Thinking for Ourselves

Thinking for Ourselves and What's Past History Got to do with Today

Yesterday started off with a great blog from Eric Rhoads saying to question everything. He talked about fear, changing beliefs, and not relying on the comfortable past.

He said, “This isn't a time for comfort, it's a time for critical thinking, for questioning everything we believe, for questioning everything others tell us and questioning who we trust to load our brains. It's also not a time to seek reinforcement of what we already believe, but a time to deeply question ourselves and what we are clinging to from our past. 

“Answers always lie in our questions.”

Then last night, I turned on a PBS show about “Ken Burns – Storyteller,” only it wasn’t about Burns, it was a Rick Steve’s segment on the rise of Fascism in Europe. (Why lately is PBS listing shows and when I go to watch, it isn’t the show listed in the guide?) Below are some basics:

Both Mussolini and Hitler used the disaster after WWI to rally the people of their countries by telling them what they wanted to hear. Both men were charismatic and good actors, putting on great shows promoting nationalism and promising better lives. They used democracy to obtain power and once they had it, became totalitarian rulers. They created fear to promote fascism.

And for a while, they did do good things. They re-built the infrastructures of their countries (which had been destroyed during the war) with roads and buildings which provided jobs and hope for the demoralized nations. They promised the expansion into other countries would provide more homes, materials, and better life.

But they further promoted fear while making all the false promises – and when people are afraid, they listen to the promises. (People tend to believe the words/promises and not what they see actually happening.) And millions of people did believe – mob mentality with both leaders holding huge rallies with speeches geared to work people into an excited frenzy of what they were being told.

Then when they had people believing and supporting those promises, the noose tightened. There were government/military induced riots with burning and looting (usually of Jewish and those as perceived as against the new regimes). Those who spoke out against them were – eliminated – either imprisoned or killed. 

Their dictates were everything was for the state. Everyone worked for the greatness of the state. There was no privacy, no individualism. Freedom of speech was banned. People were told what they could say and what they could read. Even art was relegated to a certain style. The media was government controlled, so people reading the news or listening to radio was only hearing what the leaders wanted them to hear – over and over and over. (Think brainwashing.)

The leaders capitalized on people’s fears using fear to promote their regimes. They promoted themselves as loving, caring leaders to the masses. Hitler had the Hitler Youth groups, brainwashing the young to his beliefs. He made movies showing himself in a loving, family-oriented atmosphere. And many people believed. Many people didn’t see the real horrors of what was happening (until it was too late). They believed what they were being told … that it was all for the best for the country.

Spain and Portugal were also fascist countries. Franco, Spain’s dictator, had Germany bomb Guernica, but he never joined the Axis … and remained Spain’s leader after WWII. (Pablo Picasso’s most famous painting “Guernica” is considered “one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history,” according to Wikipedia. 

The program ended with advice to not trust people who promise easy answers for complicated problems, to educate and promote independent thinking not based on the media, and to maintain critical independence. 

Maybe we should all be listening to, reading, and watching some of these history programs. What are we being told compared to what is really happening? What’s the whole picture? A snippet can be taken far out of context (and happens all the time).

Are promises being made actually able to become reality?

When do new laws and rules, combined with all the past laws and rules, become the noose on America’s freedoms?

And, my big question is always, “Where’s the money for all the so-called wonderful programs coming from?”

Yes, I believe changes need to be made, but I also believe this war between the Democrats and Republicans isn’t about the American people, or the United States, as a whole. (And it is a war! It’s no longer about American citizens. It’s about the political parties.) It’s about power and dictatorship. Imagine if the millions of dollars spent in this governmental war was used on programs to help Americans, if the money was put back into the economy? What if the millions used to promote candidates was put to better over-all use?

Just thinking about this all …