Speaking of Words: Totalitarianism
I’m an inveterate walker. Since I happen to live in Berkeley, California, you wouldn’t be surprised that I see many bumper stickers warning us about losing our cherished freedoms and democratic liberties.
Some of my favorites are “Civil Liberties-don’t leave home without them!” “It’s 2006—Do you know where your civil liberties are?”
You expect this in Berkeley, but not in the mainstream media. Today, however, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert broke the mold and wrote what few journalists have been willing—or allowed--- to write: that the unprecedented secrecy and expanded executive power of the Bush administration could lead to a totalitarian government.
After describing the Bush’s administration’s masterful manipulation of the politics of fear, Herbert warns us, “Well I give you fair warning. This is a road map to totalitarianism. Hallmarks of totalitarian regimes have always included an excessive reliance on secrecy, the deliberate stoking of fear in the general population, a preference for military rather than diplomatic solutions in foreign policy, the promotion of blind patriotism, the denial of human rights, the curtailment of the rule of law, hostility to a free press and the systematic invasion of the privacy of ordinary people.”
This is what media critics call a “frame change.” It took a long time before anyone in the mainstream media dare to write that the Bush administration lied—repeatedly. As an editorial writer and political columnist, I constantly watched editors cross out the word “lie” from my work and insert “deception” of “misstep.” For years, no one in the mainstream media was willing to say that the Emperor stood stark naked and that, moreover, it was downright dangerous that so many citizens viewed him as clothed.
Kudos to Bob Herbert for naming the danger. The signs are clear, as he says, and if you don’t believe him, read Geroge Orwell’s 1984 again.
What will he have to say when he finds that the government has been getting his phone records? Today's story from ABC mentioned the Times and WaPo as organizations where their reporter's phone records have been obtained.
I think he's trying to close the barn door a bit late.
--- Policies not Politics
Daily Landscape
May 15, 2006 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even Pat Robertson is saying domestic surveillance is a "tool of oppression" at the Teenage Republicans Convention.
If these activities are prima facie illegal, and at the direction of the executive branch, simply requiring the WH to stop is insufficient. There is no reason to expect compliance, so impeachment is mandatory.
May 15, 2006 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
It took awhile but maybe we are starting to wake up from our long national nightmare. But before I am convinced of that we need far more people in the MSM to have the courage to stand up and echo what Herbert said.
But if we listen to the Bush and The Cabal we must continue to trust and rally behind Bush because the boogyman is still hiding under the bed waiting to eat us alive...
It is more important to protect our freedom then it is to give us the illusion of safety.
Kudos to Herbert for writing it and also to the NYT for publishing it in an (I assume) unaltered form...
May 15, 2006 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is a link to the ABC news story that the White House has been tracking calls to and from reporters. This story is not yet up on the ABC news homepage, so I suspect that they only have the one source on it at this point and need a second one. Unfortunately, no one will want to talk to them now. So, I would suggest that ABC, CBS, NYT and WashPo spend the next few days calling up every NSA, DOD, NSC and CIA official they know to be a hard-line pro-Bush guy or gal. Call them at home. Call them in the middle of the night. Keep them on the phone for a while and use lots of code words, "The buzzard has landed," etc.
Maybe some pro-Bushers will get caught in their own net. Maybe they'll change their minds about wiretapping.
May 15, 2006 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I laughed so hard... Then my despair came back.
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“I, ..., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."
May 15, 2006 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another Bush lie!
Tom
May 15, 2006 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just finished teaching a semester of American history since 1877, and I have to say, its not easy to keep up my spirits. I agree completely with Herbert, and have been thinking the same thing for some time. Listening to and reading comments from The Usual Suspects, both Republican and Democratic, about how we need to do all these various things (suspend habeus corpus, violate the fourth amendment in general and specific laws such as FISA, etc ad nauseum) to secure the country make me constantly wonder whether its me or them that are in the wrong parallel universe.
Its like in the teenage slasher movies. They continue to obsess about making out with the hot chick/studly guy,totally ignoring that they keep stumbling over the horribly mutilated bodies of their friends.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety eserve neither liberty nor safety. Bejamin Franklin,
Bushco delenda est
May 15, 2006 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
And the lies keep coming. I just told a nice young woman calling from the DCCC that I would not be giving this year because I only support peace democrats not the War Pary Wing.
She offered "Welll support Democrats nationwide"
Of course that is the point and I told her so adding my apologies for standing on a "mater of principle". She sounded crestfallen and that made me sad, as I am a partisan to fault but Tony Soprano would say "Whaddya gonna do?"
I am going to support candidates who appreicate the danger that this country is in, a danger that knows no traditional party because it is the agenda of the bi=partisan. War Party
May 15, 2006 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since Bush's Compassion extends no farther than the board room, rather than rail against his increasingly totalitarian leanings, wouldn't it be more effective to pressure phone companies to keep our private matters private? Furthermore, why not drop AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth altogether in favor of Voice-Over-Internet calling?
The Bush administration is more likely to wither from criticism that is felt from the campaign contributing business world, moreso than people want to "protect the private lives of terrorists".
Exerting people power on George W. Bush and his Cabal is a lost cause ever since he passed his "accountability moment". The fact is, we're stuck with him for another 2 years. But we can do something simple and effective, like vote with our consumer choices and close the peephole into our private lives. Exploit the conflict between the Whitehouse and GOP business interests and let the phone lobbies slug it out.
