| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
07 Jan 2005 06:26:25 AM |
| Object: |
Rise of the Christian Right |
From The New York Times, 1/6/05:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/nyregion/06profile.html
Warning From a Student of Democracy's Collapse
By CHRIS HEDGES
PRINCETON, N.J.
FRITZ STERN, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a leading scholar of
European history, startled several of his listeners when he warned in
a speech about the danger posed in this country by the rise of the
Christian right.
In his address in November, just after he received a prize presented
by the German foreign minister, he told his audience that Hitler saw
himself as "the instrument of providence" and fused his "racial dogma
with a Germanic Christianity."
"Some people recognized the moral perils of mixing religion and
politics," he said of prewar Germany, "but many more were seduced by
it. It was the pseudo-religious transfiguration of politics that
largely ensured his success, notably in Protestant areas."
Dr. Stern's speech, given during a ceremony at which he got the prize
from the Leo Baeck Institute, a center focused on German Jewish
history, was certainly provocative.
The fascism of Nazi Germany belongs to a world so horrendous it often
seems to defy the possibility of repetition or analogy.
But Dr. Stern, 78, the author of books like "The Politics of Cultural
Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology" and university
professor emeritus at Columbia University, has devoted a lifetime to
analyzing how the Nazi barbarity became possible.
He stops short of calling the Christian right fascist but his decision
to draw parallels, especially in the uses of propaganda, was
controversial.
"When I saw the speech my eyes lit up," said John R. MacArthur, whose
book "Second Front" examines wartime propaganda.
"The comparison between the propagandistic manipulation and uses of
Christianity, then and now, is hidden in plain sight. No one will talk
about it. No one wants to look at it."
Dr. Stern was a schoolboy in 1933 when Hitler was appointed the German
chancellor.
He ran home from school that January afternoon clutching a special
edition of the newspaper to deliver to his father, a prominent
physician.
"I was young," he said, "but I knew it was very bad news."
The street fighting in his native Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland)
between Communists and Nazis, the collapse of German democracy and the
ruthless suppression of all opposition marked his childhood, and were
images and experiences that would propel him forward as a scholar.
"I saw one of the last public demonstrations against Hitler," he said.
"Men, women and children walked through the street and chanted
'Hunger! Hunger! Hunger!' "
His paternal grandparents had converted to Christianity.
His parents were baptized at birth, as were Mr. Stern and his older
sister.
But this did not save the Sterns from persecution.
Nazi racial laws still classified them as Jews.
"It was only Nazi anti-Semitism that made me conscious of my Jewish
heritage," he said.
"I had been brought up in a secular Christian fashion, celebrating
Christmas and Easter. My father had to explain it to me."
His schoolmates were swiftly recruited into Hitler youth groups and he
and other Jews were taunted and excluded from some activities.
"Many of my classmates found the organized party experience, which
included a heavy dose of flag waving and talk of national strength,
very exhilarating," said Dr. Stern, who lost an aunt and an uncle in
the Holocaust.
"It was something I never forgot."
His family fled to New York in 1938 when he was 12.
He eventually went to Columbia University intending to study medicine.
But his passion for the past, along with questions about what happened
to his homeland, caused him to switch his focus to history.
He wanted to grasp how democracies disintegrate.
He wanted to uncover the warning signs other democracies should heed.
He wanted to write about the seductiveness of authoritarian movements,
which he once described in an essay, "National Socialism as
Temptation."
"There was a longing in Europe for fascism before the name was ever
invented," he said.
"There was a longing for a new authoritarianism with some kind of
religious orientation and above all a greater communal belongingness.
There are some similarities in the mood then and the mood now,
although also significant differences."
HE warns of the danger in an open society of "mass manipulation of
public opinion, often mixed with mendacity and forms of intimidation."
He is a passionate defender of liberalism as "manifested in the spirit
of the Enlightenment and the early years of the American republic."
"The radical right and the radical left see liberalism's appeal to
reason and tolerance as the denial of their uniform ideology," he
said.
"Every democracy needs a liberal fundament, a Bill of Rights enshrined
in law and spirit, for this alone gives democracy the chance for
self-correction and reform. Without it, the survival of democracy is
at risk. Every genuine conservative knows this."
Dr. Stern, who has two children from a previous marriage, is married
to Elizabeth Sifton, a book publisher.
They live in New York.
