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 think we already live in interesting times.
1. We can convert to fundamentalist Islam and become slaves of the Arabs. This action will win us neither security, peace, nor prosperity.
2. We can try to appease the terrorists with lesser measures of support for their goals and greater restrictions on our own freedoms. This action will not stop them from committing more acts of war against us. Again, we will lose freedom, security, peace, and prosperity.
3. We can refuse to appease the terrorists but give up our freedoms to try to prevent their attacks. This course of action will be no better than the second one.
4. We can continue as before as if the terrorists hadn't just killed thousands of Americans. This course of action will only lead to more attacks until we choose one of the other four.
5. We can accept a few restrictions and make a few sacrifices during the course of a war against our attackers. Eventually, we will be able to exterminate them and force the rest to end their actions against us. This course of action can lead to the most security, peace, freedom, and prosperity.
The Office of Homeland Security scares me as well. I will be a loud voice for winning this war and abolishing the departments that were needed to fight it. However, Mr. Elkins's attack is unjustified.
WFTR
Something that Hasn't Changed (Stop Blaming America!).
Bill
Didn't see it but I think Skousen is a libertarian if that gives you a clue.
If that bunch represents conservatism, I'll take mine rare. Did you see Mike Pierce's song parody of "Tommy Adkins" on LRC in the weekend edition? It was great.
Randolph Bourne
1919
Probably the day Americans wake up and hold these moral retards accountable will be a generation or so after the demise of today's news media.
In order to love our country, our country must first be lovely. Sometimes it is not.
When it starts losing the war.
That's fear talking, and perhaps their intuition is correct.
There not going to do that because they would then have to follow the Geneva Convention.
Alas that has been true for the past 4 generations or so.
That too.
Aw come on.
"We need a national ID card with our photograph and thumbprint digitized and embedded in the ID card," (Oracle CEO Larry) Ellison said in an interview Friday night on the evening news of KPIX-TV in San Francisco.
Come on Larry, why not an embedded ID chip! We have the technology, the "Digital Angel"
What's that you say? Oh, Oracle won't get the big government bucks for the database?
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