The Underground Nazi Invasion of the United States [PART 51]
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The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070
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* The Future of Freedom Foundation * Aug/94 *
The Nazi Mind-set in America: Part I
=======================================
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Before the end of World War II, in 1944, Friedrich A. Hayek, who
was later to win the Nobel memorial prize in economic science,
startled the Western world with a book entitled The Road to Serfdom.
Hayek argued that despite the war against Nazi Germany, the eco-
nomic philosophy of the Nazis and communists was becoming the
guiding light for American and British policymakers. In his forward
to the 1972 edition of the book, Hayek wrote:
But after war broke out I felt that this widespread misunderstanding
of the political systems of our enemies, and soon also of our new ally,
Russia, constituted a serious danger which had to be met by a more
systematic effort. Also, it was already fairly obvious that England
herself was likely to experiment after the war with the same kind of
policies which I was convinced had contributed so much to destroy
liberty elsewhere. . . . Opinion moves fast in the United States, and
even now it is difficult to remember how comparatively short a time it
was before 'The Road to Serfdom' appeared that the most extreme
kind of economic planning had been seriously advocated and the model
of Russia held up for imitation by men who were soon to play an impor-
tant role in public affairs. . . . Be it enough to mention that in 1934 the
newly established National Planning Board devoted a good deal of
attention to the example of planning provided by these four countries:
Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan.
As the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches,
Americans must ask themselves a troubling question: Did Hayek's
concerns become reality, have Americans, in fact, traveled the road
to serfdom the past fifty years? Or, put another way, did the Nazis
lose the military battles but win the war for the hearts and minds
of the American people? (or rather, one might suggest, the hearts
and minds of the political and economic leaders? Wol.)...
And if there is any doubt whether the Nazi economic philosophy did,
in fact, win the hearts and minds of the American people, consider
the following description of the Nazi economic system by Leonard
Peikoff in his book The Ominous Parallels:
Contrary to the Marxists, the Nazis did not advocate public owner-
ship of the means of production. They did demand that the government
oversee and run the nation's economy. The issue of legal ownership,
they explained, is secondary; what counts is the issue of control.
Private citizens, therefore, may continue to hold titles to property, so
long as the state reserves to itself the unqualified right to REGULATE
the use of their property...
The truth is that Hayek's warning was ignored. Having defeated the
Nazis in battle, Americans became ardent supporters and advocates
of Nazi economic policies.
Why? Part of the answer lies in another feature that was central to
the Nazi way of life: public schooling. "Oh, no! You have gone too
far this time," the average American will exclaim. "Public schooling
is a distinctively American institution, as American as apple pie and
free enterprise." The truth? As Sheldon Richman documents so well
in his new book, Separating School & State, 20th-century Americans
adopted the idea of a state-schooling system in the latter part of the
19th century from, you guessed it, Prussia! (or Germany, as it was
previously known. Wol.) And as Mr. Richman points out, public
schooling has proven as successful in the United States as it did in
Germany. Why? Because it has succeeded in its goal of producing
a nation of "good, little citizens", people who pay their taxes on time,
follow the rules, obey orders, condemn and turn in the rule-breakers,
and see themselves as essential cogs in the national wheel. Consider
the words of Richard Ebeling, in his introduction to Separating School
& State:
In the hands of the state, compulsory public education becomes a
tool for political control and manipulation, a prime instrument for
the thought police of the society. And precisely because every
child passes through the same indoctrination process, learning the
same ''official history," the same "civic virtues," the same lessons of
obedience and loyalty to the state, it becomes extremely difficult for
the independent soul to free himself from the straightjacket of the
ideology and values the political authorities wish to imprint upon the
population under its jurisdiction. For the communists, it was the
class struggle and obedience to the Party and Comrade Stalin; for
the fascists, it was worship of the nation-state and obedience to the
Duce; for the Nazis, it was race purity and obedience to the Fuhrer.
The content has varied, but the form has remained the same. Through
the institution of compulsory state education, the child is to be molded
like wax into the shape desired by the state and its educational elite.
