A question I shouldn’t HAVE to ask

The Nazis were bad, right?

I mean Adolph Hitler, the Swastika, the Final Solution, the whole nine yards. They’re still considered evil, right?

Because now I’m not so sure.

This used to be a question as necessary as “is water wet?” Of course they were bad. In fact, they were universally recognized as bad- even the Germans agree that the Nazis were bad. In the movies they were the perfect bad guy- you didn’t have to explain to anyone that the Nazis were bad- indeed, they were so bad that anything you did to them, no matter how horrific, was OK, even laudable. Whether it be Illinois Nazis being dropped from a height taller than the Sears Tower, or classic 1930′s Nazis being chopped to death in a plane propeller or simply melted by the wrath of God (see- even the infinitely merciful God hates Nazis!), it was OK- after all, they were Nazis.

But now I’m seeing an increasing trend of portraying the Nazis as the good guys. It started with John Ringo’s “Watch on the Rhine”. The basic premise, for those who haven’t read Ringo’s Posleen series, is that evil aliens called the Posleen are invading the galaxy, including the Earth. And the other existing high-tech races are all incapable of fighting at all- so they have to recruit humans, who are good at fighting, to fight for them. The other aliens provide some high tech items, most notably rejuvenation drugs- so all of our old soldiers from WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, etc. get hauled out again to fight the alien menace. In Germany, this means the SS. This could have been such an interesting book- a story of people who, with the wisdom of age truly repent the crimes of their youth and gain a chance for redemption, at the cost of their lives. But no. Instead we’re treated with the repeated message that it’s the damned liberals who are stabbing us in the back (again), and that what we really need is good old fashioned SS officers who teach us how real soldiers do it. And we’ll just politely ignore that bit about the Jews.

OK, that’s just one person. Sorry, John, you lost a fan with that book- but life goes on. But today we just had Amity Shlaes give a presentation at work. She’s flogging her new book, “The Forgotten Man” (I’m deliberately not linking to these books- if you really want to read them, google them yourself). In which she admits to reinterpreting history.

I didn’t stay to the end of the talk, I’ll admit. But there comes a point where I have to either rebut, or leave. Were I part of the religious right, I would have rebutted, but I’m not an asshole (or, at least, I try not to be), so I just left.

But among other fallacies I did sit still for, she called “It can’t happen here”, a play about the rise of a Fascist dictatorship here in the US funded by the federal government, “propaganda”.

Excuse me?

Is this to indicate, given that “propaganda” is generally considered a pejorative term, that maybe the government shouldn’t have been trying to prevent a fascist dictatorship?

No matter what else you think of the Roosevelt administration, I had thought that defeat of fascism was the one thing we all agreed was a good thing. Nazis = bad, right?

What we have forgotten, I think, is the real meaning of the word fascist. I mean, we all know what a communist dictatorship is- it’s a dictatorship based (loosely) on Marx/Lennin economic system (me, I’m an adherent to Marxism and Lennonism- Groucho and John, respectively). And we know what a religious dictator ship is, it’s a dictatorship based based on a particular religion. So there are obviously different flavors of dictatorship. But what does it mean to be a fascist dictator?

There is a lot of subtlety and complexity in what it means to be fascist (consider, for a moment, all the subtlety and complexity I sweep under the rug with the term “Marxism/Lenninism”, or “Roman Catholic”). But the key defining parameter, what makes a fascist dictatorship fascist, and not some other sort of dictatorship, is the fact that it’s the economic elite that are in control- a fascist dictatorship is a dictatorship of the corporations. Even Benito Mussolini said it should more appropriately be called corporatistism, and not fascism.

I find it telling that one of Mz. Shlaes’ main resume items was a stint on the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal. If there is one body of people on this earth that are most in favor of a dictatorship by the corporations, it has to be the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.

I’ll tell Mz. Schlaes who the forgotten man was. His name was Smedley Butler. And the fact that he’s been basically utterly forgotten, and erased from the history books tells you a lot about this nation- as, after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, he’s the reason we have a country and a democracy at this point.

Smedley Butler was a marine- joined as a private, and worked his way up through the ranks to become the highest ranked officer in the Marine Corp at the time, Lt. General. Along the way he garnered not one, but two congressional medals of honor. He was also highly regarded- among servicemen and ex-servicemen, and the public at large. He was sort of a 1930′s version of Colin Powell, but with honor and class. Then, in 1933, with Roosevelt in the White House and the New Deal underway, he was approached by a consortium of the seriously rich- men like J.P. Morgan and Irénée du Pont (of du Pont chemicals). The promised him $30 million dollars (real money back then), half a million men, and unlimited spin coverage in the newspapers, if he were stage a coup and replace Roosevelt with a fascist dictatorship.

Smedley’s response was, in effect, to go “hmm, that’s an interesting idea”, collect up a bunch of evidence, and take it to Congress. Who, because the people involved were wealthy, big campaign donors, and politically connected, buried the whole thing and smeared Butler. It wasn’t until thr 1970′s- many decades after his death, that the truth came out.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is true patriotism. To be willing to sacrifice not just your life, and not just your wealth (career), but also you sacred honor, your reputation, your place in the history books, for your country.

You have to ask yourself: why are their no monuments to this man?

The reason is that the dream of a fascist dictatorship- of a corporate dictatorship- in America is not dead. The flame was kept alive, in the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, in the Federalist Society, in innumerable think tanks, in the board rooms, and, most importantly, in the minds of so-called “conservatives” across the country. The boardroom of major corporations have been an especially important reservoir of infection. I mean, think about it- the modern corporation is about as undemocractic an institution as is possible. In fact, in social structure, it is not unlike Stalinist Russia. You have the politburo/board of directors which wield ultimate power, only shareholders/party members are allowed to vote, although even most of them are unable to effect any change, and the peons at the bottom have no power whatsoever. Plus, in a fascist dictatorship, the CEOs are going to be the ones in charge- what could be more natural, from their perspective, then to run the country like they run their business?

I hold this truth to be self evident: that America is, first and foremost, a democratic country, and that all dictatorships, of all flavors, are evil. I am willing to debate anything else- the legality, cost, or benefit of the New Deal, the value of libertarianism or laissez faire economics, on the nature or religion (if any) of the country, of the truth of evolution or creationism, the value of logic, any given policy, all are open to debate. But on this issue, I brook no argument. If you support dictatorship in any form, and oppose democracy, you are anti-american, a traitor, and scum. Period.

Oh, and Nazis are evil.

Related posts:

1. A Question for Neoconservatives