One of the most annoying aspects of contemporary Western scholarship of the 1920s and 1930s is the almost uniform judgmentalism (usually from Brits, but not always). They seek some peculiar German explanation for what happened — to the society and leader. Almost uniformly, the question is presented as ‘how could such a civilized people allow themselves to be governed (enthusiastically) by such criminals?’ (Let’s skip Daniel Goldhagen’s ‘special pleading’ for a moment, as well as Irving’s post “Hitler’s War” declamations).
For the 1938-45 era, scholariship, particularly by the Brits, place emphasis on the Corporal as a one man freak show, making poor decisions, irrational, etc. Richard Harris and Ian Kershaw are two exemplars; the latter’s overly “well received” drum and trumpets books singularly unhelpful to understanding events in our opinion.
Relax, Dear Reader. We won’t impose a tawdry Thanksgiving historical analogy directly. Too much egg nog awaits on the horizon to unveil that one now.
We simply note that the rollback in American civil liberties here at home is remarkable given the limited (but still painful) loss of two iconic sky scrapers and one unremarkable Pentagon wing. We lost no millions dead. No great war. No foreign power occupies Silicon Valley. One can still get a SUV without wheelbarrows full of billions of dollars. But just under 4,000 dead Americans.
The rest has been rhetoric — and rhetoric not from particularly compelling public speakers. Even just the other day John Bolton was biting the head off of some ineffectual Ivy League professor on Tweety’s show balefully intoning about Iranian nuclear bombs going off in America. Pure brute force. Makes one wonder what *ANY* peoples would have done in the circumstances 1918-1932.
A sideshow in any event. The Stiftung has argued since day one that the Movement’s various strands agree on one thing — the importance of domestic transformation and radicalization. Either here or at STSOZ 1.0 we have tried to explain long before people knew who Addington was in the blogosphere what the objective was: an American Counter-Intelligence State. Even after November 2006, little has changed. We still lay down more foundation for their modern day CI State. Despite Iraq, here the Neocons must count a major victory. In that way, Neocons parallel Lenin — who after losing out to the majority (and ingeniously calling them the minority (‘Menshiviks’)) — Lenin’s entire effort and the CSPU’s from that day until December 25, 1991 was about maintaining counter-intelligence. Government existed, but largely as a facade.
Rule of Law is incompatible with a CI State. When Addington et al. argue for Executive lattitude it isn’t just pushing aside FISA or even foreign aid disbursements or about obtaining “King-like” powers. It looks like all those things and more, naturally. And King-like powers or the ‘unitary executive’ would be welcome (as long as under their control or a disciple’s). Formless authoritarianism offers something more precious — total narrative control. Narratives rise, fall, shift, twist and disappear over night. *That’s* Darkness at Noon. Formless power and discipline are the ultimate Who Whom of the imagination — and political existence.
It’s not like all our ills can be blamed on the Warlord and his crowd. The erosion began earlier during the CALEA debates in the 1990s (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act). One largely had to assume the that Permanent National Security State (PNSS) won in its bid to suborn courts and law to its Will, justified by shamanistic invocations of national security. The real overt encroachment started with the Clipper Chip under Bush 41. CALEA followed under Reno, too.
So now the PNSS seeks, in addition to knowing who your five are without a warrant, and their fives, and so into infinite regression of unintelligibility, where you are; they now ping your cell phone like a GPS without court supervision. It’s a capability that’s always been there — that’s how emergency 911 works, after all — triangulating among cell towers, etc. Little you can do about it, too. Even when you turn your phone off, it still checks in with the network. Depending on device and software, even when off it will download email, etc.
If you feel that The Man is on to you, you do have some options: (a) pull the battery out; (b) put the entire phone in a tin box sufficient to block the network; (c) FedEx the fully charged phone 180 degrees from where you are going, drop your car off (which may be compromised by GPS tracking), rent a wreck (get in a cab) and do your business; or (d) smile and grin at the change all around, just like yesterday.
