CRITICISM IS NOT HATE | 2005-08-27
That is the title of my program this week, Saturday 3pm at the The Untrained Eye. You can download these programs anytime you feel like it. The magic of the Internet.
One of the sure signs of a authoritarian state is the silencing of criticism.
Two rules
1) Every authoritarian state always begins by silencing all criticism of its doctrine and
2) No authoritarian state ever says it is silencing criticism just to be mean. It ALWAYS gives a Reason.
Nationalist governments pass some kind of Patriot Act. The very name of that Act comes straight out of George Orwell. Anyone who criticizes the government is declared to be attacking National Unity.
Hitler, Mussolini and Franco are all spinning in their graves right now because they never thought of that wonderful title, The Patriot Act, for their policies.
After the defeat of the Axis in World War II it was as inevitable as the rain that the new authoritarian regimes would base their authoritarian regimes on being AGAINST Hitler and Mussolini.
Those who oppose Bush's Patriot Act are exactly the ones who want authoritarianism in the name of being ANTI-nationalism and ANTI-racism.
An old politico like me yawns and says, "So what else is new?"