Posted on 08/09/2018 9:23:39 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
Dictatorships are often unexpected. They have arisen among prosperous, educated and cultured people who seemed safe from a dictatorship – in Europe, Asia and South America. Consider Germany, one of the most paradoxical and dramatic cases.
During the late 19th century, it was widely considered to have the best educational system in the world. If any educational system could inoculate people from barbarism, surely Germany would have led the way. It had early childhood education -- kindergarten. Secondary schools emphasized cultural training. Germans developed modern research universities. Germans were especially distinguished for their achievements in science – just think of Karl Benz who invented the gasoline-powered automobile, Rudolf Diesel who invented the compression-ignition engine, Heinrich Hertz who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves, Wilhelm Conrad Rőntgen who invented x-rays, Friedrich August Kekulé who developed the theory of chemical structure, Paul Ehrlich who produced the first medicinal treatment for syphilis and, of course, theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. It’s no wonder so many American scholars went to German universities for their degrees during the 19th century.
After World War I, German university enrollment soared. By 1931, it reached 120,000 versus a maximum of 73,000 before the war. Government provided full scholarships for poor students with ability. As one chronicler reported, a scholarship student "pays no fees at the university, his textbooks are free, and on most purchases which he makes, for clothing, medical treatment, transportation and tickets to theaters and concerts, he receives substantial reductions in price, and a student may get wholesome food sufficient to keep body and soul together..."
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
"During the previous century [of Germany], the government gained complete control of schools and universities, and their top priority was teaching obedience [to leftist political correctness]. The professorial elite promoted collectivism. The highest calling was working for the government. In 1919, sociologist Max Weber reported that "The honor of the civil servant is vested in his ability to execute conscientiously the order of superior authorities."
Lessons for us today:
* Bad economic policies and foreign policies can cause crises that have dangerous political consequences [giving billions to Iran while taxing hard working Americans].
* Politicians commonly demand arbitrary power to deal with a national emergency and restore order, even though underlying problems are commonly caused by bad government policies [liberals create crisis only to implement their socialist solutions].
* In hard times, many people are often willing to go along with and support terrible things that would be unthinkable in good times.
* Those who dismiss the possibility of a dictatorial regime in America need to consider possible developments that could make our circumstances worse and politically more volatile than they are now – like runaway government spending, soaring taxes, more wars, inflation and economic collapse.
* Aspiring dictators sometimes give away their intentions by their evident desire to destroy opponents [Alinsky's Rules for Radicals].
* There's no reliable way to prevent bad or incompetent people from gaining power [Democracy may be the worst form of Government for a post-Christian, open border people - look at South Africa!].
* A political system with a separation of powers and checks & balances – like the U.S. Constitution – does make it more difficult for one branch of government to dominate the others [slight ray of hope]...
Not worried about one man rule — it’s One Party Rule that America needs to fear.
That is the point of the article. The one party becomes the “one man”! Notice how the uniparty today is lock-step in opposition to our outsider president...
[In 1919, sociologist Max Weber reported that “The honor of the civil servant is vested in his ability to execute conscientiously the order of superior authorities.”]
Also beware of the people or party that wants to disarm the citizenry. No good comes to a disarmed country.
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I don’t think we’re “headed for ruin”, but I do have a large amount of fear for our country were the coup-plotters against Trump to succeed. They and their followers are extremely angry, and the desire for retribution would be intense.
Can’t be stated enough.
If they can’t impeach Trump, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is a blatant attempt to grab power by the prognuts from both parties.
As my History teacher reflected to our class in High School, this is one of the primary reasons we have the second amendment.
Also when you look into the foundational documents is directly addresses the right and responsibility of the citizens if faced with such a power play to throw it off and restart
“Aspiring dictators sometimes give away their intentions by their evident desire to destroy opponents.”
We see this a lot lately.
I agree!
I agree!
This is definitely among the most significant articles I have read on FR. Hats off to Forbes and Jim Powell for publishing it. Those who know history and especially the history of Germany and Hitler have hardly had a day of real peace of mind for several years now, fearing that dictatorship already has it’s claws embedded deeply into this country. A sigh of relief came with the hope that the election of Donald Trump would restore the values of America and the Constitution, making freedom ring again. However, the immediate attempt to impeach him and annul his election brought even greater fears that some embedded powers in government and academia did exactly have dictatorship in mind and had set up groups to try and bring about that revolution. A awfully lot of what began to take place really did remind one of Germany in the late 1930s. Those who care to take a look at the history will see the parallels. How many will have the self-discipline to research these matters on their own? Not many. That, with the censorship within social media, is very frightening. As for me, I have only prayer as a protection for my grief as I fear for my family, friends and my countrymen/women, almost on a daily basis.
Amen!
Most of them didn't. Hitler never got more than 36% of the popular vote and the elections of 1932 yielded less, around 33%. The real story of Hitler's rise to power is one of very unusual circumstances, cynical betrayal, and political opportunism that is a masterpiece of that black art.
It wasn't actually the hyperinflation of the 1920's that boosted Hitler so much as the Great Depression of the 30's. That was a one-two punch that led to massive unemployment and gangs of angry men looking for someone to follow.
The real problem was that the waning of the Social Democrats and the Monarchists proved vulnerable to a truly weird alliance of the Nazis and the Communists (formerly the Independent Social Democrats), who agreed on nothing at all except that the current government must be destroyed. That they managed to do between them by refusing to participate in a coalition government, leaving it in a permanent minority status. Hindenburg and Papen responded by filling all the empty slots in government with their own people under Article 48 of the Weimar constitution, just to have a functioning government. Upon Hindenburg's death Hitler simply replaced them all with Nazis. And then they did have a one-party government, like it or not.
What Hitler did next, and the reason that progressives insist on likening Trump to him, was to attempt national unification under a sort of Make Germany Great Again campaign. That's as far as the resemblance goes, because Hitler's idea of that meant ruthlessly suppressing opposition through imprisonment and execution. He certainly did provide state employment by spending heavily on rearmament, with the result that the world would shortly come to regret.
I basically agree with the author's lessons except to point out that everything Hitler did was, until March 1933, either literally or arguably legal. Under a democracy, this happens with fair regularity, under a Westminster parliamentary form, a little more difficult but it happened (in the 1932 elections no fewer than 14 different parties had seats in the Reichstag). Under a two-party system, it can happen when the leadership of both parties decides on a common, hidden course of action in which voting for either one yields the same result. Under a two-party bicameral system, that has to happen twice as well as to the separate executive. Say what you want about the inefficiency of the U.S. system, it was never designed to be efficient, it was designed to be difficult to subvert.
Excellent response!
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