We should not believe that because ours is a freer, more democratic
society, the same imprinting procedure has not occurred even here,
in America. Every generation of school-age children has imprinted
upon it a 'politically correct' ideology concerning America's past and
the sanctity of the role of the state in society. Practically every child
in the public school system learns that the "robber barons" of the 19th
century exploited the common working man; that unregulated capitalism
needed to be harnessed by enlightened government regulation beginning
in the Progressive era at the turn-of-the-century; that wild Wall Street
speculation was a primary cause of the Great Depression; that only
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal saved America from catastrophe; and
that American intervention in foreign wars has been necessary and
inevitable, with the United States government required to be a global
leader and an occasional world policeman.
This brings us to the heart of the problem, the core of the Nazi
mind-set: that the interests of the individual must be subordinated
to the interests of the nation. This is the principle that controls
the minds of the American people, just as it controlled the minds
of the German people sixty years ago. Each person is viewed
like a bee in a hive; his primary role in life is to serve the hive and
the ruler of the hive, and to be sacrificed when the hive and its
ruler consider it necessary. This is why Americans of our time,
unlike their ancestors, favor such things as income taxation,
Social Security, socialized medicine, and drug laws; they believe,
as did Germans in the 1930s, that their bodies, lives, income,
and property, in the final analysis, are subordinate to the interests
of the nation.
As you read the following words of Adolf Hitler, ask yourself which
American politician, which American bureaucrat, which American
schoolteacher, which American citizen would disagree with the
principles to which Hitler subscribed:
"It is thus necessary that the individual should finally come to
realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with
the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego
is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole;
that pride and conceitedness, the feeling that the individual . . .
is superior, so far from being merely laughable, involve great
dangers for the existence of the community that is a nation; that
above all the unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more
than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual; and that
the higher interests involved in the life of the whole must here
set the limits and lay down the duties of the interests of the
individual.
(I think what Adolph Hitler was actually saying on behalf of himself
and the Nazi elite who ruled World War II Germany was: "You're job
is to serve your masters, and give up your individuality for the sake
of the interests and egos of your leaders, no matter what sacrifice
that might require." Wol.)
Even though the average American [is conditioned to] enthusiastically
support the Nazi economic philosophy, he recoils at having his beliefs
labeled as "Nazi." Why? Because, he argues, the Nazi government,
unlike the U.S. government, killed six million people in concentration
camps, and this mass murder of millions of people, rather than eco-
nomic philosophy, captures the true essence of the Nazi label.
What Americans fail (or refuse) to recognize is that the concentration
camps were simply the logical extension of the Nazi mind-set! It does
not matter whether there were six million killed, or six hundred, or six,
or even one. The evil, the terrible, black evil, is the belief that a govern-
ment should have the power to sacrifice even one individual for the good
of the nation. Once this basic philosophical premise and political power
are conceded, innocent people, beginning with a few and inevitably
ending in multitudes, will be killed, because "the good of the nation"
always ends up requiring it.
Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom
Foundation.
**************************************************************************
* The Future of Freedom Foundation *
11350 Random Hills Road, Suite 800
Fairfax, VA 22030
Tel. (703) 934-6101
Fax: (703) 803-1480
Dear Friend of Freedom:
We invite you to subscribe to our monthly publication, Freedom
Daily ($15 per year; $20 foreign), and to become a financial supporter of
The Future of Freedom Foundation.
Our mission is to present an uncompromising moral, philosophical,
and economic case for the libertarian philosophy. In the five years we have
been publishing our essays, no one has ever found any compromise of
libertarian principles. Whatever the issue the welfare state; the regulated
economy; gun control; the CIA; Waco; Randy Weaver; health care; public
schooling; the drug war; the Persian Gulf War; trade restrictions; immigra-
tion controls; civil liberties; Social Security we hit hard and we do not pull
our punches. We have never advocated "reform." When it comes to advancing
liberty, we always talk in terms of abolishing, ending, eliminating, and repealing.
