MAY 23, 2006 Nazi Germany exterminated six million Jews, 8.6 % of its population. When Nazis forces were finally crushed, the Allies moved in on the extermination camps, and were horrified. They opened up the camps for reporters and the world to see. Dachau, Buchenwald, Sobibor, Treblinka and Asuschwitz-Birkenau are names that will live in greater infamy than Abu Ghraib in the history of atrocity. The stench, the horror and the shock of that moment were so overwhelming, the public could not deal with it. Despite the scale of the atrocities, the local German people who lived as neighbors to Dachau uniformly vowed they had no idea such mass exterminations were going on next to them. We ask how it is possible for such atrocities to occur, yet we find this was no unique anomaly. It has occurred before, is happening now in Dafur and will happen again, perhaps even with the United States. Impossible, you say? It would seem such atrocities could not happen anywhere at any time. But genocide and atrocities keep occurring, all over the world, in “civilized” nations, in powerful nations and especially in devoutly religious nations. Belief in inferior races, classes Genocide is possible whenever four conditions exist. First, there must be an underlying belief, however subtle and repressed, that there are sub-classes of people, such as Mexicans or homosexuals. Germans were indoctrinated to believe Jews, Poles, gypsies and Jehovah’s Witnesses were enemies of the state and Untermenschen (sub-humans). This is the foundation upon which genocide begins building. In April, 2006, survivors from the genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda and the German Holocaust came together for a first ever Holocaust Memorial Day Conference. Their shared their experience of how genocide germinated, and agreed it begins with name-calling and the dehumanization of certain groups of people. ( www.hmd.org.uk/ ) American troops were enabled to commit atrocities and torture by dehumanizing, demonstrated by name-calling such as rag-heads and Islamo-Fascists. Fear The second required ingredient is FEAR. Fear has infested all levels of our government, from neo-Con advisers in the White House, to the CIA-NSA-FBI intelligence organizations, to Armageddon-obsessed religious organizations. Fear breeds readily in a culture of secrecy in government which spies upon its people. Our nation has turned from listening to the Prince of Peace, and God of Love and brotherhood, to obeying the voices of fear, panic, hate, war and torture. Too many Americans listen to radical Christian clerics who preach hate and the wrath of God, rather than to those who teach tolerance, love and compassion. More hysterical fear was created over 2,900 deaths in the Twin Towers than over 100,000 from medical malpractice each year, or 50,000 annual traffic deaths from DUI of alcohol, drugs and cell phones. Approximately 640,000 American have died from lung cancer since the 2,900 deaths of 9-11. Death from smoking is a dreadful reality; death from an Iranian nuclear bomb is far less likely. The defining factor is not the number of fatalities or even the severity of destruction: it is hysterical nature of fear itself, incited by propaganda. Fear is to be feared deeply: it disables rational behavior and causes us to act against our own self interest. In fact, fear deceives us into enabling our enemies. Demagogues and psychopaths A powerful psychopathic demagogue or megalomaniacal leader is the third ingredient. Such a leader often feels he is called to power by his god to fulfill a destiny. There have been many in history, and such leaders are still with us. Such leaders often have a dark charisma which appeals to super-nationalism or fanatical religious beliefs. Three of the ingredients already exist in America in varying degrees: (1) - a widespread belief in the criminal inferiority of illegal aliens (Mexicans), homosexuals, See more like this at www.ProgressivePost.com |