May 16, 2006 6:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
This thread fills me with nothing but fear and dread. I feel overwhelmed by the realization that it is 'too late'. It simply makes me cry. I do not understand the paralysis of our citizenry in terms of being so accepting as we move into a totalitarian era. This handwriting has been on the wall since the Patriot Act was FIRST passed.
I am deeply saddened. Worst of all, I feel helpless, to revert this process. I know that the elections are rigged, that Diebold works for the GOP and that Bush stole the election. Nothing about the ballot box gives me hope.
I knew leading up to the last Presidential election, that it was nothing but a propaganda machine to say daily that the country was split..to ensure that stealing the election only required a few 100K votes...and that is preciesely what happened. Media is owned by corportations and the press fails to do their job.
I am resigned to there AGAIN being 'close' elections mid-term with the GOP retaining control of both houses of Congress and that will be followed by another Bush presidency...Jeb Bush.
Our votes no longer count...perhaps they haven't for decades, but now it is just blatantly crooked, the Supreme Court is stacked with this administrations choices, such that they will never hold Bush or this administration accountabe. The courts have been neutered. FISA is meaningless. The Geneva convention terms are ignored and this administration holds AMERICAN CITIZENS without representation or basic right to be charged, we torture, we detained an American for THREE years uncharged! And the new Chief of the Supreme court has already ruled that a TWELVE year old citizen can be hauled off, cuffed and jailed for eating fries on public transit.
What more will it take?
I guess the votes on American Idol, have to be shown to be fixed before American citizens witll wake up...but they have been lullled so deeply asleep until,that fix..will only get the rejoiner that 'it's just a TV show'
Similiar to 'I have nothing to hide'..as our civil liberties are stripped away.
I am just emotinally drained by the enormity and magnitude of our present predictament...as there does not seem to be any hope in terms of us EVER regaining our civil liberties.
May 16, 2006 7:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
"And the new Chief of the Supreme court has already ruled that a TWELVE year old citizen can be hauled off, cuffed and jailed for eating fries on public transit." FREEDOM fries.
John
http://www.haberarts.com/
May 16, 2006 7:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Regime of Fear:
The Real Assault on Americaby Paul Craig Roberts
May 16, 2006 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good for Herbert.
Bad for a "democracy," when it takes so long to say that word.
Have questions about the Cafe? Try here.
May 16, 2006 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
We have a long way to go before the US becomes a totalitarian state. And the hopelessness of the conspiratorial view of the powers-that-be is quite repugnant IMHO.
Sure, the Bush administration doesn't care much for civil liberties. Sure the bush administration is opportunistic and is willing to follow any opening to achieve their policies. But they are also extremely incompetent, everything they try to do ends up a failure.
They cause a lot of pain along the way, so, yes, fight against them, including fight for civil liberties, but realize that the US political system with all its faults still has a solid underpinning.
May 16, 2006 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
May 18, 2006 8:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wait a minute - how deeply is surveillance embedded in us as a culture. To the extent that the U.S. is Christian the belief prevails that some metaphysical agent watches our every move, building a dossier on each individual which will eventually decide a reward or punishment for our actions - for eternity. This is to say nothing of Santa Claus, of course, who rules the behavior of the denizens of the Republic of Small Children by materialistic fear. I could go on, but I think that my point is that surveillance is very popular. It's value on the axis of good v. bad is uncritically determined by who is surveilled by most people, while the debate against surveillance is critically determined by Constitutional arguments.
Anyway, your post made me think about this - especially your comments on bumper stickers. In the late sixties someone in the Bay Area did a statistical study that determined that people who carried a F**k the Pigs sticker on thier bumpers were 10 times as likely to get pulled over and ticketed than the general population. I remember at the time I, and most of the people I knew, thought it was hilarious. But put in the context you are building, it's really not funny at all.
But at some point in the discussion you have to consider the broader cultural question. For example, why is it that we have such an attraction to the pop-culture hero representation of the person who "takes the law into their own hands" and "get's the job done" by trashing the Constitution? How many thousands of time did Jim Rockford look right, left and behind, and pick the lock of someone's private domain to get to the facts of his investigation? Is it any wonder that putty-heads like GWB is attracted to this? And when political discourse becomes reduced to "frames" the pop-culture value of vigilantiism trumps constitutional arguments all the time.
However, I think we should use the term "totalitarian" judiciously. Since we have wonderful technologies today such as optical character recognition and artificial intelligence, I can see no reason that we can't have a "Totalimeter" that reads all the dailies and interprets totalitarian trends which powers a needle that swings back and forth between th poles anarchy and totalitarianism. In other words, "totalitarianism" is a tendency - and probably all governments have it. But yes, we need to be ever thoughtful about it. Thomas Paine: Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity.
NeobohoMay 18, 2006 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
"While isolation concerns only the political realm of life, loneliness concerns human life as a whole. Totalitarian government, like all tyrannies, certainly could not exist without destroying the public realm of life, that is, without destroying, by isolating men, their political capacities. But totalitarian domination as a form of government is new in that it is not content with this isolation and destroys private life as well. It bases itself on loneliness, on the experience of not belonging to the world at all, which is among the most radical and desperate experiences of man" (Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitariansm).
May 19, 2006 8:54 AM | Reply | Permalink