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.
Who the h*ll are "we"?
For that matter, who the h*ll are you?
Following the moderators guidelines, you should be banned for your name alone.
I hate to seem callous to the pain of the families but this is the thing that has haunted me almost from the beginning. The first time I heard the phrase "Our lives will never be the same again" something deep inside started to quiver. As I watched the uniformed soldiers telling people to show their IDs my heart sank. This is not going to turn out well.
Since my state instituted DUI roadblocks, I have rehearsed, in my mind, exactly what I would say should I encounter one and how I would behave. Most of the scenarios don't have me merrily going on my way. So be it, but unless I am, for good cause ( ie. other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time) suspect of a crime, I will not answer "where have you been and where are you going".
Now it seems there may be more checkpoints for me to run mental scenarios on. I flash back to the movie "Hunt for Red October" wherein on of the Soviet officers was amazed that we were free to move from state to state without showing our papers and I wonder how long that will be possible.
As far as I'm concerned, foreign visitors, students, guest workers should be implanted with a chip like a pet's ID chip. However it should have tracking capabilities and maybe even some pain producing device so that if they aren't out of the country by the time they said they would be, they'd wish they were. I don't care what we do to non citizens. I just want to be left alone. I don't want an ID card. I don't want face recognition cameras on every corner. When I found out the technology existed to track cellphones to such a precise degree that they used the victim's phones to locate their bodies in that rubble, I tossed the cellphone.
I know this is war and I understand the willingness to extend the power of the government during times of insecurity. I take that back. I don't understand it because I, too, worry about the powers we give now, to this administration, in the hands of some future administration. Seeing how billyboy used the government to affect those who criticized him ....well that's what's ruining my sleep.
Nope. They just wanted him gone.
There's a big difference between loyalty to country and letting politicians get by with wiping their backsides on the Constitution to cover their own treason.
Wait until the demand for a declaration of war is really pressed in Congress. Part of the deal from the left side of the aisle will be a demand for another Sedition Act as a price for agreement to declaring war. You can bet on that. The traitors will want cover in time of war, when the price of treason is to be paid at the end of a rope. They'll want any criticism of government suppressed so that evidence of what they've done can't be used to get them out of office.
I think I am going to be sick... I voluntarily give some of this info to be liscensed to drive and do other things. MY choice but to be compelled to do so, and include my DNA and relgion? I think I am going to be sick.
Do you know that if cats get in to catmip and eat enough of it the will get diarrhea.
You and your mother?
Oh yes, the words from the article, like sanctimonious, come to mind.
Odd, how hyperbole is dismissed after contemplating the aftermath of Mass Murder, and the enemy is dismissed silently, and presumably as more or less innocent.
Aside from the fact that the overwhelming discussion here has been civil (yes, angry but civil) and insightful, this clymer picks the worst examples of rage as typical Freeper fare, as has the Democratic Underground. Sort of gives me a clue as to where he's coming from.
Human behavior in the past does have a definite relation to how we behave today; and even more so for the Muslim World. Let's look at the main significance of that as it relates to the total silence in the article about it.
All of the Muslim Middle East countries have been aiding indirectly or supporting directly terrorist activities and training camps all over the place; there may be dozens or hundreds of them.
We have been pretending not to notice so long as it was "not too bad" and didn't affect us directly.
They have pretended to forgive us for the mild criticism we do deliver from time to time, and gladly keep their cartel going to generate the millions the terrorists get indirectly from us.
Yeah, let's talk behavior from the past.
But even more insidiously and perfidiously, the current war has been characterized as non-religious when it is plainly so. The daily proclamations from all Muslim countries to "kill Americans" is not imaginary, and to most literate adults plain enough to see. And the muslim population in the U.S. has been totally silent in providing any aid to fellow citizens in this country even after the Mass Murder.
Most Americans also have no difficulty in assessing the odds of 11 000 000 Muslims in the U.S., with hundreds of terrorists operating among them, and actually getting help and aid and comfort among them, all being totally clueless of the plans of the terrorists and their actual acts of Mass Murder.
So then, let's talk about behavior from the past.
When national survival, and our civil liberties are on the line, you bet, Mr. Elkins, that our current rage at the Mass Murder is based on the crystal clarity that past behavior is very indicative of present and future conscious intent by the Muslim community worldwide!
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.