"I'm really wrestling with it tonight.
I'm imagining a nice, middle-class German in 1939. His or her nation has gone to war for the good of the Fatherland. to defend itself against a scarcity of "lebenstraum," and has been dealing severely with Jews and Gypsies, communists and other undesirables for years, all for he sake of "homeland security." This nice, middle-class German man or woman has witnessed spectacles of patriotism staged in Nuremberg and other places in person or through the newsreels. She or he probably feels great pride at seeing the national flag waving majestically, red, white and black The economy is good, most Germans are enjoying a relatively high standard of living, and the Leader's approval ratings are sky high. Finally, the German Volk are set to take their place as the rightful dominant power in Europe.
How many Germans were able to see that their nation, their beloved Fatherland, which they were taught to believe is the best nation in the world, is actually poised to do great evils, and in fact has already set them in motion? How many were able to see that their nation's leadership is composed of men sincerely committed to the ideal that their nation, the best, the "indispensable nation" should dominate all other nations? How many were able to see that their leadership had attained a degree of power that made them morally mad, if not clinically, and part of that madness is to be completely sincere and earnestly believe in all that they say and do?
And, to ask Orwell's question, would those who had seen these ugly realities been considered insane, subversive, or hopeless cranks?
I feel like an insane crank tonight. Our vaunted US free press is nearly unquestioning in its support of a war against a people who did not attack us. The great teacher, Jesus, once described The Evil One as "the father of lies." Our government and news media conspire daily to keep the American public awash in lies. Our consumerist culture keeps us so busy chasing the irrelevancies of life that most of our citizens don't bother to check alternative sources of truth, from the alternative media and foreign press.
On top of that, I've become something of an historian, and am all too aware of our nation's historic battle AGAINST human rights for the many, trying to reserve them only for the pale few. From the time our European ancestors came to this continent, they stole, murdered, raped and pillaged their way across it, and when they had "pacified" it, they went after Cubans, the Filipinos, and other peoples to begin our empire. The misery that our neo-colonialist economic policies cause millions and millions of people daily seems to be invisible to Americans but is excruciatingly apparent to me. To make matters worse, Ehud Barak appears on a PBS show and is lauded as a warrior against terrorism, when I have BEEN to Palestine and seen with my own eyes the terrorism and repression Israel commits against Palestinians every day with the help of the good old USA.
And, even worse, I've been studying and doing presentations about the plans of the United States Space Command, which sees nothing wrong and absolutely everything right in building and deploying thirty space-based lasers designed to hit missiles and targets (like cities) on earth. They talk (in promotional materials aimed at the public--like they're selling a product) about a future of warfighting (sic), of absolute control of space and military domination of the Earth. If you haven't seen the documentation, it is truly frightening, particularly because the US SPACECOM brags that corporations like TRW and Lockheed helped design the plans. They even use Star Wars motifs to illustrate their plans and have used Star Trek iconography in the seals of the Space Warfare Center and 14th Space Wing.
That represents a level of world domination that not even Hitler & Co. even dreamed of, and a level of power that NO human being should have.
In George Lukas' Star Wars mythology, the Evil Empire designed an ultimate weapon, the Death Star, with which to dominate planets. The Rebellion risked everything to violently destroy the Death Star before it became operational, and to weaken the Empire.
I believe--I don't want to believe, but I am forced by the evidence I see to believe--that my beloved nation has ceased to exist, and has become an Evil Empire. With Langston Hughes, I desperately want America to be America again, but we have become a militaristic nation bent on dominating any nation anywhere and any time we want, as violently as we want. And if there are plots afoot to destroy us as a nation, to cripple us, to make our people hurt as do so many peoples around the globe victimized by US policies, then although I do not agree with their means, I cannot find it within me to condemn them, even as I am unable to sleep realizing that my beloved children, granddaughters, family and friends could be among the next US victims of an attack on the Empire.
I've reflected recently on why the Germans never seemed to have resentment against Americans and the Allies after all we did to their nation, because there is no question that we committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against them. What I've come up with is that after the war, and probably before it was over, Germans recognized how evil their nation had been, how wrong, how anti-human. When I visited three concentration camps in Germany and Poland 30 years ago, I was--and am still--glad to have heard that Allied soldiers forced German people living nearby to go through the camps, to see with their own eyes what their government had done to innocent people, and tried to do to an entire people. And so maybe they could not hold hatred toward the Allies, knowing their own culpability in evil.
I shudder to consider what horrors Americans may have to endure before we have a similar epiphany. I shudder even more to think that we may already have become to corrupted as a culture that we may never know how much harm we create, and will either become a full-fledged fascist state (with technologies that will make Nazi Germany look amateurish by comparison), and/or the universal forces of justice will be forced to conspire to destroy us utterly, as one would a mad dog.
Bush is asking, "Which side are you on?" It was a question the Civil Rights Movement asked in song, "Which side are you on?" Bush is right--this IS a time to choose sides, for we are in a war against evil and evil-doers. Some of them have names like bin Laden and are blinded by a recent ideology based on religious fundamentalism. Others have names like Bush and are blinded by a 400 year old ideology of American "Manifest Destiny" to rule all other nations. Is the conflict between these two systems? Are they the two sides we have to decide between? I think not. To me they are two wings of the wrong side. They feed off of one another. The forces of bin Laden attacked, bringing death and destruction to civilians, and the forces of Bush counterattack, also bringing death and destruction to civilians. Bush & Co. are using the 9-11 tragedy as an excuse to enrich their corporate support base, slash at civil rights protections, extend their geo-political control, and push the US Space Command agenda. Bin Laden & Co. will surely attack back, having drawn strength from continued American arrogance, and the US government will use that to further its aims. It is a symbiotic relationship between two evil entities. To support one is to support both.
I have to oppose both. Just as there was a resistance in Germany opposed to the Nazification of their nation, I have tried to be a part of the (as yet) ragtag resistance movement in this nation. It does exist. It has operated under various names, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, and other movements opposed to our Central American wars on human rights, the rape of the environment, and, lately, corporate globalism. The true Resistance will not be formed, however, until all of these disparate movements unite.
The only question I wrestle with is, will I have the courage to work toward that goal, when evil has become so incredibly strong in the last couple of months?
Thom Saffold