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Friday, April 17, 2009

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"


Right-Wind Extremism Report Issued Despite Objections Fox News
WASHINGTON -- Civil liberties officials at the Homeland Security Department did not agree with some of the language in a controversial report on right-wing extremists, but the agency issued the report anyway. The intelligence assessment issued to law enforcement last week said some military veterans could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans' groups.
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As history has repeatedly proven, once a nascent protest movement begins to succeed and achieve a certain level of public acceptance and validation, it can easily devolve into an entrenched political entity, virtually indistinguishable from any other entrenched political entity, with its own newly-acquired set of selfish goals and objectives. One of their most important goals inevitably becomes self-perpetuation -- often by even more ruthless means than the original tyranny against which they successfully battled. At some point, this political survivalist mentality can, and usuallydoes, completely subsume the lofty goals of the original movement. 
Thus a new -- and perhaps even more dangerous tyranny is born. A tyranny, like all tyrannies, whose primary mission is to sustain itself at all costs. How many times during these last few turbulent centuries have we seen this fateful scenario play itself out on the world's stage -- in Robespierre's France, in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, Mao's China, Castro's Cuba -- all with invariably murderous consequences? 
But what happens if the primary goals of the original protest movement are actually realized? Does the movement then merely melt away and quietly re-assimilate itself back into that society which it has successfully transformed? Hardly. The movement's leaders have too much invested in the Cause to simply disband their troops and ride off into the sunset. Through the Cause these leaders have achieved power, and power seldom voluntarily walks off the stage. 
With their original goals accomplished and their real or theoretical enemies defeated, what possible purpose can be served by their continuing existence? They have now essentially become Rebels Without a Cause. How, then, can they perpetuate their own legitimacy? The answer of course is to ignore the reality of their victories and create new enemies -- or to somehow skillfully resurrect the old ones. 
Virtually every successful revolutionary movement which has morphed into a tyranny has sustained itself in this manner. The once fanatical revolutionaries are now battling counter-revolutionaries. Their entire raison d'etre has now become to prosecute this never-ending battle to purportedly protect the achievements of the Glorious Revolution from its innumerable reactionary enemies. This is an unalterable prerequisite to their survival; there can be no successful tyranny without enemies. 
Thus the Revolution becomes a perpetual 'work-in-progress', a never-ending war. Now, ironically, to admit success would be to admit defeat. They must continuously convince their followers, or subjects, that they are constantly under siege from these relentless counter revolutionary forces. The leaders are now to be viewed as society's protectors, protecting the helpless vulnerables from the predatory Enemy. And if perchance there is no viable predatory enemy, then they must create one.
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  It appears that we, we traditional Americans, are in dire straits. We're on the wrong side of history. Through our selfishness and rampant imperialism we have put ourselves at odds with the rest of the world. But fear not, although we have greatly sinned, salvation is at hand. We must be prepared however to undergo a painful national catharsis. 

But, thankfully, we are not alone; we will be led though this cultural upheaval by the mighty hand of Obama. Although the above quote refers to the undeniable social, cultural and political achievements of the sixties, it is I believe equally applicable to the present Obama Administration. 

Carried to victory on an almost hysterical tidal wave of revolutionary rhetoric, calling for drastic social and governmental change ,"Change we can believe in", it would hardly be a stretch to call the Obama victory a bloodless revolution, a monumental effort to create an entirely new America. If we accept this reasonable analogy, then the above criteria fits like a glove. 

‘And if perchance there is no viable predatory enemy, then they must create one‘. Should we really be surprised that the Administration is now in the process of producing a putative national enemy, Right-Wing subversives hell-bent on the destruction of the State. This necessity of the nascent revolutionary state to produce a viable enemy has, as we have seen, played itself out on history’s stage many times in many eras. Let us just examine one: Hitler Third Reich.

The Burning of the Reichstag and Hitler’s Enabling Act Reichstag fire
The Reichstag Fire Decree (German: Reichstagsbrandverordnung) is the common name of the Order of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg in direct response to the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933, which was blamed, somewhat incredulously, on the Nazi's most formidable foe, the Communists. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With Nazis in powerful positions in the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis of imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazi, and to suppress publications not considered "friendly" to the Nazi cause. The decree is considered by historians to be one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state in Germany.
Obama's Great Stretch
Oklahoma City bombing

Unfortunately for the Obama gang there have been no significant Right Wing attacks on the government since Timothy McVeigh's bloody Oklahoma City Bombing of April 1995. No matter. The fact that it happened once establishes precedent. Now all you have to do is drag out all those FBI photos of Skinhead Neo-Nazi groups marching with swastikas to effectively construct a viable 'enemy'. Having established this existential threat to the government, the next logical steps would be to begin prosecutions and internments, while simultaneously building up a large paramilitary force, swearing allegiance to President Obama himself, a force considerably larger than the regular standing army. This cynical act of totalitarian prestidigitation is called usurpation, or even more to the point, tyranny.
My friends, if you were beginning to feel subsumed by an omnipotent Nanny State before, just you wait. Your most preposterous nightmares are standing at the door.

Question: Given this undeniable historical precedent, are we going to just stand by mute while the Obama Administration pulls off this blatant power grab? Or are we going to fight back? Perhaps the Tea Parties are just the beginning. Perhaps we're stronger than we realize. God bless America. - rg
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Jonathon Edwards sermon. 1741

©2007-2012copyrightMaggie M. Thornton