National Immunity

Post WWI Germany was reeling from reparations payments, a destroyed economy, having lost vital parts of their homeland and finally the onset of The Great Depression. The military had been virtually disbanded and small para-military forces were vying to establish a hold on power. German society, long known for its rigidity and order became more liberal and bohemian in the 1930s which dismayed much of the nation scandalized by what appeared to be debauchery. It was out of this chaos that Adolf Hitler appeared to establish what would become The Third Reich, destined to reign for a thousand years. Thankfully that was not to be.

I want to take a few minutes to offer some thoughts on how we can take the lessons of the Third Reich and apply them to our world today. I am going to use words like liberal, conservative, progressive, reactionary, fascist, communist, republican and democrat. I want you to see and understand each of these words by the definitions of the terms and not by any political association because I want to make these remarks independent of political bias. Now, this does not mean that I am not politically biased but just that I am going to try to speak in a more philosophical nature. Try not to be offended to the point of throwing down the newspaper before finishing and considering the point.

Hitler was able to come to power by using tactics that have become well identified since his time. He appealed to patriotism, nationalism, racial superiority and military supremacy. He identified a common enemy in the Jewish population and the nations that had wreaked havoc on Germany following its defeat in WWI. He promised a better tomorrow with Germany claiming its just position as leader of the world because of German exceptionalism. The arts were condemned, especially modern art, as decadent and leading to the moral failing of German society. All of these have become identified with fascism. It was not hard to whip crowds into a frenzy with his inflammatory speeches and accusations of unjust persecution of the German nation. Finally enough power was attained and Hitler was made absolute dictator when he assumed both the Presidency and the Chancellorship and went about reforming the German governmental system.

The American people share a lot of characteristics with the German people. Centuries ago our ancestors largely came from England which had a large Saxon component. The English ruing family were the Hapsburgs. Much of our early immigration came from the Low Countries and Germany. The Nordic countries and Western Europe are ancestrally largely the same people. Our cultures are intertwined with political and cultural similarities and our literature is largely Germanic in origin. Reading early and even middle English is almost like reading German and about as easy to read. Being across 3000 miles of open water has allowed us to evolve some distinctions but the few hundred years have not been long enough to wash away our legacy.

I have long felt that in the United States there exists a strong undercurrent toward fascism. Many times in the past leaders have used nationalistic and racial lures to incite the patriotism of the people and foster the notion that American exceptionalism makes our way pure and deserving of no criticism. I am certain that many of us alive now can think of a time that we were over-exuberant in our exercise of power and crossed the line of decency. Since World War II we have allowed our military to assume an almost sanctified status among the citizenry. The economy has been taken over by the very wealthy who exercise an inordinate amount of power and every so often we are thrown some red meat in the form of an enemy whose existence is based on its desire to destroy our way of life and enslave us. Religion is often used to sound the alarm of religious persecution and the clarion call that our god demands that we go to war for him. Yes, there are similarities and no amount of caterwauling will make it not so but that is not the critical thing.

Barry Goldwater famously rang out during the 1964 Presidential campaign (yes, I'm old enough to remember it but not old enough to have voted in it), “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

Well, yes it is. Extremism is only useful in extreme situations and it is not without consequences even then. The modern conservative movement traces its heritage to that campaign and is now, fifty years later, ascendant. But there is also a defense mechanism built into our wonderful country, sort of like an antibody, that inoculates us against the ravages of extremism and fascism. We have had leaders before and we have some now who espouse a policy of American exceptionalism and believe we should use our powerful military as the point of the sword to force our vision on the world. The national antibodies are hard at work strengthening the national immune system to fend off the attack.

Those antibodies are republicanism, democracy, the arts and humanities, the tradition of a liberal education (remember, I said to use the dictionary and not political terms). It is the reverence for Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion. It is the willingness of our country to welcome people from other cultures. It is our differences that make us strong enough to fight off our tendency toward nationalism and fascism. Now, I want to tell you that patriotism is not the exclusive property of those who espouse the view of “My Country Right or Wrong.” Patriots can love their country and want and expect better from it. It is only then that the United States really becomes the exceptional country it can be. Many of our military leaders who have studied citizenship, leadership and war understand the value of an open society with a firm control over the the military. That knowledge seems to not be well known in the average citizen.

Yes, the Germanic peoples are our cousins and family is family. You can't choose that but you can choose how family affects your life.

My Take is that by being protective of the rights of all citizens we create the antibodies that protect ourselves from the diseases of totalinarianism, fascism and oligarchies.