Tags: Are We Living in the Last Days (of America)?
On his podcast, Lew Rockwell conducts a fascinating interview with feminist and progressive author Naomi Wolf, whose latest book is called The End of America.
“It is really painful to wake up to the fact that the free-press that you thought was working adequately is wholly owned, and your republic that you thought was at least minimally limping along is largely being run by puppet masters. How do people deal with that?” - Naomi Wolf
This interview just may prove to be a watershed moment in the freedom movement. The libertarian left and the libertarian right are discovering that they have a common cause to rally around. What’s really interesting is that you can hear Wolf putting pieces of the puzzle together as the interview goes on. She begins to see why the libertarian right is against the Department of Education, and she also learns from Rockwell about the Federal Reserve and the how its manipulation of the money supply is just as ominous as some of the other examples in her book.
Check out the podcast here: America’s Slow-Motion Fascist Coup.
Wolf’s book has been put into movie form and posted on the web (watch the documentary The End of America for free online). I watched it last night and the only way to describe it is “chilling.” She lays out the 10 steps to close a society and how systematically, these things are happening, all the while we go along thinking that we still live in a free society. I don’t agree with everything in the movie, but I think that everyone should watch it, along with Aaron Russo’s America: Freedom to Fascism documentary (also available to watch on the web). Incidentally, I don’t agree with everything in either video. But there’s enough there in both of them to make me concerned about the future. Russo’s documentary spends a chunk of the time asking the question: “is there a law that says you have to pay an income tax”, and the whole point is that you can’t ask questions, you can’t get an answer, the answer is we have the guns and we say you have to do it. There is no redress of grievances. The first amendment only seems to apply if you register for a permit to protest in the free-speech zone. Laws don’t mean anything anymore. Wolf’s documentary points out the President ignores the law with his “signing statements.”
I have friends who are way to the right conservative and friends who are way to the left liberal. You’ve got to turn that off and see some of this from the outside. That’s why it’s interesting that you have this left-right convergence going on right now with these issues. And Wolf was writing, pschologically, when some of this is revealed to you, it is difficult to accept. This can’t be true.
If you do nothing, at least watch the trailer for The End of America:
And then watch the trailer for America: Freedom to Fascism:
trying to follow Christ, husband of Jamie, father of Anna, a senior designer who does web and print work, an alumnus of the University of Alabama, interested in the emerging church, a Mac fan, a Camp Sumatanga junkie, a program coordinator for high school camps in the United Methodist Church, a music snob, a budding oenophile, too busy to update his resume/portfolio, debt-free*, a geek
Nov 14th 2008
Hey Winston,
My dad watched this, too and had the following to say:
I wanted to be sure I had time to watch it carefully and think about it. The “Bush” administration has not done anything that previous administrations have not done. They are giving Bush too much credit for creativity.
A few observations:
1. The Espionage Act of 1917 passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who was concerned that dissent, in time of war, was a significant threat to morale. Congress repealed the Sedition Act on December 13, 1920.[1] [2] The repeal of the Sedition Act was the apparent result of its many abuses during World War I, including actions by the Wilson administration and the postmaster general.
2.World War II saw Japanese Americans sent to camps by FDR as an effort to protect America. In hindsight, not an act that was in the American spirit of freedom, but justified in a best effort to protect America. Right, wrong ? Not right, but understandable. It was undone and apologies made.
3. Eisenhower sent the US Army to Little Rock, AR in 1957 to enforce integration. Constitutional, probably not. Justified yes.
4. President Johnson with the approval of Congress literally started the Viet Nam War out of genuine fear of Communist domination of southeast Asia. Right, wrong? In hindsight probably right, but like Iraq, poorly executed.
5. Under President Carter, the “Fairness Doctrine” was signed into law which required any public broadcasts on public air waves to have a balance of views presented on each program. Result, no talk radio left or right. In 1987, under Reagan, the law was repealed. Result, talk radio flourished with any point of view that could sell advertising.
The book and video were one sided and super critical of Bush. I believe he did, as Presidents and Congress before him, what he thought was necessary to protect America. And he has. Most of the abuses of law cited in the video were taken up by the Supreme Court and ruled constitutional. Congress chose not to deal with many of the issues. I think the system worked fairly well. Anecdotal incidences of apparent abuse were shown, but there were not thousands of abuses like those portrayed in Chile, Germany, Italy, etc. An exaggeration of the extent of mistakes made.
I think the most important element of our “American Experiment” is the first amendment - Freedom of speech. As long as left, right, up, down points of view and the information, favorable or unfavorable to the government, is available, our system and country will endure. Be very concerned when that freedom of information is compromised or limited beyond slander.
Hold the next administration to the same standards as the last and the system will correct itself.