Benito Mussolini, a great and terrible leader, struck fear into the hearts of the Italian people and divided them into classes in order to obtain more control over the population. In order for him to carry out a successful dictatorship, he needed to gain the support and control of many different groups, which included the Catholic Church, Industrialists, etc. It was extremely vital for Mussoni to gain the support of these various groups. They were, in a way, his ticket into power. In order to do this, he used many manipulative methods and techniques. He gave members of the National Fascist Party titles, that made them feel like they were higher and more powerful than the rest of the people. This was only one of the ways that he gained support from a political party. Another of the most striking and crucial ways that Mussolini gained support from the National Fascist Party was to order the death of a Socialist politician, due to his remarks against Mussolini. This man was named Giacomo Matteotti. Following the order, Matteotti was then murdered by a group of Fascists. Because of the fear of death that Mussonlini had struck in the people, he was able to gain tyrannical control of Italy and it's people. To put this into perspective, if our President today were to line up people like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, etc., and order a firing squad because of their remarks against him, would it not make most people fearful of speaking out against him? Just as it happened in Italy, the use of class conflict, fear, and extreme examples are creating an environment today in which the government of the United States can increase its power, and decrease our individual liberties. Examples from history show not only what our government is doing to take away our rights, but also how they are creating an environment in which they can take control.
Let us begin with fear, and how it has been (and is being) used to influence our liberty. This year, in his State of the Union address, President Obama stated that many of the people of America had known a time when jobs were easier to get. According to him,
“That world has changed. And for many, the change has been painful. I've seen it in the shuttered windows of once booming factories, and the vacant storefronts on once busy Main Streets. I've heard it in the frustrations of Americans who've seen their paychecks dwindle or their jobs disappear -- proud men and women who feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game...”
Obama also gave a speech recently on how he was planning on reducing the deficit. He stated in that speech that the people of the United States have a vision of a pessimistic America. A vision of an America in which, according to him, we cannot “win the future.” This goal of winning the future was one that he stressed and encouraged in his State of the Union address. Our President then went on to intimidate us more. He said:
“Ultimately, all this rising debt will cost us jobs and damage our economy. It will prevent us from making the investments we need to win the future. We won't be able to afford good schools, new research, or the repair of roads and bridges - all the things that will create new jobs and businesses here in America. Businesses will be less likely to invest and open up shop in a country that seems unwilling or unable to balance its books. And if our creditors start worrying that we may be unable to pay back our debts, it could drive up interest rates for everyone who borrows money - making it harder for businesses to expand and hire, or families to take out a mortgage."
He is telling the people of America that all the debt that we are in will cost us jobs, and it will hurt our economy. Our debt to places like China and Brazil rise every day because of the many welfare programs we fund. We are not going to be able to use much of our government funding to pay for education, research, and repair. This is a fact, and it
does scare us. But what frightens me even more than this, is the fact that our government is using that unnerving situation to obtain more power. Let me explain to you exactly how this will be done.
There are often only a few ways that someone will obey a request. Typically, it's either out of fear (whether it be fear of death, failure, etc.) or because of a true desire to do the thing that has been requested. In almost every cultural form, there are different peer groups. In classrooms, governments, families, or other social groups, there is often an authority figure - teachers, parents, or presidents. Pay attention to these different forms. Let's take the classroom for example. The teacher is the authority, and the student is asked to turn in an assignment on a certain date. In any public school system, the fear of failing the class is always present, and often that will be what keeps a student from procrastinating his work. The simple suggestion that you might get a bad grade scares the student to do the work that was assigned to him. Our government is similarly using the fear that unless we spread the wealth and increase taxation on the wealthy and productive, the economy will ultimately fail. During Obama's presidential campaign in 2008, he once said,
"My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re gonna be better off if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you, and right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."
The man who now runs the executive branch of our government was already using this technique of creating fear to scare the people into accepting his proposals. He had already started to create an environment to decrease our individual liberty and increase government power before he was even elected. This is but one of the ways that those in authority in our country are gaining more power and taking our liberties and rights away.
To further illustrate how extreme examples and fear are being used by our political leaders, I remind you of the threat of a government shutdown in early April of this year. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, spoke about how a government shutdown would be like “throwing women and children under the bus.” He declared that..
