Posted on 09/24/2001 3:10:00 AM PDT by Ada Coddington
Unfree Republic
by Jeff Elkins
Let the stench of Middle East flesh reach Paradise reassuring them that these filth have gone to hell permanently."
The quote above is representative of many posted on the FreeRepublic.com site in the wake of the WTC attack, and unfortunately its like is not uncommon elsewhere. Americans are angry, predictably and rightly so, but just as predictable are the side effects. As always, that righteous anger will be accepted as a beloved gift by the state and molded into tools of oppression.
It’s funny how that works. Every single state-sponsored war the US has become embroiled in has resulted in an inexorable increase in the power of the state.
It’s also funny that it’s always assumed that human behavior in the past has no relation to how we behave today. Why those people were old-fashioned, we’re modern, educated, etc.
The beginning of this repeating pattern has already become public with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. It has an ominous sound, that name, almost Germanic. (I can’t wait to see the uniforms.)
On April 13, 1917, days after our entry into World War One, President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to promote the war domestically while publicizing American war aims abroad. Bush has replicated that step, with this new cabinet-level department.
Under the leadership of journalistic muckraker George Creel, the CPI was a propaganda apparatus unparalleled at that point in world history. The CPI functioned as a de facto public censor, vetting nearly all published material about the war and helping to draft legislation such as the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. In the months prior to our entry into the war and especially after our entry when they were nearly criminal, antiwar viewpoints were rarely heard.
The same pattern emerges now: Penn. Gov. Tom Ridge will be President Bush’s George Creel, and just as in those dim days of yesteryear, he’ll have plenty of willing civilian accomplices. And after all, there’s so much more to censor -- Ridge will need all the help he can get. In seeking warriors for the front line of Internet censorship, Ridge needs look no farther than FreeRepublic.com. The atmosphere there is now poisonous.
Again, look back to Wilson's CPI. It encouraged businesses to spy on their employees, parents to spy on their children, children to spy on their parents, neighbors to spy on neighbors, and above all to report "disloyal," pro-German sentiments. State authorities banned the teaching of German in schools and changed German street names. As the madness mounted, those regarded as pro-German were hounded from their jobs, pressured to change their German names, beaten, and in a few cases lynched. Almost all cases of violence, while incited by the state, were carried out by "civilians" in the grip of war hysteria.
Along with this anti-German hysteria, Congress passed several measures designed to rigidly suppress criticism of the war. In particular, the Espionage Act, passed in June 1917, specified a fine of $10,000 or twenty years in prison for "whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag."
The Espionage Act was very popular in its day. It was cheered on by mindless lemmings under the influence of state propaganda. Their great grandchildren now inhabit FreeRepublic.com, viciously attacking anyone who questions the wisdom of the state.
Our Congress is considering similar measures under the rubric of "anti-terrorism," and as it was at the beginning of the 20th Century, the FreeRepublic lemmings of the 21st are cheering the morally corrupt politicians along.
It’s not just message posters on the site. The management of FreeRepublic has instituted a "loose lips sink ships" campaign, with new moderators patrolling the forum to delete posts that in their opinion are detrimental to the "war effort."
The FreeRepublic mission statement claims "We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America."
Sanctimonious hogwash. Everything old is new again – the keyboard warriors of FreeRepublic would be right at home in 1917 shilling for Wilson.
September 24, 2001
Jeff Elkins is a freelance consultant and writer living in North Central Florida. His personal website is located at www.elkins.org.
I have noted that most of these "dreamers" only complain and offer no concrete suggestions on how we (America) can effectively deal with a fanatical enemy sworn to the destruction of our way of life (which includes them).
While, the mention, of a director of "Homeland Defense" has ominous tones, the thought of more barbaric acts that could very well lead to the loss of not 7,000 innocent lives, but rather 70,000, 700,000 or 7,000,000 is much more horrific and I for one am not going to argue over the semantics. They claim we will loose freedoms, and yet we already have simply by the act. Many of us have lost the freedom to feel secure in our persons and homes due to the act of "war" visited upon all of us by enemies both foreign and domestic on 911. We have lost the freedom of movement due to the acts of fanatical terrorists and their supporters both in and outside our nations boundaries. We (all of us) will be making some tough choices in the coming days, weeks, months, and perhaps years. But "our common" good has to come first. The time has come perhaps that we may have to choose between our common rights and individual rights and they won't be easy choices in some instances. But this is a new day and it is a day that absolutely requires bold and innovative leadership and I for one am not going to sit back and take pot shots at the decisions of our leadership without presenting a viable alternative.
The act of war perpetrated by militant Islamic Fundamentalists can not go unanswered. I for one am grateful we have some leadership that is embarking upon a course of action. I am buoyed by the fact that this leadership, that took office in a dead heat election, settled by our constitution and ultimate court is not only taking action but to date has the unparalleled support of roughly 90% of our fellow citizens.