We’re not big fans of Kerr over at now-to-be-Virginia-based ODNI. (DIA is happy, they get their old new HQ back at the air force base. But the commute from the Maryland siders to the Herndon “secret” location is going to be one hell of a bitch. So their psychic misery and dependence on bad books on CD is at least some compensation). But we digress. Where were we? Oh, yes. Kerr. He at least had the honesty to spit the truth in everyone’s face testifying before the Senate. His paraphrase: “[Screw you], you don’t have and never will have privacy anymore, the PNSS has erased the 4th Amendment. You only do what we tell you and THIS is your future.”
One step to our future. What will our future American Chekisty look like? Well, unless a nuclear bomb goes off in the Mall of America, pretty much like they do now. A little more self righteous. A little more smug. We doubt they will wear the leather stuff. PETA would be an unnecessary distraction and the subliminal sexual aura antithetical to all repressed psyches involved. Some of the more distasteful stuff even may be subcontracted out or run from other Departments, like CIFA, etc. (On the other hand, if a real — or staged/permitted attack — occurs, they then might go for the more “sci fi” dyspotian garb — they’ve seen THAT on TV already, and they all know deep down it looks wicked cool).
Can such a future be avoided? (Especially the one with bad sci-fi costumes?).
Nothing is set in stone, but it will require Will and Action. Both. Either alone will fail. Who among the Democrat candidates understands the scale of roll back required? Conceptually? The actual people that must be purged. Who can identify and the train over the course of years trustworthy cadres to restore the Constitution? The Democrats will require some of their counter intelligence to avoid penetration as well. Do they know how to set that up? The scale is sobering. We are not talking about just 2 new Justices, or coming up with 5 Appellate nominees. The new Administration must make it a senior priority to reach down into the bowels of DoJ, into the corners of ODNI, NSA, OSD, etc. from the clerks to the top — and pull out the innards. Purge.
In the absence of a purge, should a Democratic Administration come to terms with the encroaching and gloating Permanent National Security State? The frog gets used to another 10 degrees or so. A poorly executed purge that is beaten back by the Movement peddled as anti-American? Fodder for 2012 Restoration. Threading a needle, indeed.
beautylin says
Dry up my tears with your gentle winds,
For your words cease my tears.
Blow away my dark clouds,
For your strong winds blow them away
Bring me happiness with your sunbeams,
For your sunshine warms my soul.
Whisper me a deep secret with our breeze.
Dr Leo Strauss says
From a mailing list the Stiftung is on:
__________
A cell phone can be isolated in those conducting, semi-transparent
antistatic (ESD) bags used for circuit boards and computer hard drives. Two
bags have sufficient attenuation to isolate a phone from the cell tower
whether the phone is on or off.
Conducting ESD bags made with a metalized polyester and polyethyene material
offer enough transparency that if you leave the phone on and the display
visible within a sealed double bag, you can test whether the phone can make
or receive a call.
The following vendor is offering 5×8 inch bags in a package of 100 each for
$5.31.
http://www.absolutesci.com/shopexd.asp?id=20567
Comment says
If things were sane, when Bolton was mau mauing that woman about a nuclear Iranian threat, Tweety would turn to him and mock him and scorn him for such fear mongering and within a day ort two Bolton would be apologizing and clarifying his remarks and backtracking.
inquire says
“The rest has been rhetoric — and rhetoric not from particularly compelling public speakers.”
It’s not the crudeness of the propaganda that’s appalled me, its how effective it is.
Comment says
Dok – glad you mention Bolton taking apart that woman (from Brown, we think?) over Iran.
That was a classic confrontation – The woman had all the facts on her side, but totally lost the debate. She capitulated in various ways during the whole clip. Even her body language spelled defeat. She probably convinced herself that she scored points when she complimented our troops. What did she call them? Amazing or something?
Why don’t these Dems take some time off and figure out how to speak on TV about isssue?
Comment says
The Politic seems like thin gruel – esp when you consider it supposed to be filled with “serious” reporters like Simon et al. Anyway, you can be a political news junkie and not have to read it all season.
Comment says
It’s hard to say who is more annoying, Brooks or Ignatius -speaking to Atlantic council – Ignatius talks about how the Dems are trying to show how grownup and “responsible” they are yada yada yada.
You would think after seeing Bush and his gang vomit up a horror show war policy, get us stuck in a rut, and ruin our reputation , that this bogus narrative of Dems having to prove themselves would end.
Then you have Brooks talking about his 6 serious candidates who all secretly agree. All egregious b@#^&^&%.