“Republicans want to shut down the government because they think there is nothing more important than keeping women from getting cancer screenings? That is indefensible, and everyone should be outraged … The consequences of letting our country’s funding expire would be devastating. It would be devastating to our troops, to our small businesses and to Americans’ everyday lives – people who just want to get a home loan or get their tax refund or get their paycheck. It would damage our image and credibility around the world … But Republicans are asking me to sacrifice my wife’s health, my daughter’s health and my nine granddaughters’ health. They’re asking me to sacrifice the health of women in Nevada and across America. I won’t do it.”
In the simplest of terms, Reid is trying to scare us, making us think that if they shut down the government, that women and children won’t be able to get the medical treatment they need. He’s using fear. He’s also using extreme examples, saying that we're sacrificing his wife's health, his daughter's health, and any other woman who need cancer screenings.
Class conflict is another technique used by a government to gain control over the people. This technique is used most in Communist and Fascist governments. One of the most recognizable forms of class conflict is the persecution of the Jews in Germany under the Nazi power. Adolf Hitler used the conflict of class to create fear among the Jews specifically and among the German people in general. He also fabricated extreme and frightening examples about the Jews that would eventually bring the German people to never question his statements. At the funeral of Gustloff Schwerin, in February of 1936, Hitler delivered a speech that shows us just that.
“...Behind every murder stood the same power which is responsible for this murder; behind these harmless insignificant fellow-countrymen who were instigated and incited to crime stands the hate-filled power of our Jewish foe, a foe to whom we had done no harm, but who non the less sought to subjugate our German people and make of it its slave - the foe who is responsible for all the misfortune that fell upon us in 1918, for all the misfortune which plagued Germany in the years that followed ... So our comrade has fallen a victim to that power which wages a fanatical warfare not only against our German people but against every free, autonomous, and independent people. We understand the challenge to battle and take up the gage! My dear comrade! You have not fallen in vain!”
In this speech, he was specifically demonizing the Jewish people, which led to the murder of millions of their religion. But this was not the only way he created class warfare. Hitler took it to an extreme level, distinguishing the Jews as an “alien race”, separate from the German or Aryan race. He said that
“the greatest achievement in intellectual life can never be produced by those of alien race but only by those who are inspired by the Aryan or German spirit.”
As you can clearly see, Hitler used many events to make the Jews look like the enemy class. He used the death of an officer to begin a hatred in the Nazi party for the Jews; a hatred that would allow him to take over many parts of Europe, and kill millions of Jewish people in brutal ways. And he also used the simple existence of a religion in his country to demonize a people. This was his technique that he used to gain so much power and murder so many people.
Another example of a government that took control of the people was the government of China, during the Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao, or Mao Tse Tung used class conflict to control the people of China and gain power. He convinced the people that
“Changes in society are due chiefly to the development of the internal contradictions in society, that is, the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, the contradiction between classes and the contradiction between the old and the new...”
Mao believed that the only way for a nation to last is if there were constant changes in society, which, he imagined, would help the Chinese government stay away from contradiction between classes. He adorned this principle, and proceeded to set everyone apart from each other, creating enemies and allies among the people. This was one of the key principles of the cultural revolution in China. In his own words,
“[China's] enemies are all those in league with imperialism - the warlords, the bureaucrats, the comprador class, the big Landlord class and the reactionary section of the intelligentsia attached to them. The leading force in our revolution is the industrial proletariat. Our closest friends are the entire semi-proletariat and petty bourgeoisie.“
As you can see, Mao was creating class warfare or conflict, classifying certain groups of people as enemies and certain as friends. But this is not the only way that you can produce conflict of class.
One way that socialist governments remain prominent is by taking more money from the rich, or those that are more productive, and give it to the poor and less productive, creating a “fair” system. This is supposed to make it so that everyone has the same amount, expanding a middle class and destroying both poverty and the rich elite. This is what Obama is doing today. He
"calls for limiting itemized deductions for the wealthiest 2% of Americans - a reform that would reduce the deficit by $320 billion over ten years." He then states that in order
“to reduce the deficit, I believe we should go further. That's why I'm calling on Congress to reform our individual tax code so that it is fair and simple ... I believe reform should protect the middle class..” He then proceeded to say that,
“at a time when the tax burden on the wealthy is at its lowest level in half a century, the most fortunate among us can afford to pay a little more."
