The story begins in a small
town in Germany in the 1920’s. It was
not, in many ways, an average German town.
It was mostly middle class and more rural than industrial. It was overwhelmingly Lutheran, and
surprisingly, it turned to Nazism earlier and more strongly than the rest of
Germany. Nonetheless, it had some
representative characteristics:
sociological strengths and weaknesses of the Social Democrats; nationalistic
attitudes of the local middle class; the growth of partisan activity and
violence. In other ways, it emulated small
towns the world over, with its gossip, lack of privacy and the mostly benign social
interactions of daily life.
The setting is the town of
Northeim, located in the center of prewar Germany, a town in the former Kingdom
of Hanover. In the days of the Weimar
Republic, it was still a small town with a population of about 10,000. About one of every seven Germans lived in
such towns. In 1930, Northeim was the
“kind of town that English tourists were fond of discovering: provincial and
off the beaten track, semi-medieval. It
was nestled against one of the many low, wooded foothills that frame the valley
of the Leine River. It gave the town a
sense of being snug, enclosed, protected from the outer world, symbolized by walls
around part of the town, enclosing a medieval core of Northeim.
Within an oval about six hundred yards long
was a neat but imprecise jumble of half-timbered houses with steep red-tiled
roofs along winding cobble-stone streets.
Along this main commercial avenue (Broad Street) were shops in about
every house. In the middle of the town
was a wide square used for the weekly produce market and for open-air
meetings. Other open spaces included one
in front of town hall, another in front of the large sixteenth-century Lutheran
Church. There were over five hundred
houses in this old section for almost half of the townspeople lived there. Emanating from that inner core were three
areas where the town had expanded up the hill and toward each of the two
rivers, one district for the rich, two others for the lower classes. The center and essence of the town was that
old medieval city surrounded by slowly crumbling walls.
As in much of Germany, World
War I brought significant change, including a revolution led by the working
class that overthrew the Kaiser and established a democratic Republic. It created divisions and affiliations that
had not previously been as pronounced. Many Northeimers
refused to accept the new state of affairs and became a relatively strong center
for a far rightist organization, and nationalistic farmers. On the other side were Socialists of whom
many were students. An indication of
those divisions comes from the results of voting in the 1925 Presidential
election:
Socialist-Catholic candidate – 2.080 votes;
Rightists – 3,375 votes;
Communist – 19 votes.
In addition, there
were class lines between workers and bourgeois; occupational lines between the
stable and the insecure; areas of segregation between the relative newcomers
and the old families, and there were religious and social divisions. There were also, of course, areas of common
interest and cohesion such as local government, schools, clubs and interest
groups. They were somewhat united by
religion as 86% of the townspeople were Lutheran.
The whole area where Northeim
was situated had a reputation for being stubborn and reserved, as New
Englanders were often said to be. One
man who came to Northeim in 1930 found that it “took him two years to get to
know anyone well and to be accepted in social circles, even though he was
fairly extroverted and held a job of high prestige.”
One final set of numbers
reveals the class structure of the town in which there was certainly a petite
bourgeoisie: the raw material from which Hitler forged his movement.
Lower class – 37% (unskilled and semi-skilled workers)
Lower middle class – 32% (skilled workers, white-collar
workers, farmers, pensioners)
Upper middle class – 27% (craft-masters, civil servants,
businessmen)
Upper class – 4% (businessmen, self-employed,
professionals)
The book is titled “The
Nazi Seizure of Power” by William Sheridan Allen. The author’s intention was to “understand one
of the central political and moral problems of the twentieth century: "how a
civilized democracy could be plunged into a nihilistic dictatorship.” This posting today is a lesser attempt to
shine a little light on two groups who, in my estimation, mirror too many of the
activities and beliefs of that nihilistic, ultra-nationalistic movement.
It is impossible in this
limited space and time, to present this thesis in great detail. However, even an outline of the similarities
between the beliefs and activities of the Nazi movement of the early twentieth
century and those of Radical Right Republicans and the radical Jihadist
terrorists of ISIS (or ISIL) is chilling enough to lead us to conclude that
vigilance is a necessity. Sometimes Americans are led to pay far too much
attention to the authoritarian and extremist views of the far Left (communism;
socialism) and far too little to the nihilistic and destructive terrorism and
authoritarianism of the extremists of the far Right (is that a 'tactic' in
itself?).
