Fosbery
Member
Happily coinciding with the "Britains doomed" topic, comes this article from an 18 year old British college student:
http://cynlib.blogspot.com/2007/02/treblinka.html
http://cynlib.blogspot.com/2007/02/treblinka.html
http://cynlib.blogspot.com/2007/02/treblinka.html said:Sunday, February 04, 2007
Treblinka
"[Treblinka's* effectiveness was due to] the moral disarmament of the victim by means of skillful doses of panic and uncertainty. This disarmament forced the victim to make a certain number of minor concessions which led to others, which in turn brought him to a third stage, and so forth, until he recieved a bullet in the back of the neck with head bowed and hands joined in total submission."
- from Treblinka (1967), by Jean-Francois Steiner, p.44.
*Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in Poland during World War Two. Over 780,000 unarmed victims were murdered there.
It occurs to me that we are living in our very own, modern day Treblinka. The camp is larger, the barbed wire is not so visible, the watchtowers are somewhat disguised and the guards tell us we are not in a camp, but we know it to be true. "Skillful doses of panic and uncertainty," are exactly what we are being subjected to today.
This panic arises from politically fuelled, kneejerk media squawking such as the outcry for a total handgun ban after the Dunblane murders (against the reccomendations of the official report and despite the fact that the perpetrator had already broken a dozen laws, gun related and otherwise). When people are in a state of panic they find themselves unable to make rational, carefully considered decisions and will accept virtually any alternative to that of choice. It is hard to decide on things when panicking, much easier to be cajoled or even herded in a particular direction and to allow others to do the decision making for you. All you need do is give the slightest incline of your head, the slightest murmer of a "Yes..." and just like that, the opressor has won. He has taken away your ability to think freely, to object, to take responsibility and to act independantly. He has forced you to rely upon him, upon the state, upon the government to solve your problems, even imaginary ones that he himself has inserted into your consciousness, and to accept his decisions unquestioningly.
With the aid of panic, a person may be made to accept individual concessions, each succesive dose of panic furthering the acceptance that the next concession will be in his best interests, or at least not contrary to them to such a degree as that resistance would become necessary. However, if he is certain of the eventual outcome and if he is not so far down the road that this outcome seems desirable, he will refuse. He will fight and he will resist, even if he knows it means death, man's spirit of resistence, of survival, is so powerful that a man would rather fight and die than dig his own grave and this terrifies dictators everywhere. Therefore, it is necessary for them to create an atmosphere of uncertainty.
This uncertainty comes by way of secrecy, disambiguity, decieftfullness and undemocratic legislating such as the current mystery over Blair's exit date (despite repeted demands from his own party and from the great mass of the people whom he is meant to serve that he should set a date) or the gradual introduction of increasingly draconian and Orwellian legislation such as DNA databases, unwarranted searches and gun control, all without any genuine public consultation - the average man on the street one day hears that CCTV cameras will be watching him twenty four hours a day, and accepts this. He had no part or say in that decision, he was not even aware of it until it was too late. On the rare occasion that he is aware, he is either fooled into agreeing with it, or he has no interest in it, or he lacks the will to fight against it and when it inevitably passes into law he accepts it as gospel and refuses to be branded a 'criminal' for remaining free.
"A voice murmured, "Let's run away." But other voices answered "Where to? Wait and see! There will always be time later." Nobody wanted to revolt. You don't revolt against the unknown."
- from Treblinka (1967), by Jean-Francois Steiner, p.22.
It is by these means that we have found ourselves in a concentration camp, a police state, a dictatorship, whatever you want to call it. Look around next time you walk around town, notice the police, the red-shirted 'street wardens', the cameras (disguised as streetlights, they're often hard to spot). Think about the ability of the people you see around you to resist tyranny. If police arrested a man in the street, would you question it? If you were certain that the police had no right or reason to arrest him, would you resist? Fight? Would he? What if he was beaten? Could you or the people around you, even a number of people combined, help that man? Could you defeat those policemen and those that they radioed in, or are they armed when you are not, trained when you have not been, with will and power where you have none? What happens when they come for you?
"When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me... and there was nobody left to be concerned."
- from Congressional Record (October 14, 1968), p.31636 by Pastor Martin Niemöller
Do not kid yourself into the belief that these "minor concessions" bring any measure of security, that they bring anything but submission, a legitimisation of government terror, a green light for tyranny and a useful tool in the complete domination of society by the ruling, party elite.
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
- Attr' Benjamin Franklin, from An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania (1759), by Richard Jackson, p.01
Do not try to believe that things will change, that they will get better, that things are not heading where they obviously are. That bullet in the back of the neck is not so far away as you might think. Things are not quite too late however, in August of 1943, the prisoners in the work details of Treblinka rebelled. They seized small arms from the guards, sprayed kerosene on all the buildings and set them ablaze. In the confusion, many German soldiers were killed. Right now, do your bit. Buy a gun, train with it, refuse to cooperate with the authorities, write letters to your supposed representetives and to the media, constantly excercise your freedom and flex your free thinking muscles every day. Constantly question, refuse to be blinded by fear, panic or supposed uncertainty.
Of 1,500 prisoners, there were only 40 known survivers of the revolt. They waited too late, but at least they died free, instead of on their knees. If they had prepared in advance, if they had seen things for what they really were, if they had never handed over their weapons to the Nazis, if, instead, they had armed and trained themselves and at the first sign of tyranny they had resisted, willfully and ruthlessly, Treblinka could never have even begun to be built.
I wonder how long it'll be before that young man is arrested for anti-social behavior?