Posted on 11/18/2020 2:40:10 PM PST by Noumenon
A Hard Rain
There is an altogether uncomfortable similarity of today’s leftist thuggery with its escalating levels of hatred and violence to the events that transpired in the waning days of the old Weimar Republic. Author and philosopher Leonard Peikoff saw it coming over thirty years ago, and the similarities, the parallels to another place and time are becoming too obvious to ignore:
"On August 9, 1932, the government decreed the death penalty for those convicted of ‘political’ murder. The next night a band of Nazis invaded the home of a Communist worker in the Silesian village of Potempa and stomped him to death, kicking his larynx to pieces. When the killer s were arrested, tried, and sentenced in accordance with the new law, Hitler responded with threats and demonstrations. On Sept. 2, the government gave its answer: the death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The killers were freed by Hitler next year.The civilized men in the country did not know what to do. In the words of one historian, the moderates voiced desperate "appeals to reason… [But] their techniques were distinctly out of tune with the wild emotionalism that seemed to have gripped a large part of the nation"
The civility cherished by the civilized men had finally been defeated by their ideas, although they did not know that this was the cause. After years of preaching contradictions and of evading principles with an anti-ideological shrug, these men were astonished to see the nation conclude that man cannot live by principles, that reason is no guide to action, and that anything goes. After years of institutionalizing interest-group warfare, which they had justified as sacrifice or collective service, these men were astonished to see hostile gangs take to the streets and demand one another’s sacrifice. After years of undercutting the mind by preaching the primacy of gentle feeling (whether ‘progressive’, religious, or skeptical), these men were astonished to find that they had nothing more to say, and that there was no one left to listen.
The moderates were helpless. The authorities were helpless. The killers were taking over. On January 30, 1933, after due attention to every requirement of German law and of the Weimar Constitution, Nazi rule was made official… It took six months for the Chancellor to transform the country into a totalitarian state."
Leonard Peikoff - The Ominous Parallels
Think about who and what we're dealing with today: on the one hand there are those who seek to profit from trade with those who are clearly our enemies. They think that the rules of cause and effect, of consequences - unintended and otherwise - simply don't apply to them, and that their money and their influence can shield them from the outcomes of their choices. There are those who hate this country and everything it used to stand for. They hate, fear and despise the very concept of freedom and free will. The latter are the ones who silently cheered on 9/11 and later made smug pronouncements that we obviously deserved what we got. The latter are the ones who have in recent times and without consequence burned, looted, vandalized and killed in major metropolitan areas.
These people are not merely traitors to our own country – they are traitors to humanity itself. The cold hard truth is that given the current state of decay of the balance of powers that once held them in check, we're simply not going to be able to vote, talk, negotiate, beg, plead, apologize or debate our way out of what's coming our way this time around. Who has the courage and intellectual honesty to think this though and call the road we're traveling and its ultimate destination by their proper names? As Victor Davis Hanson said in his 2004 National Review article, The 1930s, Again: A Hard Rain is Going to Fall:
The truth is that there is a great storm on the horizon, one that will pass— or bring upon us a hard rain the likes of which we have not seen in 60 years. Either we shall say "no more," deal with Iraq, and prepare for a long and hard war against murderers and terrorists — or we will have more and more of what happened on 9/11. History teaches us that certain nations, certain peoples, and certain religions at peculiar periods in their history take a momentary, but deadly leave of their senses...
That same theme, that of the descent into madness and mass murder by nations, peoples and political movements was echoed in the work of Norman Cohn, author of Warrant for Genocide, where he wrote:
"There exists a subterranean world, where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics for the benefit of the ignorant and superstitious. There are times when that under-world emerges from the depths and suddenly fascinates, captures, and dominates multitudes of usually sane and responsible people. And it occasionally happens that this subterranean world becomes a political power and changes the course of history."
So it was with what Jean-François Revel characterized in his Last Exit to Utopia as, “the two most criminal regimes ever inflicted on the human race - the pinnacles of evil and imbecility achieved in a space of less than thirty years." That is, the monstrous evils of communism and National Socialism. And now we see it again today: this time, it's starting with the brown shirt-style thuggery of Antifa / BLM goons.
Some might ask, “How could this have happened?“ The more thoughtful among us might ask instead, “How could this have happened over and over again – repeatedly throughout our modern history? “ The answer is this: men act on their ideas, and those ideas come from somewhere. Most of our fundamental ideas - the notions and the beliefs we have concerning morality, knowledge, reality - are originated by our philosophers and academicians. Most of us simply and gradually absorb the ideas available from our culture. It is in this manner that most people get their life-shaping ideas: indirectly - from the philosophers whose ideas trickle down to popular culture, our educational institutions, the media, the arts, music and literature.
