The Only Thing To Fear

In 1945 the United States led the United Nations to defeat one of the worst evils the world had ever seen.     We recently visited Italy, marveled at the accomplishments of the Renaisance, the history, the art, the civilization.

However, Italy and Germany murdered millions during World War II.

And what was the engine of this destruction?   What caused these very civilized, Christian nations to turn into engines of evil?

Fascism.  Propaganda. Fear.

I have read several letters to the editor recently warning  that America is at risk, that our freedoms are in danger, that our freedom of religion is threatened,  fear, fear, fear.  And by implication, hate, hate, hate.

I ask those writers to go to a quiet place, and list the real, actual threats that  REALLY threatens them.  And, please turn off Fox News, right wing hit piece radio, and Rush is right.  Just let it get real quiet, and list the real, actual limits on your liberty that threaten you so much.  Make a list of all the times evil government, or President Obama has REALLY threatened you.  I mean real threat, threatened imprisonment, violence, loss of doing what you really want to do.  I will bet, your list is very short if you find a quiet place and turn off the propaganda machine.

Fascism is a socio-political illness.  It is fed by fear, stereotypes and lies.  Joseph Goebbles famously said, "If you are going to tell a lie to the masses, tell big lies".   The disease of fascism  feeds on fear, on telling big lies.  And, it is works through blind, unquestioning fear, to motivate people to do horrible things.  

When we get afraid, we do things we never would do, people in Italy and Germany killed, jailed, and attacked their supposed enemies. The Jews were supposedly responsible for the loss of WWI (Italy actually fought on the Allied Side), the Great Depression, everything wrong in the world.

And through it all, at first anyway, there was no REAL  threat at all.  People were motivated to kill their neighbors, imprison millons, because they were propagandized into fear, and responded with deadly force.

So, take a minute and think about all this before you go off on liberals, or the President, or those who supposedly are stealing your freedom.

You are getting worked by propaganda that is demonizing your fellow citizens, using fear everyday to manipulate your into the deadly trap of destructive fascism.

My father's generation fought, and sacrificed beyond belief  to destroy the fascist destroyers.    It was not easy.  It killed almost 75 million people.

Be not afraid, the only thing we really have to fear is fear itself.  That, and the propaganda manipulators, are our true enemies.