He is writing a book called "Five Germanys I Have Known," a
combination of memoirs and reflections that looks at Weimar, Nazi
Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, East Germany and unified
Germany.
He is widely read in Germany and has won its highest literary prize.
"The Jews in Central Europe welcomed the Russian Revolution," he said,
"but it ended badly for them. The tacit alliance between the neo-cons
and the Christian right is less easily understood. I can imagine a
similarly disillusioning outcome."
___________________________________________________________
"What luck for rulers that men do not think."
Adolf Hitler
"Who says I am not under the special protection of God?"
Adolf Hitler
"The intelligence of the masses is small, their forgetfulness is
great. They must be told the same thing a thousand times."
Adolf Hitler
"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be
believed, for the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their
hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and
intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders
them a more easy prey to a big lie than to a small one, for they
themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell big
ones."
Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf"
Harry
---
Stop Elmer Fudd web site: http://www.ElmerFudd.US/
Covert text file server: http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
"And by the way - about the name you keep calling us -- "rightards". Very
nice of your liberal sorry fucked up ***** to come up with a name that debases
mentally disabled persons." -- Charlie Wolf
.
|
|
| User: "The Last Liberal" |
|
| Title: Re: Rise of the Christian Right |
07 Jan 2005 03:40:59 PM |
|
|
On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 06:26:25 GMT, FRice@SkepticTank.ORGREMOVE
(Fredric L. Rice) wrote:
From The New York Times, 1/6/05:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/nyregion/06profile.html
Warning From a Student of Democracy's Collapse
By CHRIS HEDGES
PRINCETON, N.J.
FRITZ STERN, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a leading scholar of
European history, startled several of his listeners when he warned in
a speech about the danger posed in this country by the rise of the
Christian right.
I cannot see how that would "startle" anyone. The paralleles
between Hitler and Bush2 are obvious; the parallels between the
Nationalist Socialist Party and the Republican Party is obvious.
---
http://lastliberal.org
"Forensic geology: it pays to know your schist" -- Marty Leipzig
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fredric L. Rice" |
|
| Title: Re: Rise of the Christian Right |
07 Jan 2005 05:49:22 PM |
|
|
(The Last Liberal) wrote:
On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 06:26:25 GMT, FRice@SkepticTank.ORGREMOVE
(Fredric L. Rice) wrote:
From The New York Times, 1/6/05:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/nyregion/06profile.html
Warning From a Student of Democracy's Collapse
By CHRIS HEDGES PRINCETON, N.J.
FRITZ STERN, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a leading scholar of
European history, startled several of his listeners when he warned in
a speech about the danger posed in this country by the rise of the
Christian right.
I cannot see how that would "startle" anyone. The paralleles
between Hitler and Bush2 are obvious; the parallels between the
Nationalist Socialist Party and the Republican Party is obvious.
What was startleing was that someone who experienced first hand what
the first round of fascism means had the guts to speak up and tell the
truth about Bush's fascist regime.
---
Stop Elmer Fudd web site: http://www.ElmerFudd.US/
Covert text file server: http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
"And by the way - about the name you keep calling us -- "rightards". Very
nice of your liberal sorry fucked up ***** to come up with a name that debases
mentally disabled persons." -- Charlie Wolf
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "Jez" |
|
| Title: Re: Rise of the Christian Right |
07 Jan 2005 06:29:13 PM |
|
|
The Last Liberal wrote:
On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 06:26:25 GMT, FRice@SkepticTank.ORGREMOVE
(Fredric L. Rice) wrote:
From The New York Times, 1/6/05:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/nyregion/06profile.html
Warning From a Student of Democracy's Collapse
By CHRIS HEDGES
PRINCETON, N.J.
FRITZ STERN, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a leading scholar of
European history, startled several of his listeners when he warned in
a speech about the danger posed in this country by the rise of the
Christian right.
I cannot see how that would "startle" anyone. The paralleles
between Hitler and Bush2 are obvious; the parallels between the
Nationalist Socialist Party and the Republican Party is obvious.
Considering the Bush familys support for Hitler in the past...who's
surprised..
--
Jez
'Realism is seductive because once you have accepted the reasonable
notion that you should base your actions on reality, you are too often
led to accept, without much questioning, someone else's version of what
that reality is. It is a crucial act of independent thinking to be
skeptical of someone else's description of reality.'-
Howard Zinn
NFS Underground2, Americas Army And MOH-PA
yahoo ID: hellward2004
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