We hope you will subscribe to Freedom Daily and become a financial
contributor to The Future of Freedom Foundation. And we believe that you
would find our books and tapes highly rewarding. We are certain that you
will not find another foundation that applies libertarian principles in such a
consistent, uncompromising, and hard-hitting way.
Yours for liberty,
Jacob G. Hornberger
Founder and President
The Future of Freedom Foundation
[end]
* * * * * * * ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ * The Future of Freedom Foundation * Aug/94 * The Nazi Mind-set in America: Part I="======================================" by Jacob G. Hornberger Before the end of World War II, in 1944, Friedrich A. Hayek, who was later to win the Nobel memorial prize in economic science, startled the Western world with a book entitled The Road to Serfdom. Hayek argued that despite the war against Nazi Germany, the eco- nomic philosophy of the Nazis and communists was becoming the guiding light for American and British policymakers. In his forward to the 1972 edition of the book, Hayek wrote: But after war broke out I felt that this widespread misunderstanding of the political systems of our enemies, and soon also of our new ally, Russia, constituted a serious danger which had to be met by a more systematic effort. Also, it was already fairly obvious that England herself was likely to experiment after the war with the same kind of policies which I was convinced had contributed so much to destroy liberty elsewhere. . . . Opinion moves fast in the United States, and even now it is difficult to remember how comparatively short a time it was before 'The Road to Serfdom' appeared that the most extreme kind of economic planning had been seriously advocated and the model of Russia held up for imitation by men who were soon to play an impor- tant role in public affairs. . . . Be it enough to mention that in 1934 the newly established National Planning Board devoted a good deal of attention to the example of planning provided by these four countries: Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan. As the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, Americans must ask themselves a troubling question: Did Hayek's concerns become reality, have Americans, in fact, traveled the road to serfdom the past fifty years? Or, put another way, did the Nazis lose the military battles but win the war for the hearts and minds of the American people? (or rather, one might suggest, the hearts and minds of the political and economic leaders? Wol.)... And if there is any doubt whether the Nazi economic philosophy did, in fact, win the hearts and minds of the American people, consider the following description of the Nazi economic system by Leonard Peikoff in his book The Ominous Parallels: Contrary to the Marxists, the Nazis did not advocate public owner- ship of the means of production. They did demand that the government oversee and run the nation's economy. The issue of legal ownership, they explained, is secondary; what counts is the issue of control. Private citizens, therefore, may continue to hold titles to property, so long as the state reserves to itself the unqualified right to REGULATE the use of their property... The truth is that Hayek's warning was ignored. Having defeated the Nazis in battle, Americans became ardent supporters and advocates of Nazi economic policies. Why? Part of the answer lies in another feature that was central to the Nazi way of life: public schooling. "Oh, no! You have gone too far this time," the average American will exclaim. "Public schooling is a distinctively American institution, as American as apple pie and free enterprise." The truth? As Sheldon Richman documents so well in his new book, Separating School & State, 20th-century Americans adopted the idea of a state-schooling system in the latter part of the 19th century from, you guessed it, Prussia! (or Germany, as it was previously known. Wol.) And as Mr. Richman points out, public schooling has proven as successful in the United States as it did in Germany. Why? Because it has succeeded in its goal of producing a nation of "good, little citizens", people who pay their taxes on time, follow the rules, obey orders, condemn and turn in the rule-breakers, and see themselves as essential cogs in the national wheel. Consider the words of Richard Ebeling, in his introduction to Separating School & State: In the hands of the state, compulsory public education becomes a tool for political control and manipulation, a prime instrument for the thought police of the society. And precisely because every child passes through the same indoctrination process, learning the same ''official history," the same "civic virtues," the same lessons of obedience and loyalty to the state, it becomes extremely difficult for the independent soul to free himself from the straightjacket of the ideology and values the political authorities wish to imprint upon the population under its jurisdiction. For the communists, it was the class struggle and obedience to the Party and Comrade Stalin; for the fascists, it was worship of the nation-state and obedience to the Duce; for the Nazis, it was race purity and obedience to the Fuhrer. The content has varied, but the form has remained the same. Through the institution of compulsory state education, the child is to be molded like wax into the shape desired by the state and its educational elite. We should