An interesting comparison between the “Battlefield USA” law (seen in the context of the erosion of democracy and rise of American fascism) and Milton Mayer’s “They thought they were free (the Germans 1933-1944)”. Unfortunately, the phenomenon isn’t isolated to the USA, as we see governments acting alike in many other Western nations. Sad comparison.

I really hope Mr Obama won’t sign this law, although the scary thing is that it was even allowed to be tabled in the first place.

But Then It Was Too Late ~ “What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it this separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

Apathy increases with each measured step, as it most certainly has in America, and Mayer knowingly describes the consequences for Germany in the early 1930′s ~ when the burden of self deception becomes so heavy, as it is now, that suddenly you realize that your whole world has changed and you have accepted things (out of fear) that you would never have accepted before the War on Terror.

via Nat Defense Authorization Act Confirms Battlefield USA | Dark Politricks.