The End of America, Part I

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to pay more attention to the news, and I have looked at what our government is trying to do. We have seen the United States take steps to a more fascist America, and the parallels to past dictators are chilling. I am starting to see that the government may be putting pieces of a puzzle together to make a revolution that could change America forever.

I have heard of a new book by Naomi Wolf, titled The End of America: A Letter to a Young Patriot. In this book, Wolf articulates how the events taken place over the past six years parallel the same steps of the worst dictatorships of the early 20th century. Wolf argues that no matter which side the dictator-to-be is on, left or right, he or she will follow 10 easy steps towards a fascist America.

Mussolini drafted this "blueprint" of taking out a democracy. Hitler studied Mussolini, Stalin studied Hitler, and Hitler studied Stalin. The great dictators perfected the blueprint for one another. We have seen the steps taking place in America over six years ago.

According to Wolf, the first step to creating a fascist society is to create a terrifying internal and external threat. No, you're not about to hear a conspiracy theory about September 11. The threat, like Hitler's invocation of a communist threat to the nation's security, can be based on actual events. Less than six weeks after 9/11, the USA Patriot Act was passed, as many members in Congress had little time to debate it, much less read it. Americans believe that our society is threatened. This makes us more willing to accept restrictions on our freedoms.

There have been times when the United States accepted limits on their freedoms. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln declared martial law. However, the difference is that Americans know that the swing of the pendulum was going to occur back to freedom. However, with the Iraq War seemingly about continuance than victory. This is one of the recurring themes in George Orwell's prophetic novel, 1984.

The second step the would-be dictator does it to create a gulag, a prison system in which torture takes place. Initially, citizens tend to accept these secret prisons, as it could help the citizens to feel safe. However, civil society leaders, voices of opposition, journalists, etc. are also arrested as well. The Nazi's set up a People's Court that bypassed the judicial system. People were held indefinitely and tortured without a trial.
America has jails in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Guantanamo, the gulag is present right now. Prisoners are tortured and are held without a trial. We have seen this happen in the case of Jose Padilla, who was appointed as an illegal enemy combatant and therefore not entitled to trial in civilian courts.

The third step taken is to develop a thug caste. In a shift to fascism, paramilitary groups of young men are sent to scare citizens. In Italy, the Blackshirts roamed the countryside, beating up communists. Today in Iraq, some contract operatives have been accused of involvement in torturing prisoners, harassing journalists, and firing on Iraqi civilians.

An argument could be made that this is in Iraq. In America, there were groups of young Republican men in identical shirts who menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000. In a shift to fascism, you need citizens to fear thug violence so you need thugs that are free from prosecution.

The fourth step is to create an internal surveillance society. In Mussolini's Italy, Nazi Germany, Russian communism -- secret police spy on ordinary people was present. The USA Patriot Act gave the government the right to look at e-mails, wiretap telephone lines, etc. In societies, the surveillance is cloaked as "national security" whereas the true function is to keep citizens docile and restrain their dissent.

I will spare you of the final six steps until some day in the short future. As you begin to connect the dots, assure yourselves that I am not attempting to scare you. I am writing about what I see happening in America right now. I would like to give a "heads-up" to Americans and assure them that we will come back to hope on the other side.

Influential Video of the Day: Talk by Naomi Wolf - The End of America

Quote of the Day: "This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the thirtieth" - George W. Bush, referring to the fiscal year that ended on September 30; Washington, D.C. Oct. 11, 2006