We have been on the verge of it for a while, but the forces that have been flirting with fascism went too far when they inserted a DVD called "Obsession" in the daily newspapers of people in presidential battleground states last week. Up until now, if people wanted to avert their eyes from the hate speech and the fear mongering, they could go about their lives thinking about their families, the economy, the environment, spiritual issues---the kinds of things that ordinary Americans focus on day to day.
But then ideological forces allied with the Republicans and the John McCain campaign decided that they would intrude upon the lives of these average Americans. They would give them a shock to their system---whether they wanted to have another stress added to their lives or not.
It came in the form of a "free" DVD with the deliberately provocative title "Obsession". "Obsession"? What's that? Calvin Klein fragrance? A porno? The producer had taken no chances. He was determined that everyone would view this unofficial campaign advertisement for the party that made "9/11" an official part of their platform at this year's convention.
And so people who might not have been prepared for raw violence and fear mongering and guilt---"Have you done enough to keep your children safe?"---were exposed to something much worse than ordinary pornography. They were exposed to fascist propaganda designed to make them surrender their will to the insidious voice of authority which promises
Give up your rights, march in time to my drummers, lower your expectations and I will let you keep your kids. One of them, at least. You might have to give up the other to the war machine. I. This is What Fascism Looks Like Just under a year ago, I wrote a journal called
When Does It Become Fascism? about people like Lou Dobbs, Bill Frist and the GOP's attempts to incite fear of and violence against Latino immigrants. Their goal was the same as that of the KKK in the U.S. back in the 1920s and Hitler in Germany—the creation of a fascist state.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2371537“Blame the immigrant” has been largely unsuccessful with mainstream voters this election cycle, perhaps because so many of us recall our own immigrant heritage with pride.
However, we have now witnessed something that should shock all Americans. Ideological allies of the John McCain campaign have incited an act of violence against helpless children, who were singled out because they were sleeping in a nursery at a mosque where their parents were observing Ramadan.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/muslim-children-gassed-at_b_130076.html "She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.
snip
"This didn't happen in some far away place -- but right here in Dayton, and to my friends. Many of the Iraqi refugees were praying together at the Mosque Friday evening. People that I know and love.
snip
"She tells me that her daughters slept with her last night, the little one in her arms and sobbing throughout the night. She tells me she is afraid, and will never return to the mosque, and I wonder what kind of country is this where people have to fear attending their place of worship?"
"The children come into the room, and tell me they want to leave America and return to Syria, where they had fled to from Iraq. They say they like me, ... , and other American friends -- but they are too afraid and want to leave. Should a 6 and 7 year old even have to contemplate the safety of their living situation?”
Bush claimed he went to war in Iraq to liberate the people from Saddam and give them Democracy. A pitiful number have been allowed into this country as refugees after intense screening. And now, these people who were promised a share of our freedom have experienced their own Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"). Though I still have not purchased a crystal ball, I can predict that within 48 hours,
McCain supporters, Republicans and fascist conspirators will claim that the Muslims gassed their own babies, the way that Hitler’s Nazis blamed the German Jews for the violence which was perpetrated against them on Kristallnacht. How can I say this? Because fascists have no shame. They will always seek to portray their victims as the threat. That is why we must be very clear here. The threat to our democratic way of life comes from those who seek to make us fear each other. The threat comes from those who try to make us act in an inhumane manner towards our fellow human beings.
No sane, rational person gasses a sleeping child, no matter what that baby's religion. Only deeply malevolent social and political forces could warp people to persuade them to carry out sick and twisted acts like those.
Deeply malevolent political forces mailed out a bunch of DVD’s called “Obsession”, previews of a longer DVD designed to jump start America’s waning fear of another Al Qaeda attack before the November election.
What is the “Obsession” DVD? You can watch some of it here on YouTube. It is
violence porn. After a brief disclaimer that the film makers are not talking about
all Muslims ( the Saudis Royals are our friends), it launches into the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center followed by a running series of disturbing images of mostly
white people mostly women, children and the elderly with bleeding wounds being carried on stretchers, while a world map documents a creeping menace inching around the globe (straight out of old Cold War anti-communist propaganda films), with voices proclaiming things like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=vypKSWHlnKA “When I saw the second plane hit, I knew jihad had come to America.”
“Reaching out to every corner of the world”
“DEATH TO AMERICA”
“It is part of a campaign to bring down Christianity and Judaism and all other forms of Islam.”
“No respect for human life.”
And the music! Propaganda owes at least half of its effect to the background music. The soundtrack in this so called documentary should be a clear give away that the creators are not trying to forge a rational argument. They keep looping the same dissonant fragment with a jarring, rapid, syncopated beat that is exactly the type of theme music you would give the hero of a suspense movie as he races the clock to defuse a bomb. Someone should take “Obsession” strip the music and then show it to audiences. They would yawn.
If you feel like you need a dose of sanity after watching it, here is a video of a news clip about a Muslim American father’s reaction to finding the Clarion Fund’s mailer of the “Obsession” DVD in his newspaper. Note his concern that his children have now been placed at risk of violent attack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB-U4ELbCsEInciting people to attack other people is always shameful. For John McCain to allow them to do it because he is so desperate to win this election at all costs tells us just how devoid of character he is.
