Monday, September 24, 2007

Ten steps to end our democracy.

Naomi Wolf wrote a book called The End of America that lists the ten steps that dictators have historically taken to replace democracy with totalitarianism. Here's an essay that details the steps with some historical references. She calls it a "blueprint" and asserts that it's been followed many times before.

Some of her points are more general than specific, but many annotated historical references are provided (about Hitler and Mussolini along with Bush and Rove). I believe in the power of words, and examples are given like "war footing" and "enemy combatant" which are terms created to circumvent the rule of law.

The question Wolf asks many times is: "Why?" Why was an unending "war on terror" created which has no goals and no possible victory? Why were steps taken to curtail personal liberty and pass laws and resolutions that give the executive branch the power to act without checks and balances?

For me, this connects dots that I was already aware of in a most frightening manner. This is not a Democrat/Republican issue. This is not a liberal/conservative issue. There is no reason to believe that things will get better when the administration changes.

Like An Inconvenient Truth, if you believe what's being said here, it's terrifying. The book ends with a call to action and a list of organizations working to preserve our way of life, such as The American Freedom Organization. I'll be checking into these sources.

I used to think that our democracy is resilient enough to survive, even bounce back against the damage it's taken recently. I used to think that way about the Earth, too, but now I'm buying new light bulbs and working on my carbon offsets to help fight global warming. Our form of government, like our planet, requires constant vigilance and hard work to keep it operating. It deserves no less.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've replaced some incandescent bulbs with the more efficient, (and more expensive), florescent bulbs but now I've read that those bulbs shouldn't be thrown away when they burn out because they have mercury in them.

Bpaul said...

I agree with your post Shoch, and I so feel the sentiment thegirard.

I have a video promoting her book on my blog, and the info is quite clear and the analogies are quite cogent and not stretching at all to apply.

sucks