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Edited on Mon May-28-07 10:50 PM by arendt
This is long. But, these fifty year old words are so on target. Read them and see if you can tell me, in good conscience, that our country is still a democracy. "A Permanent State of Lawlessness"by arendt "Supreme disregard for immediate consequences, rather than ruthlessness; rootlessness and neglect of national interests, rather than nationalism; contempt for utilitarian motives, rather than unconsidered pursuit of self-interest; "idealism," i.e., their unwavering faith in an ideological fictitious world, rather than lust for power - these have all introduced into international politics a new and more disturbing factor than mere aggressiveness would have been able to do." (pp. 417-418) Score one more for George Santayana. The American people, and especially the American political elites, have forgotten. They have forgotten a history lesson written in the blood of tens of millions - a lesson that was taught within the lifetime of many people still alive today. Sadder still, the very anti-totalitarian elites who once praised Hannah Arendt's books have lately been smitten with the books of her one-date boyfriend, Leo Strauss. Perhaps, then, in keeping with Strauss' dictum to always mislead, the American elites might not really have forgotten the name of what is happening in America today. Perhaps they remember; but they are being silent, because no one dare call it totalitarianism.
Reading 1: America no longer has permanent and objective laws
In the early years of their power the Nazis let loose an avalanche of laws and decrees, but they never bothered to abolish officially the Weimar constitution...it turned out that the Nazis themselves showed no concern whatsoever about their own legislation...In practice, this permanent state of lawlessness found expression in the fact that "a number of valid regulations no longer made public"...the constitution...was completely disregarded, but never abolished (pp. 393-5)
"The totalitarian defiance of law and legality found, in...the never-repudiated Weimar constitution, a permanent background for its own lawlessness, a permanent challenge to the non-totalitarian world and its standards whose helplessness and impotence could be demonstrated daily." (p 398)
Laws? How quaint! How pre-911. We don't need no steenkin' laws no more. We have secret "no fly" lists, inside which not even Senators may look. We have Dick Cheney and his "One Percent Doctrine". We have an Attorney General who waves some BS that John Yoo concocted in the faces of cowardly jurists, and presto - its torture time. And, when the Supreme Court finally gets around to saying "no" to no habeus corpus at Gitmo, well this pack of gangsters, instead of obeying the ruling of the highest court, re-litigates the whole question while the defendants continue to rot. That same sad excuse for an AG can fire his own party's US attorneys because they had the temerity to uphold the law.
And guess what? So far, none of these criminals is anywhere near being prosecuted. John Yoo is safe in some neocon think tank; and the worst Gonzalez is looking at is playing more golf. Cheney, with a 9% approval rating, is still growling out lies and threats every time he pops his head up from his hideout.
Does the above litany make it seem to you like there are permanent and objective laws in America today? Obviously not. You don't have laws if no one enforces them, if the press refuses to notice the public lawbreaking. And that, children, is exactly how the Nazis played the game.
Since the Democrats finally got back a modicum of power, backed by 75% negatives for the Bush-Cheney cabal, what have they done? They have caved in on tying Iraq War funding to withdrawl. They have had their subpoenas flouted by Gonzalez and by other agencies of government; and what is Pelosi's response? She will go to the courts - the same courts that have been packed full of right wing ideologues for the past twenty years. Good luck.
The more the DLC-infiltrated Democrats flounder and triangulate, the faster any chance of re-establishing an impartial system of law in this country evaporates. After six long years, the Democrats still don't understand they are dealing with totalitarians, not politicians.
Reading 2. Our government is run by an unaccountable, ideologically indoctrinated cadre
"Those...who had to execute the orders which the leadership...regarded as genuinely necessary ...were not much better off. Mostly such orders were "intentionally vague, and given in the expectation that their recipient would recognize the intent of the order giver, and act accordingly, for the elite formations were by no means merely obligated to obey the orders of the Fuehrer, but "to execute the will of the leadership". And, as can be gathered from the lengthy proceedings concerning "excesses" before the party courts, this was by no means one and the same thing. The only difference was that the elite formations, thanks to their special indoctrination for such purposes, had been trained to understand that certain "hints meant more than their mere verbal contents". (pp. 399-400)
It would seem that places like Pat Robertson's Law School are supplying the deeply indoctrinated cadres for "cleaning house" in the Federal Government. Got thirty years civil service tenure? Too bad. Some snotty brat from a fourth rate law school is going to fire you because you didn't get the "hints that meant more than their verbal contents". Hints to prosecute Democrats and give Republicans a pass. Hints to disenfranchise minorities.
Now, this particular dust up became public because the fire-ees had experience, savvy, and connections. So now we have the "miracle of the virgin firings". (See refusal to honor subpoenas, above.) In the end, the Bush Gang will pin it on some expendable patsy (McNulty at the moment). And, then the whole unaccountable apparatus will rumble onward, barely slowed, crushing what is left of rationality in our legal system.
The only real question is which pack of sociopathic murderers will win. Will it be the dangerously "idealistic" Christian Fundamentalists, whack job Air Force generals led by soulless liars like Pat Robertson and James Dobson? Or will all the apparatchiks they have churned out become nothing more than "useful idiots" to Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and the movement that used to be known as neocons? You and I will never know, because:
"The only rule of which everybody in a totalitarian state may be sure is that the more visible government agencies are, the less power they carry, and the less is known of the existence of an institution, the more powerful it will ultimately turn out to be...Real power begins where secrecy begins. (p403)
The Bush Administration is the most secretive, close-mouthed, brazen pack of liars to ever hold power in America. Rumsfeld had the chutzpah to tell the nation "we will lie to you"; and our bobble-head press said "Please, sir, another."
