Triumph of the VOLK

A comment in September, 1930 about the recent election in Germany: “Voters have given their votes to the commonest, hollowest and rudest charlatanism.” What might this be? The National Socialist Party, the Nazis. What was the party’s appeal? It purported to overcome artisan and class differences. It was on the side of social justice. It was drawn out of idealism in spite of its crude message. To come to power, it benefitted from the correlation between crisis and the search for political alternatives by the German people. Nazism was an ideological innovation which stood for renewal. It capitalized on the fact that bourgeois political parties were in a state of disarray. It represented an anti-elite and ani-reactionary sentiment. It was rooted in imagination. Hitler spoke to the future and in the active tense, not the past. He represented the nation and the rise of populist nationalism. “Movement and struggle” was a key phrase. Hitler’s rallies were choreographed to achieve his ends. At his rallies, to add a common touch, specifically selected ordinary workers were interviewed. His appeal to the VOLK, the ordinary people, was strong. Germany was a small country but in 1929, the Nazis held 2370 meetings. They had 3400 branches. In 1930, they recruited 2000 speakers for the party. Eventually they utilized thousands of local party bosses. They appealed to the young, the virile with an uncompromising movement.

Consider the above analysis by a writer on the subject of why the German people turned into Nazis. Consider the appeal to imagination of Obama’s campaign slogan of ‘hope and change.” American certainly isn’t small country with a concentrated population, BUT too many Americans have been ( were) duped too into supporting their version of the savior of the nation by elevating Obama to power in 2008 and sticking with him even to date.

Disingenuous

Disingenuous adj. Not sincere or ingenuous; artful; deceitful
Ingenuous adj. 1. Free from disguise or dissimulation; frank; artless. 2. High-minded; sincere. Synonyms under CANDID, HONEST. Latin ingenuus inborn, natural, from ingignere beget, engender

Take your pick, any definition for disingenuous will do. The word immediately ‘struck’ me upon hearing the big O, our President Obama, justify our intrusion into the revolt in Libya and America’s role in the conflict. Immediately I was off to the big dictionary for confirmation and support. With words resembling instant replays of his regime’s arch-enemies, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, the big O spoke with false sincerity to just another big lie. Why? Liberals lie. Liberals (progressives, socialists, Communists, radicals, etc.,) are not rooted in truth.

As the Latin derivative hints, ingenuity is inborn, begotten, but its opposite, deception is begotten from a lie. Ingenuous becomes disingenuous. The art of the radicals, like Saul Alinsky and the big O requires deceit. The big O no more believes what he says about humanitarian motives in Libya than what he didn’t say he believed about humanitarian aid to Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Israel, Darfur, Iran, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain or now Syria.

The leadership of our beloved country based on disingenuousness scandalizes and saddens me. On any issue. On every issue. What about you?

GET A LIFE

What does it take to ‘get a life?’ I don’t believe those who pooper scoop or jog qualify. Think about it. Is your serious concern cleaning up after the dog you follow in a leash even if you own 5 acres in the country and never walk on (but only mow) the grass of your property? Is your first concern your bodily image the devotion to which supercedes business or personal relationships? You begin to get my drift and my animus against today’s post-modern, artificial intelligence of self-interest. Interest in jogging and running marathons pervades our culture. The zealot’s interest in neatness and perfection of his surroundings pervades our culture. Spawned in the 60's, these two trends have grown continuously over the years.

So what does it take to ‘get a life’? I say it involves finding and pursuing the important and unselfish things which benefit your family, your children, your fellow men and women, which enhance your value as a moral and reasoned being. Mindless pooper scooping or pounding knees and feet onto the ground, just doesn’t seem to define a ‘life’ for me.

Promises Fullilled

Mar. 14th the Col. Dispatch reports that “Schools’ promises being fulfilled.” At least the apostrophe is in the right place on the word schools. Not much else is right with the world. Voters approved a levy in 2008 which included a $9.4 million package for a longer school day, replacing school busses and upgrading science labs. The devil always being in the details, here’s just one promise being fulfilled that drives a fiscal conservative and a rational person like me wild. One ‘improvement’ is the emergency eye-wash stations, which simultaneously shoots a stream of water into both eyes. Students eagerly volunteer to test the system.” Why not? “They love that,” says a science teacher. No education is involved in the eye-wash station, the new camera systems, the 15 new safety - and -security coordinators or the storage cabinets in the science rooms. No education is involved in public schools with students whose names cannot be pronounced, with teachers who wear jeans and sweat shirts and without citizens appreciating what waste means.

In the Record-Herald, of WCH., recently, it was reported that the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ) of 2009 designated $2 billion of taxpayers monies, to the NSP2 (?), 1.8 million was set aside for fixing up homes in this area. Single family houses abandoned or that need fixing up are the targets because one “bad house that’s empty on a nice street could cause trouble,” according to the administrator of this program. Why not take money from the taxpayers to upgrade an area? They didn’t even approve a levy, the consequences of which they did not appreciate.

And for a third absurdity - New York City has more than 300,000 employees who work under more than 100 collective-bargaining agreements, along with layers of bureaucratic state civil-service laws. Too many layers of waste for you? Too many for me to believe unless the report of March 18th in the WSJ by Steven Goldsnmith conjures up facts. Also, state law mandates that over 1,500 job titles must be filled through competitive written exams, specifically ignoring employee’s actual performance or qualifications. A civil-service test must be administered to the head of the Police Department’s counterterrism unit. ( Some how a way was found to get around this requirement).

The public needs to find a way to get around the tyranny of bureaucracy supported by the apathy of an ignorant citizenry. Wake up. Become informed. If nothing else, feel upset enough to vote against the status quo when a thrifty, practical candidate feels the same as you.

1834 PROPHECY

The concluding words of Heinrich Heine’s 1834 book, “Religion and Philosophy in Germany.”

Christianity - and that is its greatest merit - has somewhat mitigated that brutal German love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame. This talisman is fragile, and the day will come when it will collapse miserably. Then the ancient stony gods will rise from the forgotten debris and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and finally Thor with his giant hammer will jump up and smash the Gothic cathedrals...Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder... When you hear a crashing such as never before has been heart in the world’s history; than you know that the German thunderbolt has fallen at last. At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead, and lions in the remotest deserts of Africa will hide in their royal dens. A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll.

This is prescient of Germany’s fall into Fascism before World War II and the ensuing holocaust, but could it not be a reminder that America needs Christianity today more than ever?