And make no mistake. This is a tactical political move. These DVDs have not been mailed to the states with the most Muslims, which is what you would expect if the Clarion Fund was trying to alert the nation to an enemy among our midst. They have been mailed to battleground states in the upcoming presidential election.
That means that the Clarion Fund, a non profit group prohibited by law from engaging in partisan political activity, is trying to influence the election.http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/obsession_dvd_distributors_wer.php II. Fascism Defined For those who may have forgotten, here is a quick reminder. I find this definition by Robert O. Paxton from the book Anatomy of Fascism to be useful
"
Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with
community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion"
Key characteristics:
1.“At bottom is a passionate
nationalism”
2.“a sense of
overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions”
3.“the belief that one's group is a
victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its
enemies, both internal and external”
4.
dread of the group's decline under the corrosive effects of individualistic liberalism, class conflict, and
alien influences”
5.“the need for closer integration of a
purer community, by consent if possible, or by
exclusionary violence if necessary”
Based upon this definition, “Obsession” is classic fascist propaganda. As I described, the music and the graphic showing the spread of “Islamic terror” across the globe creates the sense of overwhelming crisis. The sight of the WTC towers falling as well as the many wounded women and children identifies America as the victim. The WTC tower collapse also leads to worry about our decline. The image of the American flag being burned along with the chanted “Death to America” is designed to create a sense of nationalism and a hatred of all things alien. Being told that the imaginary threat has targeted America, its dominant religion and its way of life for extinction automatically makes the viewer react by wanting to exclude and then extinguish the threat. The images of the wounded women and children in “Obsession” were included to guarantee that viewers would have a set visceral reaction.
If I do not act on this now, my family is in immediate danger. This propaganda film was exactly the same, in its design, as German anti-Semitic propaganda used to incite mass violence against Jewish people. The creators could not help but be aware of what the effect of a mass mailing---which would go to a number of people who were not used to viewing hate propaganda and who were not emotionally prepared to see something like this---could do. They did not care. Their only goal was to drum up “terra” votes for the Republicans and John McCain.
III. “Obsession” Is Goebbels with “Radical Islam” in Place of “Jewish Menace” If you have any doubt that “Obsession” is modeled on the very successful propaganda of the Third Reich, then read some of this.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb1.htm “The Jews are our destruction. They started this war and direct it. They want to destroy the German Reich and our people. This plan must be blocked.” Joseph Goebbels (Compare to “Death to America!” from “Obsession”)
“The historic responsibility of world Jewry for the outbreak and widening of this war has been proven so clearly that it does not need to be talked about any further. The Jews wanted war, and now they have it.” Joseph Goebbels (Compare to “No respect for human life”)
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/catech.htm “The goal of the Jew is to make himself the ruler of humanity.” Nazi anti-Semitic catechism (Compare to “It is part of a campaign to bring down Christianity, Judaism and all other forms of Islam”)
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/esser.htm “Each Jew individually, and Jewry as a whole, is without a home. Jewry undermines every people and every state that it infiltrates. It feeds as a parasite and a culture-killing worm in the host people. It grows and grows like weeds in the state, the community and the family and infests the blood of humanity everywhere.” Herman Esser {Compare to “Reaching out to every corner of the world”)
The irony here is that the Clarion Fund claims to be run by an Israeli-American and allied with a Jewish organization. I suggest that the group reconsider their use of classic Nazi----and NeoNazi--- propaganda tools. Like the driving music and use of violent imagery which is also used in this skinhead/NeoNazi video that I found on YouTube that is used to pump up believers so that they can address the same “Radical Islamic Jihad” threat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFJtj5B_HJ4The video is called
WWII Germans in Action Be sure to read the comments. Like:
Yea, daykm, i feel the same about the Muslims and we are going to have to fight them here. They are Stupid Muslim Terrorits! There are a lot of us that say, if they want a fight bring it on! But they are really cowards, No honor , no integrity, no respect or dignity. They are like a bitch dog, that will run up behind you; and nip you in the back of the leg, when you are not looking.
IV. You Will Know a Man By the Company He Keeps. The Clarion Fund keeps company with NeoNazi skinheads who use the same propaganda styles---and images of Hitler---in their videos. John McCain keeps company with both.
It is reassuring to know that this kind of fear mongering fascism is as old as our Republic, and we have weathered it. When John Adams attempted to do what Bush-Cheney have done, take away the civil liberties contained within the Bill of Rights, things like Freedom of the Press and the Right to Free Speech by claiming the threat of "Global French Terrorism" or whatever they called it back then, Jefferson wrote:
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it's true principles. It is true that in the mean time we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war & long oppressions of enormous public debt. But who can say what would be the evils of a scission, and when & where they would end? Better keep together as we are, hawl off from Europe as soon as we can, & from all attachments to any portions of it. And if we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, & then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are the stake.
—Jefferson, Philadelphia, June 4, 1798
http://runestones.blogspot.com/2008/04/quote-of-day-thomas-jefferson-reign-of.html
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