The DLC knows how to play this game, too. Witness their secret agreement with Bush - shutting out their own fellow party members, and giving Bush exactly what he wanted. The DLC are, at minimum, traitors to their party. But this is par for the course in a country where secrecy is the doorman to power.
We now live in a regime where Congressional staffers are deemed too risky to get security clearances and committee chairman can't see intelligence. Oh, and it sort of was reported by the press last week that Bush signed a directive that makes him a dictator as soon as -- I mean, "if" -- a major attack happens. No Congressional calls for impeachment. Muted press reaction.
Reading 3. We live in a police state
"The chief difference between the despotic and the totalitarian secret police lies in the difference between the "suspect" and the "objective enemy". The latter is defined by the policy of the government and not by his own desire to overthrow it. He is never an individual whose dangerous thoughts must be provoked or whose past justifies suspicion, but a "carrier of tendencies" like a carrier of disease. Practically speaking, the totalitarian ruler behaves like a man who persistently insults another man until everybody knows that the latter is his enemy, so that he can, with some plausibility, go and kill him in self-defense. (pp. 423-4)
"From a legal point of view, even more interesting than the change from the suspect to the objective enemy is the totalitarian replacement of the suspected offense by the possible crime...While the suspect is arrested because he is thought to be capable of committing a crime that more or less fits his personality, the totalitarian possible crime is based on the logical anticipation of objective developments."
The Constitution is dead, but its corpse remains on public display, rotting in a cage - the way the British left pirates' bodies at the entrance to ports, as a warning. The evidence that we now prosecute "possible crimes", and have "objective enemies" brings one to the realization of what kind of state we now live in. The "eat this shit and say you like it" Patriot Act authorizes Bush to declare anyone he pleases, foreign or domestic, to be an enemy combatant. At that point, they lose all their Constitutional rights. If that doesn't mean the Constitution is dead, I need a remedial course in English.
If the Constitution is still in operation, why has Bush's constant trampling upon law and tradition never been stopped, much less punished? He has brazenly, repeatedly, and publicly said that he is torturing people, that he approved illegal wiretaps when legal means were easily available. Why is the naked, serial liar and Constitutional felon, Alberto Gonzalez, still in his office? He is convicted by testimony of the former acting AG; but Congress does not subpoena John Ashcroft or any of the other DOJ officials who were ready to tender their resignation. Why is Dick Cheney, that most secretive personage, still in office after all the footprints in the Plame case lead straight to his office?
Why? Because:
"The task of the totalitarian police is not to discover crimes, but to be on hand when the government decides to arrest a certain category of the population." (p 426)
That is why Alabama militiamen with a huge arsenal get treated as ordinary criminals, while we have massive roundups of Muslims. That is why there are constant bogus attempts to entrap Muslims - derelicts in Florida, dummies in upstate New York, paintball afficianados in New Jersey. In each case, a police informer was pressuring them to commit crimes. And this extends to foreign policy, where we deluded ourselves that the Iraqi Muslims had WMDs and we now chant that Iranian Muslims will soon have WMDs.
Time for another history lesson:
"The Moscow Trials of the old Bolshevik guard and the chiefs of the Red Army were classic examples of punishment for possible crimes. Behind the calculation: developments in the Soviet Union might lead to crisis, a crisis might lead to the overthrow of Stalin's dictatorship, this might weaken the country's military force and possibly bring about a situation in which the new government would have to sign a truce or even conclude an alliance wit Hitler. Whereupon Stalin proceeded to declare that a plot for the overthrow of the government and a conspiracy with Hitler existed.
"Totalitarianism's central assumption that everything is possible thus leads through consistent elimination of all factual restraints to the absurd and terrible consequence that every crime the rulers can conceive of must be punished, regardless of whether or not it has been committed. (p 427)
Reading 4. Where does all this leave America and Americans?
If you know history, you know the answer:
“Like a foreign conqueror, the totalitarian dictator regards the natural and industrial riches of each country, including his own, as a source of loot and a means of preparing the next step of aggressive expansion. Since this economy of systematic spoilation is carried out for the sake of the movement and not the nation, no people and no territory, as the potential beneficiary, can possibly set a saturation point to the process. The totalitarian dictator is like a foreign conqueror who comes from nowhere, and his looting is likely to benefit nobody. Distribution of the spoils is calculated not to strengthen the economy of the home country but only as a temporary tactical maneuver. For economic purposes, totalitarian regimes are as much at home in their countries as the proverbial swarm of locusts. The fact that the totalitarian dictator rules his own country like a foreign conqueror makes matters worse because it adds to the ruthlessness an efficiency which is conspicuously lacking in tyrannies in alien surroundings.” ( p 417)
We are screwed. Our economy has been reorganized to do nothing more than supply military muscle. Our industries have been sold off to benefit the rich guys. Our educational system has been turned over to fundamentalists for indoctrination and to corporations for vocational training and taxpayer funded patent research to profit their bottom lines. Our environment is being polluted and plundered at an accelerating rate, as Bush puts the corporate foxes in our ecological chicken coop.
History tells us that this kind of regime, once established, can keep its stranglehold on power anywhere from twenty to seventy five years, depending on random variables beyond anyone's comprehension or control. If you don't count our SWAT-patrolled ghettos, we haven't even entered the Gulag phase of totalitarianism yet. However, rest assured, that Haliburton has been busy constructing those camps for a few years now.
And that is the end of today's class in remedial 20th century history.
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All quotes from Hannah Arendt, "The Origins of Totalitarianism", 1973 edition, ISBN 0-15-670153-7, Chapter 12, "Totalitarianism in Power". |
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