#1
Posted: 1/11/06 at 11:17am
From the internet:
No people ever recognize their dictator in advance.
He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He
always represents himself as the instrument of the "A Free America,"
"Service to the Lord," or some other useful, supercilious buzzwords.
You can depend on the fact that our Dictator is one of the boys, and
he stands for everything traditionally American. And although nobody
will ever say 'Heil' to him, nor call him 'Fuhrer' or 'Duce,' they
will greet him with one great big, universal, democratic, sheeplike
bleat of 'O.K., Chief! Fix it like you wanna, Chief! Oh Kaaaay!'
What's happening in America is the gradual habituation of the people,
little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving
decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was
so complicated that the government has to act on information which
the people cannot understand, or so dangerous that, even if the
people could understand it, it cannot be released because of national
security.
This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap,
is taking place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised
(perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or
associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real security
purposes. And all the crises and safeguards (occasionally real
safeguards, too) so preoccupy the people that they cannot not see the
slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing
remoter and remoter.
To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it
unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity,
than most ever have occasion to develop. Each step is so small, so
inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,'
that, unless one is detached from the whole process from the
beginning, unless one understands what the whole thing is in
principle, what all these 'little measures' (that no 'reasonable,
patriotic American' could resent) must some day lead to, one no more
can see it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees
the corn growing. One day it is over his head. One day, the
government can do anything (and does) that it sees necessary, law or
no law.
One doesn't see exactly where or how to move. Each Neocon outrage,
each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a *little* worse. You
wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking
occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join
with you in dissenting somehow. You don't want to act, or even to
talk, alone; you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.'
Why not? -- Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not
just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also
genuine uncertainty.
Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as
time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general
community, everyone is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly
sees none. You know, in France or Britain there will be slogans
against the government painted on walls and fences; in the U.S., even
in the largest cities, there is not even this. In the university
community, in your own community, you speak privately to your
colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they
say? They say, 'It's not so bad' or 'You're seeing things' or 'You're
an alarmist.'
And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this,
and you can't prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you
know for sure when you don't know the end, and how do you know, or
even surmise, the end?
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does fascism. In both
instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we
all must be aware of change in the air -- however slight -- or we all
become unwitting victims of the darkness.
No people ever recognize their dictator in advance.
He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He
always represents himself as the instrument of the "A Free America,"
"Service to the Lord," or some other useful, supercilious buzzwords.
You can depend on the fact that our Dictator is one of the boys, and
he stands for everything traditionally American. And although nobody
will ever say 'Heil' to him, nor call him 'Fuhrer' or 'Duce,' they
will greet him with one great big, universal, democratic, sheeplike
bleat of 'O.K., Chief! Fix it like you wanna, Chief! Oh Kaaaay!'
What's happening in America is the gradual habituation of the people,
little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving
decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was
so complicated that the government has to act on information which
the people cannot understand, or so dangerous that, even if the
people could understand it, it cannot be released because of national
security.
This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap,
is taking place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised
(perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or
associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real security
purposes. And all the crises and safeguards (occasionally real
safeguards, too) so preoccupy the people that they cannot not see the
slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing
remoter and remoter.
To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it
unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity,
than most ever have occasion to develop. Each step is so small, so
inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,'
that, unless one is detached from the whole process from the
beginning, unless one understands what the whole thing is in
principle, what all these 'little measures' (that no 'reasonable,
patriotic American' could resent) must some day lead to, one no more
can see it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees
the corn growing. One day it is over his head. One day, the
government can do anything (and does) that it sees necessary, law or
no law.
One doesn't see exactly where or how to move. Each Neocon outrage,
each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a *little* worse. You
wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking
occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join
with you in dissenting somehow. You don't want to act, or even to
talk, alone; you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.'
Why not? -- Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not
just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also
genuine uncertainty.
Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as
time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general
community, everyone is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly
sees none. You know, in France or Britain there will be slogans
against the government painted on walls and fences; in the U.S., even
in the largest cities, there is not even this. In the university
community, in your own community, you speak privately to your
colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they
say? They say, 'It's not so bad' or 'You're seeing things' or 'You're
an alarmist.'
And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this,
and you can't prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you
know for sure when you don't know the end, and how do you know, or
even surmise, the end?
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does fascism. In both
instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we
all must be aware of change in the air -- however slight -- or we all
become unwitting victims of the darkness.
