Demonic Despots and Dastardly Denial - Democracy Means You

Published 2005
Democracy Means You

Demonic Despots and Dastardly Denial
The truth is your sadistic master; let him whip you ‘til it hurts so good


When you hear the popular refrain, “Home of the brave, land of the free” does the image of noble, ardently autonomous individuals blossom in your mind, or do you, like me, let out a sardonic cackle and mentally revise those lines as “Home of the craven, land of the psychologically imprisoned”?

Because, really, America has become a nation of cowardly complacent, harrowingly apathetic mental mummies.
Pe rhaps I am overstating the case - after all, there are millions of Americans like yourselves who do truly care - or perhaps America has always been a nation of stoic psychotics, and I’m just now being shocked awake to this disconcerting phenomenon.

One thing is clear, however, despite my possible amplification and historical naivety: Too many Americans don’t give a shit about what’s happening to our beloved nation: about the erosion of cherished democratic principles and the government’s menacing metamorp hosis into a totalitarian state.

Oh, sure, we’re still in transition - we haven’t become full-on fascist just yet. But we’re a fledgling fascist regime, and anyone who inanely refutes that idea need only glance at “The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism” by Dr. Lawrence Britt
(http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm) to apprehend the terrible truth. Of course, there are plenty of people who would peruse Britt’s list and still sink into a state of denial. But the truth will always float to the surface, even as one drowns herself in luscious lies and illicit illusions.

And denial, finally, is the crux of the problem. People, obstinately hopeful, often refuse to embrace truth, even as it’s gnawing the conscience like a rabid bird. The truth, indeed, is like Poe’s raven. In Poe’s infamous verse, the speaker refuses to accept his mistress’ demise, and so the raven harasses the speaker with the memory of his beloved until he goes quite mad.
The truth, sinister raven that it is, will harass us, and un less we acknowledge its presence, we too will go mad with denial.
When I ponder the denial disease and how it’s afflicted the nation, I can’t help but recall Elie Wiesel's Night, the haunting story of the ghettoization, tyranny and elimination of Polish Jews during World War II.

One of the many salient themes in Night is that of denial. Throughout the story, the Jews persistently dismiss the gravity of their plight. For example, when the Jews are initially moved into ghettos, they begin to accept it as an inevitable inconvenience; and then when they are transported to the concentration camps, they refuse to believe they might be tortured or killed there. They keep thinking their situation is bearable, or will improve.

It’s as though, in using the instrument of denial, the Jews are inoculating themselves against the excruciating actuality of their fate. And perhaps in some situations, denial can be a sort of perverse antidote to pain. Perhaps a healthy indulgence in denial is necessary to ensure sanity.

The problem with denial, of course, is that it enables passivity, and passivity is poison. If we are not actively living, then what is the purpose of living at all?

One of Wiesel’s points seems to be that had so many Jews not cowered in the face of such barbaric brutality, perhaps the Holocaust would not have happened to the extent that it did. In a way, the Jews became immune to their fate through their submissive acquiescence. Wiesel does not blame the Jews, of course, but his is a powerful cautionary tale about docility and its fatal repercussions.

America has not turned into Nazi Germany, to be sure. And no doubt it never will. But many Americans are in deep denial about the horrific things happening to their government. The mainstream media, of course - ever beholden to their corporate masters - hold truth hostage, revealing slivers of it when a brazen mood hits or when a story is too stridently sensationalistic to comfortably evade notice.

CNN - scapegoated by neo-c (ons as the “leader of the liberal media conspiracy” (certainly a farce, as CNN is hardly liberal) - and other mainstream media outlets report about the sundry Bush scandals in an “aw shucks oh well what can we do?” manner, neglecting to infuse these sordid stories of deception, greed and tyranny with the solemn tenor they so malevolently merit.
Furthermore, historically it has been media’s purpose to look askance upon political indiscretions; but instead of ruthlessly questioning Bush’s myriad misdeeds, CNN and its ilk excel at being servile to his regime.

Indeed, the mainstream media is Bush’s bitch.

But maybe it’s not fair to deride and discredit the mainstream media with such scorching critique. Perhaps Bush’s manifold depravities defy simple media anatomizing. After all, the Bush regime’ ƒs audacious atrocities (repeated Constitutional raping and a multitude of flagrant white-collar crimes) have become one big befuddling blur, and do not lend themselves to painstaking deconstruction.

Or perhaps I am right, and, misogynistic though it sounds, the mainstream media is simply a crack whore with corporate clients and a Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld pimp alliance.

It's truly amazing to me that people aren't rioting in the streets over the tyrannical turn our country has taken. My pacifistic values would not permit me to riot, but the crap this government is getting away with is unfathomable to me, and I certainly advocate peacefully vociferous means of resistance.

For in the end, even though the mainstream media has shamefully miseducated the public, it’s the people who are mostly to blame - the Big Mac-gorging, Hum V-idolizing, mummified moronic masses.

So if this country ever becomes a full-fledged fascist regime, the people will have no one to blame but themselves - for turning the other way, for plugging their ears and shuttering their eyes to the terrible irrefutable truth.

America is a democracy, dammit, not some playground for demonic despots.

Americans! Wake the hell up from your stupefied slumber, clutter the streets, and clamor for change. It’s either that, or quietly suffer whatever befalls us - and have no one to blame but our sad, slothful selves.

The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
by Dr. Lawrence Britt

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14-defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and Ò in public displays.

2. Disdain for
the Recognition of Human Rights -
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats
as a Unifying Cause -
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military -
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, t he military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism -
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media -
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security -
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected -
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed -
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist governmen ˆt, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -
Fascist r ıegimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections -
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.