There's a terrific interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross and Erik Larson, author of "William Dodd: The US Ambassador in Hitler's Berlin". Thanks to local affiliate station, WLRN, and you can listen to the interview also here.
Towards the end of the interview, Gross asks the question I've been asking myself about extremism in our own country, where conservatives have deployed a radical strategy to gain political control: is it possible to know when the tipping point occurs, or, how to avoid a tipping point that could have catastrophic consequences for our democracy?
On taking extremists seriously vs. dismissing them, Larson says, "The immediate trigger for this book was reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but I read that also at a time when I was feeling uneasy about how things were going in this country. It troubled me that we had these reports of torture of detainees, we had people jailed at Guantanamo Bay who couldn't even talk to their lawyers and couldn't see the evidence against them — sort of fundamental bedrock civil liberties things. ... Look, I don't care what your party is. I went to public school on Long Island, and it seemed every year we were being taught that you had a right to a fair trial and a right to confront your accuser. So it's this kind of vague feeling I had in the background which was, 'What was that like to experience a real extreme version of that?' ... So it made me wonder what allows a culture to slip its moorings."
Larson explores policies of appeasement by the United States through diplomats who may have meant well, but aligned themselves personally and ideologically with then-current trends and status quo. In this country, those trends were also anti-Semitic. The parallels today with pre-war Germany are unmistakable in certain respects. Our modern form of economic depression has not manifested itself with anything resembling the disorder accompanying the Great Depression. Nevertheless, the human tendency toward conformity even in the face of evil masquerading as Christian virtue is compelling.
9 comments:
Enemy combatants in a war on terror bear no resemblance to citizens of this country detained for civil or criminal infractions of our law.
They are not legally entitled to, nor should they have accesss to our court system. Mr. Holder just found out what happens when you treat prisoners of war like that...abject failure.
This is, and has been, the law of the land for a very long time.
Liberal anti-Amercianism and whining is what is weakening this country, not patriots who are willing to do the right thing even when it's difficult and/or unpopular.
If it's OK to kill UBL, then how can it be wrong to waterboard a captured terrorist to get information that may save just one American life? Frankly, I don't give a s**t what they do as long as we get the information we need to save American lives and the coercive techniques are proportional to the recalcitrance of the subject to give up the goods.
I guess if you're anti-American, saving American lives means very little.
David, because you're having a bad day, dont take out your illogic on the rest of us.
Great interview, the last four years or so I have focused much of my reading on the pre-war period in Germany and the justifications, rationales, and political calculations at play which shifted constantly well into the late stages of the war. Thanks for this.
You liberals are so ridiculous. You have arguably the most left-wing president in history and congress just passed government healthcare and allowed gays in the military. Meanwhile you are complaining that the nation might be showing signs of fascism as in pre-war Germany. Don't you know how silly that sounds?
may i offer some links on things you probably didn't read in school
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dearborn_Independent
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5571
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_antisemitism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin
Milo Minderbinder,
I don't think Gimleteye is arguing that the US is becoming more anti-Semitic as your Coughlin and Martin Luther links suggest. He didn't mention Jews or anti-Semitism in his post.
The parallel he sees with pre-war Germany is his perception that our civil liberties are being similarly threatened.
Personally, I don't think we have ever had more freedoms.
The 'right' thing, even when it's difficult and/or unpopular seems to be to treat everyone, even those who conspire against us, with some decency.
Obviously what is 'the right thing to do' depends on who you're asking, me or David.
Jingoism doesn't appeal to everyone.
As a certain frail, thin Indian who freed a nation from the yoke of British rule was heard to say; "Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth".
Truth is not "colorable". It is the truth.
"Morality is the basis of things, and truth is the substance of all morality." Another quote from the little Indian guy.
So you agree that the Liberal left administration is similar to the nationalist Socialist movement of 1930's Germany?
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