Yes, as VDH has said, there is indeed a storm on the way - and it's a terrible one, if we read the signs with an unflinching understanding of history and human nature. That persistent knocking on our front doors is that of history telling us that everything, literally everything can change in a heartbeat. From the transformation of beautiful Sarajevo to a flame-shot hell of ruin and slaughter to the collapse of the old Soviet Empire, from the democide of the Khmer Rouge regime to the cultural genocide of the Taliban and the true believers of Islam, from the murderous midnight raids of BATF and FBI jack-booted killers to the impact of the airliners on the Pentagon and the WTC - genocide, murder, the destruction of your life and your family and your home and livelihood is just a matter of whim and caprice now under the lawless regime of the globalists.
Now think about what it might take to turn this around - those considerations make a mockery of what you see on the mainstream media outlets, doesn't it? It makes a mockery of what you hear coming from the mouths of our so-called 'leaders', doesn't it?
What it should make you realize is that, in the end, it all comes down to you and your willingness to fight for what you hold dear. To confront evil and call it by its proper name and to destroy it. With neither mercy nor remorse. P> Don't look to your politicians for help. They're not listening and they don't care.
Don't look to the churches - most of them have become nothing more than the abode of the clergy of oppression; demons dance on their empty altars as they preach 'social justice', cowardice and human sacrifice.
Don't look to the schools and the institutes of higher learning - they've become founts of ignorance, lies and hatred of the truth; they teach socialism, sheepery and passivity to our children.
All that's left is you. It’s in your hands now.
[as they preach ‘social justice’]
I worked for somebody like that. Church organization, too.
I wasn’t familiar with the term “Social Justice Warrior (SJW)” at that time. I’ve seen it up close and personal.
He was a hard-core partial-preterist, too. Was convinced all of that happened 2,000 years ago. So he didn’t like me mentioning that Book of Revelation stuff. Nor Ezekiel 38, either.
Not any more. The enemy we face has abandoned any notion of morality or civility. I look in vain for any sign of it.
Stories and vids of clashes with protesters nearly always show mob members sneaking up behind their victims, then blindsiding them with violence from behind. The only time these thugs face their victims is when they have them outnumbered and surrounded, and chances are the blow will still come from behind, unseen.
Next comes stomping and kicking your victim when he's down, while the bloodthirsty crowd taunts him and cheers for more. They even make a game of it - the "knockout game".
For this behavior the thugs get cheers and approval from their peers. In no way is it moral, or civil.
This is the world we live in now - the moral code is broken and unprincipled people will not hold back. Don't expect mercy or understanding - expect a blow on your six.
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/suicide-of-the-liberals
As the foremost historian of Russian terrorism, Anna Geifman, observes, “Robbery, extortion, and murder became more common than traffic accidents.” ...
The party leader, Paul Milyukov, declared that “all means are now legitimate . . . and all means should be tried.” When asked to condemn terrorism, another liberal leader in the Duma, Ivan Petrunkevich, famously replied: “Condemn terror? That would be the moral death of the party!”
Everything old is new again
A good reminder that nothing is new under the sun.
Glad to see you back. And this is just as relevant today as when you first posted it.
L
Interesting that you quoted that passage from “The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America” by Leonard Peikoff. My great grandparents lived through WW I, the Weimar Republic, hyperinflation, the rise of Nazism, and WW II in Danzig. My grandparents were smart and left the country for the USA in 1927.
I’m actually reading “The Weimar Republic” by Eberhard Kolb right now to learn more about the era. “The Ominous Parallels” has great reviews and looks like a good book, too.
Bookmark
Going to be a black rain, isn’t it?
Yep. Practical Rifle training this weekend.
Bang my aging body and my gear around in the dirt for a few hours. Find the rattles, fix the rattles, rinse, repeat.
I’m gonna need some Tylenol and a massage.
L
Ominous Parallels BUMP!
[paraphrasing Tom Hayden from one of the pages]...First you have to start the revolution, to see where it goes. (sound familiar?)
“Yep. Practical Rifle training this weekend.”
Chinese police are going to help patrol Italy...
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3907401/posts
Any “essentials” / troops could easily be transported around to a neighborhood near you in Amazon Prime trucks to take care of us “non-essentials”.
/worst case scenario war gaming
Hunting season coming up???
BUMP!
Civilization
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
The precondition of a civilized society is the barring of physical force from social relationships—thus establishing the principle that if men wish to deal with one another, they may do so only by means of reason: by discussion, persuasion and voluntary, uncoerced agreement.
The necessary consequence of man’s right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.
Ayn Rand
Always PREPARE to be UNCIVILIZED toward the UNCIVIL.
“...That is, the monstrous evils of communism and National Socialism.”
National Socialism and International Socialism. Just different levels of the same pyramid scheme.
I have an old tattered copy of the Ominous Parallels. Underlined and everything.
Excellent reference.
Likewise. It’s gone from a caution and a warning to a documentary.
Unfortunately.
Keep your powder dry.
Great opinion piece, I loved every word.
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