 |
|
|
 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 800, December 7, 2014 Privacy Party!
Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise A couple weeks ago a friend sent me a link to a site chronicling the persecution of Germans during World War II. http://www.traces.org/timeline.aftermath.html I had long been familiar with the demonization of that ethnic group in the previous World War going back to stories from my Grandmother and other family members who were alive at that time. Had also learned about the same from other sources—books and media depicting lurid tales like the fate of the Hutterite boy—a conscientious objector—tortured and beaten who died chained naked in a drafty dungeon in the military prison at Ft Leavenworth. Or how they stopped teaching German language studies in public schools—the irrationality of that decision was very apparent to me as a youth. If you have group of people you are at war with—you would think you would need people you could trust among your own countrymen who were fluent in the language for intelligence work? Duh—Uh! Never been a fan of such irrational knee-jerk populism. But I digress. I had long assumed that the lion's share of persecution during the World War II era was directed at people of Japanese ancestry who were rounded up and put in internment camps. And I wondered why they didn't get the Germans and Italians too. It seemed obvious given the greater numbers of these ethnic groups (it was has been said that 1 of every 3 Americans is of German ancestry and that it was a close call in the time of the American Revolution that German might have become the official language of the US—English won by a slim margin per Bruce the Historian!) that it might be hard to round up and accommodate so many people. Yet it has come to light recently that in addition to the Japanese—there was systematic persecution, internment and deportation of recent immigrants from Germany and Italy. And some of those stories are as gut wrenching as that of the Hutterite boy—if not more so. Like getting sent back to Germany and almost getting killed by the nazis and American bombs. Then others who fled Germany to escape the pressure to conform and join the nazi movement in hope of leaving that stuff all behind—but end up finding more of the same here in the Land of the Free. So much for the American Dream they hoped to find. Their persistence in continuing to seek it is admirable and inspirational. This stuff all boils down to the fact that it's government and collectivism that are the problem. Human beings are by their nature meddlesome creatures. And quarrelsome and covetous. They are also opportunistic and will take advantage of any crisis to get what they want from others. Resources, social conformity. Power. Revenge. The world wars of the 20th Century like virtually all wars down through History were a gold mine of opportunity for the jealous neighbor with an axe to grind. Someone who was poor and miserable and just wanted to lash out and punish someone else by ruining their life. Or settle a score. The underachieving lowlife who lives just to pick a fight or gets a charge out of dragging people into rooms and bullying them with humiliating interrogations the likes of the one where they asked this guy of German heritage what he would do if some of his countrymen came up the Ohio River in a U-Boat? Which is no better than what I saw in Hollywood's depiction of a Jew on his way to the death camp being grilled by nazis asking him who was the whore that birthed him and the pimp that fathered him? You know I am a believer in Stauss / Howe's Generational Theory which explains how societies reset during times of crisis and become more cohesive and conformist. But I don't agree with the authors that that is ever a good thing—unless you are a looter yearning for unearned wealth and opportunity for unearned greatness. And what better way for the looters to dress up their image and take on a righteous aura than by beating the drums of war, waving the Bible and wrapping themselves up in the American flag? And what better opportunity for looting your neighbor than accusing him of being an enemy so you can dispossess him with a clean conscience. The ruined lives and lost homes and farms speak for themselves. Those who profited from buying up or stealing the properties of the Japanese, Germans and others thought to be potentially dangerous or disloyal to the nation are no better than those who lined up to take possession of Cherokee farms and homes in the Georgia Land Lotteries. Or those who see a race riot as an opportunity to grab a "Free TV" a pair of high end designer sneakers. Or go to the voter booth on Election Day to participate in the Advanced Auction of Stolen Goods. I could go on and on but the day is slipping away. So in short—I fear for my country because until the day we as a nation decide to fulfill the real promise of the American Revolution and strip the government of its power and authority to detain and dispossess people and ruin their lives we well continue to go through these ugly dark turnings in History that are the Crisis Eras of the Strauss Howe cycle; where minorities and non-conforming individuals are plundered, persecuted, uprooted and driven to exile or even subjected to slavery and mass murder. Or compelled to participate in those atrocities. Yesterday it was the Japanese , Germans and Italians and people accused of disloyalty in the McCarthy Era witch hunts. Tomorrow it may be the Tea Partiers, Libertarians and Americans of Muslim and Chinese heritage. Many will be surprised how quickly the Left will abandon the very minorities it currently coddles and protects if they are in power and see the opportunity for greater gain by using them as scapegoats to whip the Nation into a patriotic fervor. The ends always justify the means in their eyes. Let not a crisis go to waste. And we're talking about the kind of people who authored Jim Crow Laws and not that long ago were still fighting tooth and nail to keep black people down—not long after rounding up members of specific nationalities and putting them in camps. I noticed the government and its minions may have been a little more afraid or ashamed of what they were doing given that they tried much harder to cover it up as opposed to the days of Woodrow Wilson when they did it more openly. And proudly! Boy, Jim Quinn's concept of the government as "Organized Crime with a Flag on the Wall" or "El Neil referring to them as "Wannabe Mass Murderers" is not so far fetched anymore, now is it?
This site may receive compensation if a product is purchased
|
|
|
|
Previous
Contents
Next