not believe that because ours is a freer, more democratic society, the same imprinting procedure has not occurred even here, in America. Every generation of school-age children has imprinted upon it a 'politically correct' ideology concerning America's past and the sanctity of the role of the state in society. Practically every child in the public school system learns that the "robber barons" of the 19th century exploited the common working man; that unregulated capitalism needed to be harnessed by enlightened government regulation beginning in the Progressive era at the turn-of-the-century; that wild Wall Street speculation was a primary cause of the Great Depression; that only Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal saved America from catastrophe; and that American intervention in foreign wars has been necessary and inevitable, with the United States government required to be a global leader and an occasional world policeman. This brings us to the heart of the problem, the core of the Nazi mind-set: that the interests of the individual must be subordinated to the interests of the nation. This is the principle that controls the minds of the American people, just as it controlled the minds of the German people sixty years ago. Each person is viewed like a bee in a hive; his primary role in life is to serve the hive and the ruler of the hive, and to be sacrificed when the hive and its ruler consider it necessary. This is why Americans of our time, unlike their ancestors, favor such things as income taxation, Social Security, socialized medicine, and drug laws; they believe, as did Germans in the 1930s, that their bodies, lives, income, and property, in the final analysis, are subordinate to the interests of the nation. As you read the following words of Adolf Hitler, ask yourself which American politician, which American bureaucrat, which American schoolteacher, which American citizen would disagree with the principles to which Hitler subscribed: "It is thus necessary that the individual should finally come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole; that pride and conceitedness, the feeling that the individual . . . is superior, so far from being merely laughable, involve great dangers for the existence of the community that is a nation; that above all the unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual; and that the higher interests involved in the life of the whole must here set the limits and lay down the duties of the interests of the individual. (I think what Adolph Hitler was actually saying on behalf of himself and the Nazi elite who ruled World War II Germany was: "You're job is to serve your masters, and give up your individuality for the sake of the interests and egos of your leaders, no matter what sacrifice that might require." Wol.) Even though the average American [is conditioned to] enthusiastically support the Nazi economic philosophy, he recoils at having his beliefs labeled as "Nazi." Why? Because, he argues, the Nazi government, unlike the U.S. government, killed six million people in concentration camps, and this mass murder of millions of people, rather than eco- nomic philosophy, captures the true essence of the Nazi label. What Americans fail (or refuse) to recognize is that the concentration camps were simply the logical extension of the Nazi mind-set! It does not matter whether there were six million killed, or six hundred, or six, or even one. The evil, the terrible, black evil, is the belief that a govern- ment should have the power to sacrifice even one individual for the good of the nation. Once this basic philosophical premise and political power are conceded, innocent people, beginning with a few and inevitably ending in multitudes, will be killed, because "the good of the nation" always ends up requiring it. Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. ************************************************************************** * The Future of Freedom Foundation * 11350 Random Hills Road, Suite 800 Fairfax, VA 22030 Tel. (703) 934-6101 Fax: (703) 803-1480 Dear Friend of Freedom: We invite you to subscribe to our monthly publication, Freedom Daily ($15 per year; $20 foreign), and to become a financial supporter of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Our mission is to present an uncompromising moral, philosophical, and economic case for the libertarian philosophy. In the five years we have been publishing our essays, no one has ever found any compromise of libertarian principles. Whatever the issue the welfare state; the regulated economy; gun control; the CIA; Waco; Randy Weaver; health care; public schooling; the drug war; the Persian Gulf War; trade restrictions; immigra- tion controls; civil liberties; Social Security we hit hard and we do not pull our punches. We have never advocated "reform." When it comes to advancing liberty, we always talk in terms of abolishing, ending, eliminating, and repealing. We hope you will subscribe to Freedom Daily and become a financial contributor to The Future of Freedom Foundation. And we believe that you would find our books and tapes highly rewarding. We are certain that you will not find another foundation that applies libertarian principles in such a consistent, uncompromising, and hard-hitting way. Yours for liberty, Jacob G. Hornberger Founder and President The Future of Freedom Foundation [end]
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