Archive for October 14th, 2008
Scary things …Wakeup Call
I thought I was already very concerned about what has been going on in this country and how Corporatism has been taking hold so firmly in our country. But I really don’t think I realized until this past week, just how far it’s come. How many steps had been completed before this would be a done deal and then we wouldn’t be able to turn it around…we’d just have to live with it.
The realization of just how close it is getting was when I saw what was going on before, during and right after the announcement of the banking cartel bailout.
Anyway, during this time, I had begun to look into Naomi Wolf and who she is more closely since I saw the trailer for the movie, “The End of America” based on Naomi Wolf’s book, “The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot.” It wasn’t as if I hadn’t heard of Naomi Wolf before; I have read some articles about/done by Naomi Wolf at Huffingtonpost, AlterNet, and other places, but hadn’t really gone out of my way to find any audio and/or video of her talks or looked for her books, or tried to find out any history on Naomi Wolf. However, yesterday, Tweeny made me aware of the new movie based on one of her books and I went to see the trailer at their website:
The End of America (from Naomi Wolf’s Wikipedia entry)
In The End of America Wolf takes a historical look at the rise of fascism, outlining the 10 steps necessary for a state to take control of individuals’ lives:
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens’ groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Control the press.
9. Treat all political dissidents as traitors.
10. Suspend the rule of law.The book explains how this pattern was followed in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy as well as elsewhere, and compares it to the current state of affairs in American political power since the September 11 attacks.
The 10 Planks are also very close to what is happening as well. But that is from the Communist Manifesto. Whereas Naomi’s book deals more with Fascism aka Corporatism.
It seemed to follow my own concerns and the way my grandparents and uncle had talked about this, and later in other texts that I found along the way. But I had concerns in the back of my mind about Naomi Wolf that I realized where they came from when I read her wikipedia entry. I am a very independent person but I have always railed at the term ‘feminist’ which Naomi Wolf seemed to embrace.
From there I started looking at other places such as this one on YouTube, and DemocracyNow’s interview with Naomi Wolf and this was back in November 2007! and other interviews such as the one on AirAmerica.
I have to say that although I have not been all that excited about AirAmerica in some respects, even so, they certainly had a very good interview with Naomi Wolf on the Thom Hartmann radio program that would be good to hear:
Thom and Naomi talk about the police state that is becoming America and what we can do about it, plus her new book “Give Me Liberty”
Just a little something to get folks started, because we do need to wake up … I have been trying to get folks to wake up to this for years because I was made aware of the similarities, the things to watch for when I was young by my German grandparents and an Hungarian uncle who shared what had happened in both their countries and how things deteriorated and did it rapidly, and how their country was so completely taken over by outside or inside forces within their own countries. For a long time, I saw things happening and wasn’t sure, then denied it was possible here, and then acknowledged it but was afraid to speak up.
But then back in 2003 I created a blog and then was afraid to write about it, but I really felt the need to do so and did on one of my favorite forums — especially in relation to and comparison of technology gains that would make this type of thing so very easy! Such as the “Trusted Computing” initiative that has had multiple name changes over the years, I guess in hopes of people forgetting or getting confused by it all, and other technological advances like surveillance techniques, cameras on every corner in cities and now in larger towns as well, face recognition software that is pretty darn good, retina scans, unconstitutional search at ferries and airports, RFID technologies like RealID, Capsules the size or smaller than a grain of rice that can be used to identify and track, very fast computers, and more that has gone ballistic in this country and other countries too, Habeas Corpus being suspended, Wars, and rumors of wars, and now the bailouts and other problems with the economy and money supplies that have prompted some very scary ‘alliances.’
What do you think Hitler and other dictators would have done with such technologies as we have today? I really think Hitler would have loved to have such great technologies, look how well he did with punchcards!
And think about it, especially in light of the banking cartel bailout, if you look back at each and every war, who made the most money on wars supplying credit to both sides? Who stands to gain the most with continuing wars today and unifying the monetary systems?
Another great website about what happened in Germany if you are not familiar with this (They Thought They Were Free) (about a book written by Milton Mayer. And Naomi Wolf’s blog entry (that had been originally posted on AlterNet recently), “Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out “Crowd Control and this one at HuffingtonPost “The Battle Plan III: Deployment and it’s Dangers:”
On October 1, 2008, President Bush deployed a brigade — which means three to four thousand warriors — somewhere in America. We do not know where they are deployed though citizens have informally reported to me having seen military vehicles and troops in Georgia and Alabama. We do know that their official mandate according to the first report is ‘crowd control’ as well as action in the event of a mass civilian catastrophe. Initial reports described their technology ‘module package’ as involving Tasers and rubber bullets.
According to Amnesty International, more than 300 people in the United States have died since 2001 as the result of being Tasered by law enforcement authorities. According to the first reports, the mission includes subduing ‘unruly individuals.’ After an outcry, more recent statements from military spokesmen have backed off from identifying those tasks as being the ones the troops will be charged with. Why worry about the deployment of troops in our nation?
Read on in the article to see why Naomi Wolf says that and why we should be looking at all of this very closely.
Remember that without liberty we are nothing. Remember that the Founders counted on us to act. Remember that courage is called for in times such as these.
