Fear and Chaos
“Fear is your enemies’ feast”
As I start this article, I’m going to begin with the usual disclaimer. I am not an historian (IANAH.) I’m an old guy whose childhood (in Texas) involved both playing Cowboys and Indians, and WWII. Given my family was German with a German name, I always had to play the losing side. Naturally.
This gave me the incentive to study that stuff, both because of that and just to understand my background (though my family emigrated here in the 19th century, so had no actual connections inside Germany that I know of during either European war.)
On the other hand, I married a German girl while stationed with the First Armored Division in Illesheim, Germany in the early 70’s. Married in Rothenburg o.d. Tauber in ’76. HER family was directly involved. Her mother was (as was every other German teen) a member of the Hitler youth. Her dad was in the military, and as were the rest of his generation in her home town, stationed on the Eastern Front. He spent some short period in a Soviet prison camp before being returned home. Most of that generation of guys died in the late sixties to the early 70’s, often due to ailments derived from wartime injuries/illnesses. I never met him, sadly.
But suffice it to say I’ve always been intensely interested in this subject, and I can derive some comparisons with today’s political environment with the German version in the 20’s and 30’s. (Geez, it’s been a hundred years? Already?)
I’ll let you do your own research, there’s a lot of places on the web which can teach you all you want or need to know about Germany in that period. Three digit inflation, joblessness, political chaos, that list goes on.
But what’s important to today is this. The critical factors in the German National Socialist Party’s victory are three things:
- Political chaos due in part to political lies.
- Political and social violence.
- Fear.
Notice the name? National Socialist Party? I guess you can tell as well as anyone the Nazis were anything but socialist. In fact, they were enemies of the left, and much of that political violence was against the communists and other leftists. So why use the term in their name?
Political lies. Make people think you are something you aren’t. That is endemic to Fascism. Everything they do or say is based on some kind of falsehood, partial, quietly alluded to, or full on lies. Projection, accusing their enemies of what they’re doing. So, again, lying for political gain is endemic. Part of who they are and how they operate.
Violence. That causes fear, and fear makes people draw inwards and towards a perceived protector. Someone who tells you they have your interests at heart. Even if that violence is directed at someone you dislike, well, we all know violence can spill over towards the innocent, right? So, fear. Fear also pulls people towards their religion, and religion’s support in also endemic to Fascist purposes. It controls populations. They want control — a perfect fit! Since religion is always top down controlled, it’s easy for a dictatorship to control religion. That makes it cheaper for the dictatorship to control the populace. Keep ‘em fooled, keep ‘em calm, thinking God will protect ‘em. Yup.
Now, just so you don’t think I’m getting pessimistic, remember this. In the early 20th century, the German public was pretty conservative by modern American standards. Their military was run largely by Prussian generals, who were VERY conservative. The German Empire was declared in 1870, so there were people still alive who remembered before Germany was a whole country. The American people and society is nothing like that.
Germany lost WWI. In 1921, that hyperinflation hit, and the next twelve years were inflamed in chaos and eventual political violence.
Hitler’s party gained 95 seats in 1932 and he was appointed chancelor in 1933. And so it began.
The 12 years was critical to Nazi success. They employed lies, violence and the spread of fear to ignite the German people to getting behind them enough to win. Don’t forget their antipathy to the Jews. They were the internal enemy! Someone to blame their country’s troubles on. Kinda like the GOP’s focus on Gays and Trans folks, along with minorities.
You see? It all fits. There are some differences, and one is the major leftwards movement of the American people in the last 50+ years. The problem the Germans had was that Fascism was new. It had never been displayed or practiced in such a political atmosphere before. Nobody could know what Hitler and his cronies had in mind. I mean they could have, since at that time, Mussolini was also going at it there, but who’s paying attention to those Italians anyway? It was new there, too!
We do not have that excuse. We know, and can fight it better, and with a more progressive population, we should be able to prevent our modern Fascist Party (otherwise known as the Republican Party, or the GOP) from getting the foothold they need. They’ve just enough in Congress to cause that chaos and spread fear, but we can fight that!
We must fight that, and we can by ignoring it.
Yes, I said ignoring it. Every time you post something about how stupid this or that thing they’re saying is, you are doing one thing that directly benefits them. Spreading the information about their lies around, which saves them the cost of spreading the lies themselves!
Instead, talk about our goals. The goals of the Democrats and the left wing especially, and how the policies we propose will benefit the American people and serve to achieve those goals. Let them pay to spread their own lies, and stop helping them.
You don’t win by telling the voters how bad the other guy is — especially today when the GOP is doing as much as they can to show it off — instead, you win by telling them what you’re going to do to help them. Not wring the necks of some imagined enemy.
Fill the airwaves with Democratic policy proposals and how those will improve American lives and our economy. Be positive!
Remember, Fascists thrive on fear. They feast on it! It benefits them!
Of course, we all feel fear, it’s what they depend on. Instead, master your fear. Put a leash on it and tie that sucker to the furthest and strongest tree in the furthest corner of your backyard. Or maybe in the basement if you’ve got one. Do. Not. Let. It. Show. Just don’t. Don’t let it rule you, move past it.
Starve them by denying them that fear. Remember, if you let your fear rule you, then eventually, so will they!
Be positive. Tell others about being positive, and how together, we can improve our country and our lives.
Together. That’s the key.
Thanks for reading. Spread the word!