The "bomb them with butter" crowd has always been and will always be with us. That is a fact. Their message only gets more attention when we allow it to do so.
As I started, thanks for #34 and I am waiting to see if any of the nay-sayers have any plausible answer to the series of great questions you asked. I doubt they will.
Ain't the freedom and ability to state one's opinions freely grand?
Thank you again for creating this forum that allows us to do so, within your, actually quite liberal posting policies.
Yeah, me too. Someone's gotta tell all those prosecutors to stop charging people with "Conspiracy to..." We all know that conspiracy doesn't exist. Don't we? ;^)
Two things to keep in mind here: 1) There is always a danger that once government siezes control of something and limits liberty, it's difficult, if not impossible to reclaim it. We must be careful of the measures we consent to. 2)Neutralizing the terrorist threat is important, but we must allow these efforts turn into an exercise of empire building. The last thing we need is to set up more permanent outposts around the globe. Let's do the job and come home.
The terrorist threat must be neutralized. However, we need not turn into a rigid police state to remain secure. We all know about trading liberty for security. I think we could learn a lesson from the Israelis:
This effort was the basis for the movie "Sword of Gideon."Full text that the excerpt was extracted from.
Well said, but don't forget the OIL.
My solution is to clamp down the borders. Make it difficult to get a visa, require every visa applicant be sponsored by a citizen, and make that citizen responsible for keeping track of the sponsoree. Set up a system for following up on expired visas. Keep track of everyone who leaves the country so we can remove the ones who leave from the list.
That is the long range solution, I'm still trying to think of a way to handle the illegals already in this country. In any case, a national id card is going too far down the slope toward a police state.
That said, I still am uncomfortable with giving up restrictions on the Gov. It was the R's that were advocating secret search warrants and other unconstitutional expansions of gov. power...
Such a bunch of losers - they complain because they can't fly a small plane because the government grounded them, they complain because they can't tell where our troops are located, and describe the exact armaments. Yet, I don't see any of them fighting for that freedom. Let them go out and get shot at and defend their beliefs.
Maybe that is the only thing that would make them realize we are all in this war - not just our soldiers. We are either on the side of the U.S. or we are with the enemy.
If the readers are looking for anti-government, anti-U.S., anti-American views - great - let them go to other sites, there are many.
If they are looking for conservative Americans fighting terrorists, fighting liberalism, socialism and using all their efforts to fight this war, they have found the right place - FreeRepublic.
If this becomes a place working to destroy our government and against our military, I will leave and consider it a anti-American site.
Lysander Spooner was a wannabe terrorist.
If they don't, they better leave my rights alone!
Following the moderators guidelines, you should be banned for your name alone.
Absolutely. And adding in his abusive language, repeated calls for violence and racism, and idiotic posting of pictures of atomic bombs with calls for their use against civilian populations, I honestly cannot understand why this poster has not been banned. And, to top it off, he only just registered a couple of weeks ago.
Let the neo-cons have their place here, flexing their armchair muscles and whimpering about the glories of empire, but then they cross the line, as this poster does on a daily basis, they should be warned and eventually banned just like the other side gets banned.
That makes me paranoid. Then I point out where Dick Hastert is calling for national ID card and NG pontificates that we shouldn't be concerned until it passes?
Bullshit.
NG, it is your type that allowed the Germans to disarm and enslave the Jews. Wait until the law is passed? Get a grip. The fact that a supposed conservative is even proposing the idea of national ID cards should scare the hell out of everyone in this country (especially true conservatives) - except those that worship at the altar of the State. Where do you worship NG? Do I need to change my designation as a conservatice republican? I sure as hell don't want to be associated with a party and/or political philosophy that embraces national ID cards and an "us vs them" mentality where legitimate criticism of government is concered. I refuse to become that which I have despised all my life - fascists and Socialists. How about you? Is it ok to be a Fascist if that fascism is approved by the RNC?
Label me or anyone else that raises concerns traitors; libertarians (as if that's a negative thing, I thought polictial expression was supposed to be a good thing?) or worse?
You need to understand something NG - the country and this forum are founded on the proposition of limited government, NO STIFLING OF DEBATE as practiced by the mainstream media and the liberals. Stop acting like those this forum was formed to defeat.
To win the war effort against terrorists, we're going to have to get tough, and we can't allow the internal enemy to sink our efforts.
Don't you realize how fascistic this sounds? Who is the "internal enemy"? Anyone who doesn't agree with you? You and your buddies belong at Stormfront with talk of "the internal enemy".
Will I bother with a rational breakdown?
In this atmosphere, why bother?
This was written in 1998.
That's what the author of this column is worried about...me too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.