war against Iraq without UN approval.) Fascist countries lie to the general population, instilling fear and hysteria against mythological enemies, so they can go to war at will. (Examples: The 9-11 tragedy was used to generate hysteria through a massive government propaganda campaign based upon lies about Iraq; intimidation by color-coded terror warnings and provisions of the USA Patriot Act.)
Fascism is characterized by single-party rule, the destruction or transformation of the two-party system. (Examples: Colorado Gov. Bill Owens abolished the Colorado 2004 primary election; illegal attempts at redistricting driven by the White House; monetary corruption of the system resulting in voter apathy.)
Fascist governments demand unquestioning support otherwise you are a traitor. (Example: President Bush’s statement, “You are either with us or against us.”)
Fascist governments project an ideology that they are “right.” (Example: President Bush, “I am right and I know I am right and history will prove me right.”)
Fascist countries consolidate media control for propaganda purposes. (Example: Federal Communications Commission and corporate attempts at consolidation of the media.)
Fascism is characterized by legal parallelism. Fascist states create shadow agencies, shadow courts, separate prisons, thus destroying guaranteed constitutional rights. (Examples: Destruction of the guarantee of right to trial by jury; holding U.S. citizens without charge, without access to legal counsel and without the right to court appearance; intimidation of the judiciary by threats of blacklisting; intimidation of lawyers; degrading attorney-client privileges.)
Fascism is characterized by using torture, concentration camps and having major prison populations. (Examples: Guantanamo concentration camp; the FBI’s description of how it “breaks” suspects with heat, cold, sound and sleep deprivation. The United States has the highest percentage of citizenry in prisons of any country in the world.)
Fascism, U.S. version, is characterized by the privatization of public services and the sell-off of public entities and resources for the benefit of the party faithful rather than the public at large. (Examples: Private profiteering on public services such as prisons, water, sewer, forest use, oil and gas; current order for appraisal of all post office buildings for contemplated sale.)
Fascism incorporates racism and attacks on the nondominant religion. (Examples: Muslim profiling and harassment; denial of franchise to blacks under false pretenses in the Florida election.)
Fascism takes religious symbolism and transfers the emotional and moral appeal to state symbols. (Examples: Aggressive and ostentatious God Bless America signs; the attempt to make the Pledge of Allegiance mandatory in Colorado schools; destruction of constitutional separation of church and state.)