Something of Historic Proportion is Happening by Pam Geller
The Bear on Mar 12 2009 at 8:28 am | Filed under: Culture
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about 10 – 15 years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codified into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people whom we know could never pay back? Why? We learned recently that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has “loaned” two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September.
Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of “We the People,” who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska . All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)
Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.
And that is only the beginning.
I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his “brown shirts” would bully them into submission.
And then he was duly elected to office, with a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world.
He did it with a compliant media – Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and .. . . change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though ..
Don’t forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years – a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency – it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong, close my eyes, have another latte and ignore what is transpiring around me.
Some people scoff at me; others laugh or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe – and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong. But, I do not think I am.
17 Responses to “Something of Historic Proportion is Happening by Pam Geller”
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[...] mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Something of Historic Proportion is Happening,” is getting ahead of [...]
[...] would be taught what to think. . . but wait, my paraphrase of Pam Geller’s rant, “Something of Historic Proportion is Happening,” is getting slightly ahead of [...]
Okay, folks, here’s where the rubber meets the road, the pedal meets the metal, the hammer meets the anvil:
Ms. Geller begins her commentary with the reassuring words “I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life.” So far, so good. So she’s well-versed and qualified in the subject of history. I’m already feeling the onset of warm cuddlies.
And as I read through her commentary, I’m finding myself agreeing with most of her observations and conclusions. Again, so far, so good. After all, I, too, lay claim to being a student of history.
Then she gets to the line that reads “And then he (Adolf Hitler) was duly elected to office….” Okay, Ms. HistWiz, let’s make sure we’re reading that correctly: Adolf Hitler was “duly elected to office”… presumably meaning the office of German Chancellor. Now here’s your history lesson du jour, Ms. HistWiz: Adolf Hitler was never elected to ANY national office… in Germany, in Austria, in Mauritania, in Patagonia… nowhere. He was never, ever elected to any elective office whatsoever, outside of inner-Nazi-party (i.e., NSDAP) elections. Never. Repeat, NEVER. As his (National Socialist party) numbers were collapsing in the national polls (in 1928, 1930 and again in 1932. The office of Reichkanzler (Reich Chancellor) was serendipitously handed to him on a silver platter by the geriatric-and-failing Paul von Hindenburg on Monday, 30 January, 1933; the strategy was that the elder statesman and his cabinet would be able to control and manipulate the noisy Bohemian rabble-rouser.
She goes on to say “Slowly but surely he (Hitler) seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy.”
Really? Slowly but surely? Precisely four weeks to the day (well, night) after Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor, on Monday, 27 February, 1933, an arson fire destroyed the entire interior of the Reichstag–Germany’s parliament building–said conflagration almost certainly ignited on Hitler’s orders, especially since a convenient subterranean tunnel connected Hitler’s Reich Chancellery with the Reichstag. Hitler promptly declared martial law and suspended all basic human rights. Again, this was four weeks after Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor. Hitler had turned the Weimar Republic into a train wreck in precisely 28 days. If there’s anything that can be described as “slowly but surely” about this sequence of events, Ms. HistWiz, please ‘splain it to me.
Then she continues with “He (Hitler) did it with a compliant media – Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and change. And THE PEOPLE SURELY GOT WHAT THEY VOTED FOR. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books.”
Yeah. I’ll get to that piece of advice, Ms. HistWiz.
But it’s Ms. Geller’s final gaffe that really sizzles: “When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister).”
Really? Now follow me on this, Ms. HistWiz: the 1930s were Winston Churchill’s well-written-about “Wilderness Years,” when he was entirely out of elective office. And he was never, repeat NEVER a member of the House of Lords. And Ms. HistWiz, in the event, the British Prime Minister traditionally comes from the House of Commons, NEVER from the House of Lords.
So, Ms. HistWiz, I do not need to “Read my history books.” I have in fact already read them. Au contraire, it is you, you Ms. Geller, who desperately needs to consult some history books before you goose-step forth to post your manifestos.
Li’l Miss History-on-the-Hoof has succumbed to Hoof-in-the-Mouth disease, methinks.
427Curt
Santa Clarita, California
Thanks for the history corrections. Do you think nit-picking dilutes Pam’s message? The woman is trying to warn people that evil is afoot. Give her a break and listen to her thoughts instead of wasting time seeking nits. These are scary times and we won’t be able to press a reset button once Obama’s plans come to be.
We also won’t listen to someone who can’t be bothered to get their facts straight, especially when they’re trying to sound like such an expert, ridiculing others for their lack of knowledge. Pam’s message? Not that it’s anything new, or that hundreds aren’t sounding the alarms already, or that it’s not obvious enough on it’s own, but her message comes through clearly, except for the credibility factor.
Very, very good article. It sensitizes quite well our present problems.
She says :..Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?”
“..think critically..”, this is the statement, it brings the point of party lines, there are like 30% or more in each party Republican as well as Democrat that will vote within their party lines no matter what, candidates do not visit your state during elections if they know who is going to win, they take you for granted, you may finish voting for the least capable or incompetent. As parents, do we think critically? Although I was within the party lines group for many years. I came to the conclusion that being an independent is the right way to go. It gives the freedom to be much more objective.
