How to control a country

"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg Trials

...

...

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600857.html

Where are the Libertarians now?

A comparison of Bush's Administration to Goering's Third Reich? I love it.

Libertarianism is not unlike communism, looks great on paper but fails to take into account human nature. For every 15 who want to work together and build something great, there's one willing to knock it all down to be five bucks ahead.
So i say we kill that one person, use his remains to enrich our compost, and get back to our enlightened society.
huzzah!

Oh, I wasn't making a comparison. I was simply presenting two completely unique pieces of information in the same post. I am a conservationist.

OooOoh more comparisons um.. George bushes little squinty eyes are not unlike hitlers little mustache!!

This thread was not a comparison of two things, merely a presentation of two things.

If you choose to compare and find similarities, I cannot stop you.

Yeah, George Carlin makes the same observation about Goering's speech, presented along side modern US policy.

It really is a scary time for freedom in this country.

-Ghoti

Invoking Godwin's law in a new thread... won't that create some kind of Forum Singularity, and disrupt the continuum?

wow, you're so clever!

The official views of one part of the libertarian movement, that of the U.S. national Libertarian Party, can be found at www.lp.org.

That site cannot speak for the views of all those who call themselves libertarians, of course.

There is a recent book out by a Dr. Mary Ruwart available through Amazon.com, Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression that might give some insight into one libertarian's view on foreign policy.

The Cato Institute has pages on Iraq, Terrorism, Foreign Policy and others, that present a variety of views related to the thread topic.

The views of one of my old comrades in the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, Justin Raimondo, and others, some of whom have been in the libertarian movement, are expressed at antiwar.com

The essay "War Is The Health Of The State" , unfinished at the time of the author Randolph Bourne's death in 1918, was prominent in libertarian publications at the time of my introduction to the ideology during the Vietnam war era and might be considered pertinent.

And I have a large penis. That's why I'm so popular.

Capitalism is the only way to go. So many these days support some sort of quasi-pink governmental involvement. We must resist the urge to over-baby ourselves and let the free market take care of the world's problems.

I try to do my part here: http://sleconomyblog.blogspot.com/ but I need everyone's help.

Whether you agree with the war in Iraq or not, surely you can agree that we need to be vigilant against corrupting factors that will lead our nation to become weaker.

For heavens sake, why do so few of you look at the statement originally quoted on it's own merits ? Ignoring who spoke it? I'm sure Goering was not the first, nor will he be the last.

The significant question is -

Is it true, and if it is, does it carry a serious warning for all populations in their dealings with their governments ?

I think it is, and it does. Why not discuss that instead of relaxing into all the easy old ad hominem twaddle which forum loves so much ?

Please Jamie, try to remember that SL is international, and every day more so. We the forum users do not collectively have an "our nation".

To me, it almost sounds like a confession. He is describing how the leaders, which he is one, brought the democratic Germany to war. I really don't think people have evolved a great deal from the recent time of WWII. I certainly think that if it worked in one democracy, it could work in another. The biggest question I would have, is does the population unite without questions when fear and patriotism is rampant. In America I think the majority of the population throws out all questioning in their leaders in such a situation. In a democracy, it only takes that majority to be a problem.