Hunter says
more on university ‘education’:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6892.html
everyone may have a price, but for so many it’s so astonishingly low
Comment says
Doc, what about mailing your cell, full charged, to a random necons vacaction home. But only if they won’t be there for a while. Another option is to duct tape it to the underside of a wiseguys car so one surveilance team bumps into another surveilance team = creating a Marx brothers result.
Just was listing to Janice Rogers Brown and she was discussing how Harvey Manfield waas lamenting automatic toilets and computer controlled lightbulbs was robbing him of free will to chose virtue. No doubt Harvard faculty members disagree and are releaved from having to deal with Mansfield’s leaving his leavings. But what struck us was the weakness of the anecdote – Like Wattenberg asking his lightweight and predictable torture-validation questiona. You would think Judge Brown could have come up with a better anecdote.
asdf971.2 says
Nothing much to add for now, although I remember being told once that taking out the sim card and battery works, which I do every time I head up to the beer store… don’t like to broadcast my loose morals.
No, the reason I wanted to comment was to ask the Doc if we can expect a novel?
Commment says
Have you noticed Bush never quotes Adorno in his speeches? What’s up with that? Oh well – just tuned into PBS and Ben Wattenberg is on with his ridiculous publicly funded interview show “Think Tank.” What a racket – He has Brian Jenkins on from Rand. Jenkins is quite a charater but Wattenberg wastes a lot of time trying to get him to ok torture, in principle – It seems Torture is a big deal with the Think Tank types. They spend so much time drawing up ludicrous hypotheticals to get people to agree to torture under some circumstance.
Hunter says
Oh, and big ups to my man Teddy A., who’s been poppin up in the Random Quotes for me quite a bit lately…
Hunter says
Comm-mm-mm-good-ent asks:
That’s an interesting Q&A. Our univesities now think it’s their duty to instruct students to maintain a careerist paper trail?
I answer:
Yes.
Any more?
Shatili says
Comment, you’re right to point out that these private interests are significant – not just because of scary back room cigar- and golf-shirt-laden deal making, but that all the Joes working in all the SCIFs feel, rightly to some extent, that they are serving their country rather than working for a business. This is one of the more insidious changes of recent years. Kind of like how the Guinness marketing department somehow convinced everyone not only that it is Irish, but that it is IRELAND. Any ‘purge’ would have to have a populist element to address this.
Ike’s speech is worth a re-read.
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html
Commment says
Another thing to come to grips with will be new vested interests like Prince Group and Canopy et al. The intermingling of public and private assets from gwot etc.
Commment says
It’s also worth noting that the Elliot school felt it had to apologize for the tedium of creating a journal. A travel journal has long been considered a thing of happiness for educated people. But now university wants you think of it as some sort of mortifaction one offers up to the gods of national security. Interesting too that they felt they had to apologize for the tedium of it – a bow to anti intellectualism.
Commment says
Q: I’m concerned that studying abroad will affect the security clearance process; do you have any tips?
A: While study abroad can affect the security clearance process, we recommend that you keep a journal of your interactions and activities while overseas that can be passed on to a security clearance administrator/agent/person. It may seem tedious but this information may expedite the security clearance process and provide you with you an opportunity to keep track of your experience.
——————————–
That’s an interesting Q&A. Our univesities now think it’s their duty to instruct students to maintain a careerist paper trail?
Commment says
The PNSS has a P in front of its acronym for a reason – It does not intend to go away. What to do? An attempted purge, if its not massive, might fail – A Dem comes in, defenses are up = things have been shredded etc. Consider a strategy of setting up some parallel structures to try to exploit the silo effect – Also – dilute the memes. Name everything ‘Homeland’ this or that. Anticipate a counter coup and try to have an appropriate diversion..
IMO – John Edwards idea of a MI-5 type of thing would just be a disaster.
Yerevan says
I talked to a retired KGB agent once. It was apparent that he joined because it was the only way he could be a free thinker. The only catch was doing the actual job. Quite a dilemma.
Sounds like STSOZ should start compiling a purge database to inform the Will. Maybe start with the class list at SAIS and Elliott School. Training starts early. See Question 13: http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/academicprograms/studyabroad/faq.cfm