"We in America are in great danger of slowly evolving into a proto-fascist state..."

[defendandprotect]

What worries me deeply, and I have seen it exemplified in this case, is that we in America are in great danger of slowly evolving into a proto-fascist state. It will be a different kind of fascist state from the one of the Germans evolved; theirs grew out of depression and promised bread and work, while ours, curiously enough, seems to be emerging from prosperity. But in the final analysis, it's based on power and on the inability to put human goals and human conscience above the dictates of the state. Its origins can be traced in the tremendous war machine we've built since 1945, the "military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower vainly warned us about, which now dominates every aspect of our life. The power of the states and Congress has gradually been abandoned to the Executive Department, because of war conditions; and we've seen the creation of an arrogant, swollen bureaucratic complex totally unfettered by the checks and balances of the Constitution.

In a very real and terrifying sense, our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society. Of course, you can't spot this trend to fascism by casually looking around. You can't look for such familiar signs as the swastika, because they won't be there. We won't build Dachaus and Auschwitzes; the clever manipulation of the mass media is creating a concentration camp of the mind that promises to be far more effective in keeping the populace in line. We're not going to wake up one morning and suddenly find ourselves in gray uniforms goose-stepping off to work. But this isn't the test. The test is: What happens to the individual who dissents? In Nazi Germany, he was physically destroyed; here, the process is more subtle, but the end results can be the same.

I've learned enough about the machinations of the CIA in the past year to know that this is no longer the dreamworld America I once believed in. The imperatives of the population explosion, which almost inevitably will lessen our belief in the sanctity of the individual human life, combined with the awesome power of the CIA and the defense establishment, seem destined to seal the fate of the America I knew as a child and bring us into a new Orwellian world where the citizen exists for the state and where raw power justifies any and every immoral act. I've always had a kind of knee-jerk trust in my Government's basic integrity, whatever political blunders it may make. But I've come to realize that in Washington, deceiving and manipulating the public are viewed by some as the natural prerogatives of office. Huey Long once said, "Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism." I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security.



Observations of Jim Garrison October 1967
Playboy Interview --
Final three paragraphs - scroll down
http://www.jfklancer.com/Garrison4.html

[kittykitty]

1. Wow!

[cliffordu]

2. K AND R: Garrison was a lot of things,

but he wasn't an idiot. Thanks for posting this.

:kick:

Edited for the kandr

[Amonester]

3. exactly

spies? check.
tortures? check.
big-corp communists? check.
who cares what they think? so? check.
there ain't twenty million poor victims counted (yet) so its not fascism? check.

edited to add "so?"

[againes654]

4. We are more than half way there

In one way or the other, we are currently exhibiting all 10 signs of a facist state.

[bdamomma]

15. and we are seeing it done right before our eyes.

why have them abusing and raping our country. We are good Americans aren't we?

[tom_paine]

5. It was that obvious, even then.

I tend to think of those times, not idyllically...they certainly weren't that, but at least a moment when we were progressing forward as a nation ready to lead the world in not just freedom but into the environmental crisis that is coming.

But even then, the Bushies were at work (as Gotti was to Castellenata, so Poppy Bush was to the Dulles Brothers who ran the show in those post WWII days).

Now, of course, the mask has been thrown off, and the truth about what would happen is just as Garrison said, only it's much more obvious.

Even though, to 97-99.5% of the Imperial Subjects of Amerika, it is still invisible.

Amazing. The brutal phases are coming within 20 years, perhaps less, so invisible it shall not be for much longer.

[motocicleta]

10. Why do you say the brutal phases are coming within 20 years?

And how do you expect these phases to occur? As cynical as I am, I keep thinking the most BFEE cash can be made from avoiding real brutality, eg Stalin, Hitler, and by continuing the soporific madness now seen. I worry that I am wrong, though, and that you may be right.

Thanks.

[tom_paine]

11. Relative to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the brutality is likely to be "light"

Everything being relative.

It is also possible that your assertion that the current "soporific madness" (excellent term) will extend into the future. I hope so, actually. Relative to what's more likely coming, that is a dreamworld.

For one thing, history seems to show that totalitarianism vs. liberty seldom stays on a straight course.

One side is either winning or losing. And truly static societies, relatively spekaing, even like the post WWII Old American Republic, seldom stay that way for very long. Hell, 1945 to 12/12/2000, the day the Old Republic died. Not even half a century.

Another is that this whole tranisiton or closing down of the Old American Republic is not happening in a vacuum. It is happening against the backdrop of Peak Oil and Global Warming. It is happening just as the American Economy is hollowed-out and the American People are at or near the most powerless we have ever been.

The dollar is worth half what it was 8 years ago, in Euros and nearly as bad against many other currencies. This is not going to get better as the Empire becomes LESS egalitarian and it's people more beaten down and impoverished.

No one can accurately predict the details of the future, so it is possible that the current "soporific madness", so gentle compared to older, more traditional totalitarianisms, will continue on as it is.