Let us return to the book to
begin our research for this outline of similarities. It is difficult to evoke or maintain a stable
democracy in the midst of mass extremism, intolerance, a desperate desire for
radical (or regressive) change, and a moral passivity. All those factors and more were present in Germany then and in our nation now as the fertile “breeding grounds” for right-wing extremists. Let us briefly explore the
strategies the Nazis of Northeim used to reap the harvest of control.
1) Use
Outside Threat(s). In 1930, “it
was the depression or more accurately, the fear of its continued effects that
contributed most heavily to the radicalization of Northeim’s people.” Said one keen observer: “Most of those who
joined the Nazis did so because they wanted a radical answer to the economic
problem. Then too, the people wanted a
hard, sharp, clear leadership – they were disgusted with the eternal political
strife of party politics.”
There can be
little doubt that the “Great Recession” of 2008 and beyond has been the
breeding ground for radicalization in our time.
Economic uncertainty is the same for Tea Partiers as it is for Jihadists. It not only is a major contributor to their
extremist views, but it is also a major impetus for their takeover of the
entire political structure. However, that
is not the only threat upon which the radicals have seized. Republican radicals have promoted threats of
all kinds:
socialism as personified in the Affordable Care Act;
potential terrorist attacks from Al Qaeda and ISIS,
an invasive national government,
potential loss of Social Security and Medicare because
of insolvency,
the foreign-born President with Marxist background,
threat of invasion by foreign forces,
threat to Christianity from Jihadists and from sharia
law,
threats to our capitalist free enterprise system from
regulators,
threats
to our Christian heritage and ethical underpinnings from abortionists, homosexuals, and Islam;
threats
to our national security from cyber-hackers
threats
to our personal privacy and security from our own government as in monitoring
of emails and phone calls
Disguised
as threats to jobs or property values or law itself is the threat of illegal
immigration which radical Republicans cannot refrain from stressing for it is
at its base, an unspoken threat to white control and power which they cannot
abide losing
Jihadist
terrorists are not much better, but encapsulate it all in the threat from
America, the Great Satan.
It
is not just the enumeration of threats that is important here: it is the
engendering of fear(s) (at the core of their strategy and tactics) that can only be eliminated, it is declared, by the takeover
of the rough and tough Jihadists and Tea Partiers.
2) Use False
Hope of a better future by
returning to past Glory, Prosperity or Security.
This often
involves not only a regression to a “better time” but a re-vitalization of
fundamental religious tenets and practices and an urgent appeal to nationalism
or national pride.
The radical
Republicans want us to return to either the Reagan era, the 1920's and the
Gilded Age, or perhaps even the 1890's when a much smaller national government
was in existence and several large American
industries like GE and IBM were being founded and others flourishing under capitalist
innovators and entrepreneurs with few restrictions on their monopolistic
operations. It was a time of merriment
and optimism in spite of a severe recession in 1893.
The radical
Jihadists are intent on establishing an Islamic Caliphate that is in some sense
equivalent to the Third Reich, but with much greater emphasis on religious tenets. The Caliphate is a parallel entity to the
concept of The Third Reich meant to cover several countries and to unite
Germanic peoples from different lands under one regime. The Caliphate is meant to do the same by
uniting a religious community across borders.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this modern attempt to establish
a Caliphate:
“The group Al Qaeda in Iraq
formed as an affiliate of the al Qaeda network of Islamist militants during the
Iraq War. The group eventually expanded into Syria and rose to prominence as
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Syrian Civil War. In
the summer of 2014, the group launched an offensive in northern Iraq, seizing
the city of Mosul and most recently taking control of large swathes of
territory in Syria (which for a prolonged period of time comprised over 50% of
that country and Iraq). The group declared itself a Caliphate under Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, who took the name and title of Caliph Ibrahim, and renamed itself
as the "Islamic State." ISIS's
claim to be the highest authority of Muslims has not been widely recognized
beyond the territory it controls with 10 million people.”
