La Plus Ca Change...

For those non-French speakers out there, that roughly translates as "The more things change...". And, as we all know, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

F'rinstance, and I'll be providing the source of these quotes at the end:

"...Many...proclaimed the need for strong leadership, ruthless, uncompromising, hard, willing to strike down the enemies of the nation without compunction..."(1)

This could come from most any position paper of most any of the neo-cons infesting our government at the highest levels.

"...cheap, sensationalist tabloids that were sold on the streets...rather than depending on regular subscribers. Heavily illustrated, with massive coverage of sport, cinema, local news, scandal and sensation, these papers placed the emphasis on entertainment rather than information."(2)

This statement pretty thoroughly covers media in America today. With news departments in both print and broadcast media facing draconian cuts in funding, the emphasis on news has shifted from information to entertainment. In the absence of reliable news sources, the public will turn to whatever is available, regardless of its reliability.

"...We no longer found an honest...people, but a mob stirred up by its lowest instincts. Whatever virtues were once found...seemed to have sunk once and for all into the muddy flood...Women seemed to have forgotten their...ways...Men seemed to have forgotten their honour and honesty...Writers and press could 'go to town' with impunity, dragging everything into the dirt." (3)

This could come from just about any right wing rant or screed today. Threatened, confused and off balanced by a changing world, they fall back into moralizing. The true mark of our humanity is our ability to retain our balance in a changing world. I'll have more to say on this quote later.

"There was a discernible crisis of masculinity...as nationalists...began to clamor for women's return to home and family..."(4)

America's religious right seems intent on putting the genie of independent women back into the bottle, no pun intended for "I Dream of Jeannie" fans. A significant number of men in this country seem to feel threatened by strong, independent women, just as a significant number of women seem to feel threatened by freedom and independence. Is it just coincidental that they all seem to be congregating in the tent of America's religious right?

"Even more shocking to conservatives was the public campaigning for gay rights...Numerous publications propagated the controversial idea that homosexuals were a 'third sex' whose orientation was the product of congenital rather than environmental factors.(5)

Sound familiar? It should. It's the same debate the religious right in America seems intent on engaging in, even to the point of having their religious views on the matter of same gender couples codified into law.

The topicality of these quotes is all the more remarkable given their source, "The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans".

In his history of the rise of the Third Reich, from the 19th century to Hitler's rise to power, the author examines the underlying factors which gave birth to the Third Reich. Many of those factors are extant in America today, and only through continuing vigilance can we prevent America heading down the same disastrous path.

Quotes from "The Coming of the Third Reich":

1. Pg 122, "In place of the feeble compromises of parliamentary democracy, authors such as these, and many others, proclaimed the need for strong leadership, ruthless, uncompromising, hard, willing to strike down the enemies of the nation without compunction." The authors referred to were writers of popular nationalist fiction which portrayed bloody retribution against all who opposed the state.

2. Pg 120

3. Pg 126, "Returning home, we no longer found an honest German people, but a mob stirred up by its lowest instincts. Whatever virtues were once found among the Germans seemed to have sunk once and for all into the muddy flood. German women seemed to have forgotten their German ways.German men seemed to have forgotten their honour and honesty. Jewish writers and the Jewish press could 'go to town' with impunity, dragging everything into the dirt."

This was recalled by a German military officer, upon returning from W.W. I. Substitute 'American' for 'German' and 'mainstream' for 'Jewish', and you have much the same argument from the American conservative movement today.

4. Pg 127, "There was a discernible crisis of masculinity in Germany before the war (W.W.I)as nationalists and Pan-Germans began to clamor for women's return to home and family in order to fulfill their destiny of producing and educating more children for the nation."

Some in the right-wing noise machine in today's America have voiced concern over their perceived emasculation of the America male. This is characterized by the crazed ramblings of commentators such as Michael Savage-Weiner when he, and others of his ilk, and their complaints about the downtrodden "...heterosexual, Christian, white male...".

5) Pg 128

America is at a political and cultural crossroads. With an executive branch largely resistant to any outside influence and intent on gathering as much power to itself as it can...with the concentration of media ownership limiting the reliability and availability of information to the electorate...with an increasingly strident movement which hides its bigotry and intolerance behind the veil of religion...America stands at a crossroads. The repudiation of the Bush administration in the November elections gives me some measure of hope. That hope, though, is tempered by the stubborn intransigence of the Bush administration to listen to the voters, advisors, generals or anyone who has a differing view from their messianic, manichean vision for America. But that hope is still there, and the more things change, the more they remain the same.