But Then It Was Too Late

Guest Author Uncategorized

This is from the always worth reading Kaye Lee at The Australian Independent Media – I hope she will forgive me for reblogging without her express permission (and I note that several Pubkateers have commented already).

(Image Credit: Daily Fumes)

An excerpt from They Thought They Were Free – The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer:

What no one seemed to notice was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

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 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.

The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?

To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice—‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’ But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have. And everyone counts on that might.

Your ‘little men,’ your Nazi friends, were not against National Socialism in principle. Men like me, who were, are the greater offenders, not because we knew better (that would be too much to say) but because we sensed better. Pastor Niemöller spoke for the thousands and thousands of men like me when he spoke (too modestly of himself) and said that, when the Nazis attacked the Communists, he was a little uneasy, but, after all, he was not a Communist, and so he did nothing; and then they attacked the Socialists, and he was a little uneasier, but, still, he was not a Socialist, and he did nothing; and then the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on, and he was always uneasier, but still he did nothing. And then they attacked the Church, and he was a Churchman, and he did something—but then it was too late.

You see, one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’

And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have.

Now, in small gatherings of your oldest friends, you feel that you are talking to yourselves, that you are isolated from the reality of things. This weakens your confidence still further and serves as a further deterrent to—to what? It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then you are obviously a troublemaker. So you wait, and you wait.

But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.

You have gone almost all the way yourself. Life is a continuing process, a flow, not a succession of acts and events at all. It has flowed to a new level, carrying you with it, without any effort on your part. On this new level you live, you have been living more comfortably every day, with new morals, new principles. You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined.

Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). You remember those early meetings of your department in the university when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. A small matter, a matter of hiring this man or that, and you hired this one rather than that. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.

Note: Thanks to mars08 for this chilling reminder

958 thoughts on “But Then It Was Too Late”

  2. There is that saying that “There is nothing new under the sun”…and it is correct…I am an avid reader of roman History, as I have said many times, here and to others in my circle…and I get the old…”aww..bloody Romans…” But that is just it…those “bloody Romans” taught the Nazis EVERYTHING they knew…from the eagle standards to the genocide and the accurate archiving of all in between…so to say that there is no pattern for one to recognise as the govt’ moves from one little extreme to the next is wrong…there is an example…it is clear, it is concise, it is archived and it has it’s characters that can be transposed into today’s characters…or villans, as the case may be.
    I have pressed upon anybody and everybody to read Roman history, not just the dates, but the actions of the players…Particularly read ; Seutonius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Gibbon, Mommsen…etc…for contained within the narrative ilies the secrets of psychotic ambition and the lessons of all the worst and the best of humanity.
    We are left folish to not take notice of history.

  3. Yes, I read this with interest. We have to not get used to the little changes that add up to the big changes. A wall is made of small bricks.

  5. Principiis obsta and Finem respice—‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’ . Not heard that before but it is brilliant

  6. Socks,
    Thank you for the reminder. When I go to bed, I shall take my special holder with me and light a candle in honour of young Reza.

  8. Abbott said “The interesting thing is that, despite the seriousness of the riot, there was very little damage”. No real damage, just a young man with his throat cut and his head stomped in. No real damage at all. He seems not to understand that a life was lost.

  9. The education minister, Christopher Pyne, told Sky News on Sunday the Australian people elected the Coalition government in September “to make the decisions that are necessary to reset the economy”, but any changes that contradicted election promises should be put to voters at a subsequent election.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/23/joe-hockey-g20-tough-unknown-reform

    http://poolagirl.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/ha-ha-equine.jpg?w=500&h=347

  10. I have doubts about March in March. Maybe the Canberra march will be OK, but the organisers are saying some stupid things which prove to me they don’t really understand what they are doing or what they want to acheve. Flailing around looking for hooks to hang their coats on seems to be what they are doing. For example, the other day they were trying to hype up the angst over anti-protest legislation passing through the Victorian parliament. They were screeching about it being pushed through to stop March in March. A couple of clicks and a few seconds reading would have told them the legislation doesn’t come into effect until 1 September, but rather than do that few seconds of research they launched straight into screech mode. I can’t stand stupidity like that. If that’s the mentality of the organisers then they are a big worry. So they are going to march to parliament house. What then? Is there a plan?

    The local organisers here are simply a rabble – my son called them ‘the Greenpeace mob’ – hippies, alternative types, people who probably don’t vote at all, and again, a lot of stupidity on display. I’m giving the whole thing here a very wide berth. I have a dreadful feeling it’s all going to end badly.

  11. Leone

    Razz and I would March in March, if we had a march within in hour or so drive. No matter what happens, people are angry out there, and they need to do something to show that anger without being violent. I am under the impression that you march for the reason you think needs attention. Like the above story says, start the minute you realise and don’t wait till it’s too late.

  12. leonetwo
    I for one am hoping the protesters won’t do anything that the media will pounce on to portray them, and the left generally, in an extremely negative light, such as violence or placards using the same abusive language against Tony Abbott that was used against Julia Gillard.

  13. That bit I wrote yasterday about “taunting Turnbull” with direct quotes and constructs inspired from reports about Cicero…..another advocate hungry for power…vain, egotistical yet ended up so servile to tyrants.
    Abbott is a blend of Sejanus…who was desperate to marry into royalty!

  15. Cicadas are loud – either hot day tomorrow or I am the last patch of green in this section of suburbia

  16. Sejanus …

    You’re right, Jaycee – to the last crossed “t” of his (PMBO’s, that is) surname.

  18. 2gravel
    I get that. I was enthusiastic at first, but the more I see – and I get a constant Facebook stream of what the organisers are doing – the more I worry. March for whatever angers you is OK in theory, but then what? What happens at parliament house? Is there an articulate, well-informed spokesperson who will address the crowd or will everyone just mill around aimlessly? It all seems so airy-fairy and unorganised to me. For these things to work there has to be very tight organisation and control and a very definite plan of action. I don’t see that.

    I hope it all goes well, I hope it’s as big a success as the walks for reconciliation were back in 2000. Bigger, even.

  23. Hyphenate THAT!..baby!
    And the “dirty old goat” that controlled him.; Tiberius could easily be Rupert!

  24. I expect the ruling cadre and their backers to call this a mob and pick out bits to discredit it. The best way to counter it is for ordinary people, the concerned but reasonable people to march as well, not leave it to the ‘radicals’.

  27. The Idiot is not interested in a “decent & humane society”. George The First will tell him that destroying unions is OK.

  28. PMBO and his party worship Mammon and Murdoch. Some pay lip service to the Christian deity, but their words and deeds do not match.

  29. AJ,
    If I were a Christian deity I’d strike their lying lips from their faces. And that would just be for starters.

  30. Catalyst,
    My parents marched against the war in Iraq, and my dad was totally incensed by being described as part of a “mob”. He wrote several vitriolic letters to Howard’s office, and received some crawling replies – none of which assuaged him.

  48. 1/141 at tea. Oz will be happy with that. With rain forecast tomorrow, if Smith doesn’t win then he’ll be guilty of a mistake Michael Clarke wouldn’t make: not scoring fast enough and not declaring too late.

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