But numerous rumbling indicate that even our new, improved kinder and gentler totalitarianism requires a good dose of old school totalitarian intimidation.

Google Don Siegelman, or Paul Minor, or Georgia Thompson. And witness Eliot Spitzer vs. David Vitter.

Bushie gets a standing ovation from his fellow Bushie Imperial Senators.for using prostitutes, no further investigation warranted. Sptizer utterly and immediately destroyed.

Which leads me to another point which bolsters my conclusion of increasing brutality, which will still be pleasant compared to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, I think. The point is this" History shows us that totalitarianisms when attacking Free Societies from within first target the Ruling Class Opposition before making their presence known in the daily lives of the little people.

Once the Ruling Opposition is thoroughly cowed and nuetered before the tyrants' will, only then do the Penultimate and Final Solutions, whatever they will turn out to be this time, shows themseves.

We are most definitely drawing closer to that day. We are now 60% through the transition from a Free Society to the New Totalitarianism as practiced by Russia and China, who are both following and leading us down this path.

So, while I hope you are right about this level of Bushevism simply continuing on without getting worse and more brutal (still not nearly as brutal as the Nazis, so it will be OK with many, especially the Bushie Followers), I am very skeptical that the lessons of history suggest this is what will happen.

If you are interested about more on this perspective of the long view, please check out my two signature lines.

[motocicleta]

12. "If you are interested about more on this perspective of the long view, please check out my two sign

Will do.

Ugg. I feel sick. It's just not the country I thought was in as a child.

xo moto

[hootinholler]

17. Thanks for those names!

I've been trying to find Georgia Thompson for a while now. Lost in the maze of bookmarks.

-Hoot

[Orsino]

20. If you think oil wars suck, imagine water and food wars.

These things await us without a sharp change in direction.

[couriousg]

25. Food wars

Are you aware of the "Doomsday Seed Vault" that Bill Gates and Monsanto are building inside a mountian in the Arctic? It is suppose to preserve every seed from every food plant on our planet.
The Rockefellers are also involved....that scares me a little.

[defendandprotect]

13. Immediately after . . ..

the coup on JFK negative change could be felt.
With JFK, civil rights were easily discussed -- it was spontaneous, open.
You're correct, it was an idealistic time --- much more than we realized --- things just suddenly
opened up and we were racing to catch up with all that was happening. To truly understand it.

JFK made the Cold War laughable --- but they were also very serious times, trying to ensure that
the deadly weapons were retired for diplomacy and detente.

Rachel Carson had come along to warn us --- the models of Global Warming were showing us what was to come.

And then began the political violence ---
and --- also as Jim Garrison has described it so well -- we all became "Hamlet" wondering if what we were imagining as "murder" was indeed true?

Quickly these enemies of the establishment were gone ---
and keep in mind that it was actually JFK here in America, Nikita Kruschev in Russia and
Pope John XXIII -- all working for peace - and I'll even say democracy.

Thanks for responding --- glad you understood so well!

[autorank]

6. Was he ever right. And he lived to talk about it. K*R

I'm constantly amazed that he wasn't "disappeared" or "accidented."

Brave man much vilified by the very people he warned us against.

[lonestarnot]

7. 1 billion to contract Blackwater here in U.S.

[defendandprotect]

23. As Naomi Wolf points out in "The End of America" . .. this is a lot of right-wing

money from wars and "Homeland Security/Surveillance" which will be availble to be fed back
into their cause for a permanent majority.

[AzDar]

8. K & R....

:kick:

[ConsAreLiars]

9. In those years many core truths about who rules, and how, were uncovered, but only exposed in

the alternative media of that era. At the same time, the corporate media and the centers of power did everything in their immense power to assure that such simple and, once you take a look, obvious truths never were heard or disseminated into the mass media.

So now this re-appears as an unexpected discovery, rather than a well known bit of common knowledge. Those who are denied the opportunity to even know their own history are doomed to be victimized by it.

(K&R)

(edit to improve punctuation)

[defendandprotect]

14. push for peace

[defendandprotect]

16. Will fascism come to America in the name of "national security" . . . ???

[Echo In Light]

19. Already has. Never underestimate the power of denial

[sarcasmo]

18. Kick back to thet top.

[defendandprotect]

21. We are in the same gene pool which gave us genocide vs native American . ..

which gave us the enslavement of the African in America --

Which gave us 100 years of Segregation ---

and violence all over the planet --- !!!

[yodermon]

22. "mass media is creating a concentration camp of the mind"

fantastic quote.

[Echo In Light]

28. It's a wonderful world of colonized minds

[defendandprotect]

24. Peace

[Greyhound]

26. K & R

:kick: & R

Hope it lives until tomorrow night.

:hi:

[Greyhound]

27. Is 30 years slowly?

Most of us alive today can remember when this country still resembled America.

Very sad, what we've done.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. Thank you for finding this. K&R!

[JackRiddler]

30. I went into this thread to say, "proto" was achieved in 1947 or so...

But I'm willing to give up the 20 years.

Fine mess we've made.