It looks to me another important point, she writes “As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong, close my eyes, have another latte and ignore what is transpiring around me.
Some people scoff at me; others laugh or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe – and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong. But, I do not think I am”
Great!!
She also writes about the oversight of the Federal Reserve Bank, actually it is a private corporation owned by banks, the Congress gave them the authority to create money out of thin air (no gold back up, no back up of any kind) and they have been doing so for many years, it is not money that belongs to you and me, it is new money, lately they have been buying all kinds of paper and printing money into the system, we will finish with a very strong inflation. It does not look like the American Constitution gives Congress the authority to create money.
Art
Mr Curt ,
As you were offering your critique of Pam’s essay and were able to make the correction for us as to how Hitler actually became chancellor, stating that he was not elected but that the position was handed to him on a silver platter by Paul von Hindenburg. I believe that fact makes for a more compelling comparison as to how Hitler’s rise to power parallels our present president’s very swift trip to the white house. I have in no way been convinced that our president was elected either. But that’s speculative now isn’t it? Another very interesting commonality between Hitler and Obama is the fact that neither were/are native sons of the respective countries that either came to govern. Very seldom are tyrants elected by way of fair elections, and if the citizens of America don’t feel as though the face of this nation is being badly scarred then perhaps it is a waste of energy to sound the alarm. I personally don’t think so. Given the message Pam was sharing, really the small historical inaccuracy written concern ing how Hitler gained power is minutia when historically all that matters is that he did come to possess it. Let us not forget that not only does our present political climate bear resemblance to that of Germany’s of the 1930″s , but also that Hitler’s rise up and into the second world war was bankrolled by Wall Street financiers as well as British. Many of those operations thrive to day and in a gross twist of irony are financing the destruction of America and much of the western world to apparently make way for, wouldn’t you know it ; “The Final Solution”. I think that I am going spend my energies attempting to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America because with out it I really don’t want to be around lickin’ my masters boots or scanning blogs for historical inaccurracies.
Shooty
More fear-based garbage that distracts us from real issues. The historical mistakes made by the historian makes it clear that this is not authored by anyone who knows anything, but is an opinion piece with falsified credentials. But Sarah P gets more than her share of mentions, doesn’t she?
Does looking for conspiracies and laying blame feel more comfortable to you than facing America’s problems head on and deciding what solution you support, then doing something to help make it a reality?
“You will never see the same nation again.” As what? A fifties version that was destroyed years ago? The turbulent sixties? The “give me more” years? The America where skin color determined whether you could vote? Or the one where women couldn’t vote?
There is constant change, some of it progress. Some of it is not. The erosion of our right to privacy under the Bush administration and the cementing of the link between corporate and government officials that continues even in the new administration is, to me, far more disturbing than the things I’m betting this fearmonger means.
This country needs reform. I agree. But hysteria will not lead to constructive change.
Get off the couch, turn off your TV and radio and start thinking. Talk to others and HEAR them. Then decide what YOU want America to be like.
This is a vaguely veiled Sarah Palin campaign effort. If you think SHE would make this country better, ask yourself “for whom?”
http://everydaypeopleproject.blogspot.com
okay, everyday, tell us who WOULD make this country better, if not Sarah? We’ve seen what liberaliam/socialism does. Show me any conservative leader, then, who is better than Sarah. Or, is it just more Palin Derangement Syndrome? I think it is the latter, since you have no facts, simply opinion. I asked myself, for whom would she make it better, and I agree, it won’t be for all.
It will be worse for illegals.
It will be worse for deadbeats.
It will be worse for those who aren’t willing to take care of themselves and instead insist on living off the public largess.
Those all sound like improvements, or progress, as you call it.
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Ms Geller where were you the last 8 (eight) years when the Bush administration took us down this path to economic ruin spending billions of dollars and wasting countless lives. People like you always seem to have complaints but no answer and I guess you going to fall back on the old reply the Congress is controlled by the Democratic majority do the math they have a majority but not enough votes to override a Presidential Veto…but I do agree with alot of your points just come up with some answers …Health Care needs reforming Obama’s plan may not be the best but it is a start how many example do we need that the cost of health care is out of control just look at any health bill for someone having surgery $25 dollars for a disposable razor to shave you for surgery that’s just one example…come on look at the facts
” You have a forum come up with some solutions please…don’t just make comments that only accomplish one thing that is to divide this country when we should all be coming together like you mentioned regardless of your political affiliation”
skytrooper-
Sure, blame Bush for not vetoing what the Dems spent. Just how lame is that? Though, before that, the Republicans had control, and should be blamed. Except for that pesky RINO thing, where they couldn’t get their fifty one vote majority through most of the time because of the RINO Republicans Snowe, Collins, et al., which should tell you the LIBERALS, whether they carried an R or a D after their name, were actually in charge, and it’s the LIBERALS, regardless of the R or D, that did the spending, and yes, that also means Bush. But, you can’t blame him for not vetoing bills that would have shut the country down if he had. The Dems knew this, and that’s why every bill they want passed was stuck onto another bill that the Republicans couldn’t veto. I think you know this, and are just being disengenous in order to once again Bash Bush, that favorite trademark of the left. Get over it, he’s gone, and we didn’t like him either, he was just better than the Socialist party.