3) Offer the Strong Man.
It cannot be under-stated that
one of the most attractive pieces of Nazi philosophy to the German locals was
that of Social Darwinism: the myth that a strong man in charge will make all
things right again, and contribute to the strength of the Aryan race at the
same time. It was epitomized in Hitler,
but emulated down the line even by local Nazi operatives and the local
officials they put in office. It is also
important to recognize the place of intimidation and violence in the myth of
the strong man. The existence of the SS
and more especially the “Sturmmabteilung”
or Stormtroopers was a key element in the intimidation of the middle class.
Perhaps the
most important aspect of the concept was the honor, veracity and competence
associated with the strong man who could get anything done for the cause and
for the People. In Northeim, this was a
key to their strategy of takeover – the Nazis ran things to perfection, whether
it was a parade, a meeting, a demonstration or a soup kitchen or employment
office. They made sure that their
strength showed in their competence, their timeliness and in the results.
Need I mention the obvious – “the Donald.” You are listening carefully to him aren’t you? Be careful of your assessment. There were many who considered Hitler a clown and a showman. The words are those of a Social Darwinist; of someone who believes that might makes right or will win the day. When that strong man theme is echoed by every other Republican candidate, including Carly Fiorina, it is time to pay attention! We are talking about authoritarianism – the principle of subjection to authority as opposed to a principle of individual freedom. We’re talking about the actions of a potentially peremptory, dictatorial strong man (or woman).
ISIS
followers thrive on this – on being the strong man able to kill children, rape
women, behead men – without a thought or pang of conscience whatsoever. These Jihadists celebrate their cruelty and
their horrific acts of shooting down airplanes leaving no survivors; or killing innocent people all
over the streets and by-ways of Paris. They
believe they were sent to do this work in order to establish and maintain the
Islamic Caliphate. They are murderers
and abdominal representatives of their religion. Like their religion-less
precursors of decades ago (who still exist in too many forms), they must be
marked for destruction. How that should
be done is a question for another time.
4) Gain Total
Control. If you do not understand that phrase, then
you do not understand the ultimate objectives of the Nazis, the Jihadists or
the radical Republicans.
It involves a purge of leadership, then of the
middle management and finally of the rank and file workers.
Then comes the dismantling of the mechanisms of democracy itself – the vote, the rights,
the freedoms, along with much of bureaucracy, liberal judges, ‘socialist’
leaders, and programs (sound familiar?)
Then comes retribution and punishment as
opposition leaders and even rank and file are imprisoned or lose their jobs and
property.
Meanwhile new
mechanisms are put in place to allow the flow of top-down decisions from
the President (“Fuhrer”) to the local operatives.
Nationalism
becomes the religion and schools, organizations, agencies, even churches become
propaganda machinery.
Power, brutality and immediate justice often
without trial become the norm.
Oppression, repression and terrorism are used as
weapons to keep order and to ensure loyalty to the regime
Rumors,
lies, distortions, neighborhood spies and press reports are used to inject more
fear into the populace
Social life
is cut to a minimum and political parties outlawed to prevent people from
meeting and planning together
Resignation
and futility take hold of the
citizenry as complete control is achieved.
Just in case you haven't noticed, the Republican radicals are adept at twisting all of this around to make it look as though it is the Opposition that engages in these activities. Often, instead of reference to President Obama as a socialist, some lackey of the Right-wing will accuse him of being a Nazi or a fascist. It's difficult, to say the least, to have it both ways. It is simply a diversionary tactic to draw citizen attention away from the horrific activities of Radical Right-wing Republicans.
Let us end this piece today with
the above list of strategies that took advantage of the breeding grounds for
the Nazi takeover of Northeim and of Germany.
Next time we shall explore the kinds of tactics used by the Nazis to win
over the people of towns like Northeim, and the conclusions of the author as to
what can be learned from that experience.
With some editorial comment from me, I hope my next posting will enable
you to detect the parallel actions of radical Right Republicans and of Jihadi
terrorists who simply share the goal of total political, economic and social control of their respective societies.