This is our President's proposed way of reducing our deficit. By taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor; creating a middle class; creating an “equal” system, in which everyone gets their fair amount. In simpler terms, he proposes that because someone is more productive than another, the government then has the right to steal from them! The $320 billion that he says would reduce the deficit over the next ten years would only cover about 0.003% of the expected budget deficit over that ten year period, if it ever materializes.
Last month, in response to Obama's recent plans to reduce our national debt by taxing the wealthy in order to make sure there is an equal outcome, Mark Levin, a conservative talk-show host, said this:
“...The Government never has the authority to be tyrannical. It never has the authority to seize your property illegitimately… We all have an equal right, an unalienable right as they wrote in the Declaration, to pursue happiness. And that especially involves the pursuit of property and wealth … Now, we do not have a right to equal results and outcomes ... We do not have a right to make demands on the labor and property and wealth of another individual. For that individual also has unalienable rights ... These rights are god-given, natural rights. No man, no government, has the authority to die them or destroy them. That is not to say that we, as a community or a civil society, ought not to look out for our fellow men … Most of us don't mind being taxed at a rational level, to help take care of those who're truly incapable of survival … But that's different than redistributing the wealth. That's different than spreading the wealth. That's different than Class Warfare!”
In relation to this quote, I would like to mention a discussion that I took part in a week ago, during which someone in the group shared an analogy. She talked about how, when you take a drug to relieve pain or sickness, it only provides temporary alleviation. Eventually the pain or sickness returns, and the patient needs another “fix.” She compared this to our government's interference in the revolutions in the Middle East. They step in and try to fix a problem, and it may work, temporarily. But once we withdraw, the problem resumes, and is, at best,in the same condition as it was before. We can relate this to spreading the wealth, and creating “fair” systems in which we're trying to level out the playing field. The government is stepping in on a problem that is not theirs to solve. In the Proper Role of Government, Ezra Taft Benson comments on this.
“On the surface, this [the government withholding assistance] may sound heartless and insensitive to the needs of those less fortunate individuals who are found in any society, no matter how affluent. ‘What about the lame, the sick and the destitute?’ Is an often-voiced question. Most other countries in the world have attempted to use the power of government to meet this need. Yet, in every case, the improvement has been marginal at best and has resulted in the long run creating more misery, more poverty, and certainly less freedom than when government first stepped in.”
We don't need to use the power of government to help those in need. It's our responsibility as the people of this world to take care of one another. We should, as the great American people, offer our services to "the lame, the sick, and the destitute." It never should be, and never will be the government's responsibility to force their help upon the people or to mandate that others extend help. It is not their duty to fix our problems temporarily. But it is ours to learn from our mistakes and come out stronger than ever before. C.S. Lewis once said, “experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn. My god, do you learn.”
In reference to the previous analogy, if a sick country tries to heal itself, there are only two ways it can end. That country can become healthy again, and more immune to the sickness, because it has learned how to fight it off itself – it knows what to do now that it has defeated the enemy – or that country will die. Again, this may sound heartless, but it is not the government's responsibility to save everyone and everything from death. That country has lost. Those people have lost because they chose to not fight continually for their freedom and work to to keep a truly great country from dying. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.“
Let me call your mind back to the speech that was given by Hitler at the funeral of Gustloff, where he demonized the Jewish people, which resulted in a crisis unlike any that we had seen for years. Who are the people now, that socialist and liberal politicians are demonizing? Who are they trying to get us to hate? The rich and the successful, highly productive corporations, and bankers. Why? Because they believe that everything should be under and dependent on government control. They believe that the rich should give their money to the government for their use; for anything that they “care about.”
Just as Mussolini did, our own governing leaders are trying to increase government power by making people dependent on the government for their well-being. They is trying to create equal results, not equal opportunities. Because they play upon fear, because they use extreme examples and methods, and because they create class conflict in our nation, they are creating an environment, just as Hitler, just as Mao, just as Mussolini, to take over and take away our rights.
In the early days of the United States, George Washington stated,
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”
Let us, the people of the United States, be wary of the several techniques that the governments of the past have used and the government of the present are using, so that we can defend and preserve our rights and
freedom.