And if you think they aren’t Socialists now, then you must be a Socialist.
What you don’t get is that just doing ANYTHING is not better than doing nothing. For instance, you’re standing precariously on top of a flagpole. Doing nothing extremely well until you’re rescued sounds like a plausible course, yet you guys would just call that the “party of no”. Yes, healthcare needs to be reformed, and the biggest problem with it is A)Insurance companies are no longer able to be regulated by the Government, causing the lawsuit lottery by funding it, and B) the lawyers are able to, hand in hand with the insurance companies, settle cases and drive up lawsuit awards to the point of creating the costs in the first place.
The Republicans have tried to reform this process many times, yet the Dems always said no. Now, YOU explain how they aren’t to blame for this mess, since it’s always liberal policies like this that drive up costs. You explain how we stop spending billions on medical care for illegals unless we are able to deport them, and not let them break out system. And please, no solutions that just print money, our dollar has taken enough of a beating over the last hundred years, losing almost %95 of it’s purchasing power.
I’ve also recognized the totality of the “very large gemstone” and that it consists of several “facets”, and that each facet is discussed and debated individually but ALMOST no one has pulled them together to reveal the upcoming tsunami. It is born and nurtured by creeping socialism, the ‘need’ for something morphing into ‘the right’ to have it, the loss of the ideals that originally created the best standard of living in the world, and the political lust for power.
Obama became a Marxist in his late teens. He learned an effective methodology for gaining eventual control from one of his heroes, Saul Alinsky (google him). As mentioned, his associations can be individually shrugged off but collectively reveal what’s in his heart and mind. He has a quiet loyalty to Islam. Useful idiots (Pam’s head-in-the-sand latte drinkers) are suckers for euphemistic titles and descriptions of his past and present goals. His version of ‘Community Organizer’ sounds almost charitable, not the nail by nail coffin of socialism that it actually is. Remember, besides being a lawyer for ACORN he also trained members how to get what they want. He knows how to harness the ever-increasing entitlement mentality of the last few decades and the corresponding decline of a sense of individual self-sufficiency. Mix in his narcissism and his intellect and his skill with deception and his incredible charismatic salesmanship and you’ve got a bad part of world history about to repeat itself.
Worst of all is the gradual demise of the most successful and benevolent system of government ever, the one created by the American founding fathers. Perhaps counter-intuitively it provided for its people in the wisest way by incentivising work and achievement and guaranteeing the right to own the rewards. It was built with almost impenetrable defenses (the entire goal of the constitution) but enough holes have been chopped in its armor to allow piece-at-a-time dismantling, under the radar screen of too many unconcerned people. The paradox- the country became the greatest in the world but through comfortable complacency people are losing sight of how it got that way and are allowing the engine to change its course while ignoring the warnings of history.
It is truly heartwarming and mildly comforting to see the recent public activism that has sprung up within the last few months. America still has a beating heart. But that doesn’t mean all will be well soon. I am truly worried about anything Obama pushes through that could become irreversible, even if Repubs gain enough power to block any more of it and maybe cancel some of what’s already passed. He knows he HAS to quickly get obamacare in place before the country wakes up sufficiently enough to block it. This one would be very hard to undo, especially once enough people have turned into government dependents.
‘Change’ can go in either direction. A need for improvement doesn’t validate worsening any situation.
I am open to any technical corrections. The conceptual and philosophical points are as solid as gravity.
Bill
What I see in Pams work is simply racisim, for the past eight years the U.S. has had faild bush’s politics, and we need a leader to pull us out of the mess that bush put us in, and that leader is Obama.
To compair Obama to hitler is very unfair.
Really? So you called Bush (and every other person on the right you hated) Hitler for eight years, all of them white, but THAT wasn’t racism, yet someone (not everyone, as in the lunatic left of the Bush years) dares to compare Socialism with Socialism, Statism with Statism, Centralized Authoritarian Rule with Centralized Authoritarian Rule (you’re right, there’s NO comparison there), and suddenly, instead of just being, say, wrong, it’s RACISM? You’re either an Obama puppet in here tossing the race card, or someone who has no idea what the argument is about, much less how to have one.
len9mm,
I’m guessing the purpose of your post is only to make a few unsupported claims just to see how many people respond. Pretty much fun I guess, for a certain kind of person. If you can’t provide any support for the racism charge, and if you can’t provide an analysis of why the Bush years failed, and if you can’t provide any reasons to support Obama’s direction, you are moot. The comparison between Obama and Hitler is correct in paralleling the intention and skill in garnering govt control but is incorrect in the intention to bulldoze other neighboring nations.
Bill