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. The Saffers will be paying a big price for not playing a specialist spinner, I hope.

    Perzactly why Lyon is playing for Oz, apart from his record.

  3. The commentators are talking crap that Doolan should be scoring faster: his job, now, is to stay there.

  6. They are trying to unsettle Doolan. Right tactic; wrong bloke. Cucumbers are in deep sweat by comparison.

  7. 1/150.

    If I were a betting man; thank lord I’m not, I’d bet on a draw.

    Some rugby players may detect some familiarity with that.

  8. Slip-fielder Smith dropped a catch which landed a tad in front. I think Clarkey gets his field placed Goldilocks.

    Looks to me like G Smith will be on his way out: can’t bat, can’t field, can’t captain.

  9. Not good for the Saffers: the commentators are bemoaning the retirement of Kallis. Not like he was really good but like “why isn’t he here!”

  10. A really bad shot from Doolan. 2/152. Played a LONG way from his body with a cross-bat.

  11. This is how cricinfo reports it:

    “Morkel to Doolan, OUT, finally Doolan is gone. This was a freight train coming. He has been pushing loosely outside off for far too long. Morkel bowls in that channel outside off, gets it to reverse away, takes the edge, and Smith takes a superb low catch in front of him. Smith had moved up a step after that previous one didn’t carry to him. Top fielding at first slip”

    A tad SAF lean?

  14. Shaun tried to get a leg glance going. Nowhere near the line. The first thing you do when you are in is to get your bearings.

    Skipper to the crease.

  15. Ninety per cent of the appeals by the bowler and by the close fielders are ridiculous.

    A blight on our game.

  16. Anyone who thinks Mindy Morkel is anywhere near Mitch Johnson is mistaken. He doesn’t have consistent line, length and anger.

  19. As I have said before, the Australian batsmen of touching gloves that the rest of them don’t need is a sign of insecurity.

    Sad to say, Clarke just lost his wicket. Rain may be Oz best hope now..

    Especially now that Mr Smith has duck’ed, first ball.

  22. Middle order batting collapse, not rescued by lower order this time. Lyons very unlucky with LBW decision which may have taken the game into tomorrow which is forecast to be wet.
    Such is life!

  23. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
    Does this smell of desperation?
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-asks-cambodia-to-take-asylum-seekers-amid-violent-crackdown-20140223-33amf.html
    Michael Gordon firing on all four as he excoriates the odious Morriscum.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/scott-morrisons-comments-and-conduct-need-examination-20140223-33amg.html
    Will G4S come out swinging against Morriscum?
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/23/scott-morrison-denies-communication-breakdown-g4s-manus
    Lenore Taylor tells us what “not wimpy” should mean.
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/23/asylum-policy-human-cost-coalition-portrayal
    And Michelle Grattan in a similar vein.
    http://tinyurl.com/ll83g8v
    Channel 7 is going after Brandis in a big way. Corby IS good for something!
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/seven-demands-action-from-attorneygeneral-george-brandis-over-federal-police-raid-20140223-33ahi.html
    Ross Gittins digs deep into Abbott’s motivation on his attack on unions.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-truth-behind-tony-abbotts-antiunion-push-20140223-33agu.html
    Here’s something for Fiona Hash to get her teeth into. The absolute racket that is “complementary medicine”. But then again she probably has a lobbyist from that industry on her staff.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/herbal-medicines-study-raises-alarm-over-labelling-20140223-33aex.html
    Bloody carbon tax!
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/councils-seeking-extra-rate-rises-multiply-as-costs-bite-bottom-line-20140223-33alj.html
    Abbott describes Morriscum as “strong and decent”. There’s your comedy quota for the week!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-stands-by-his-man-20140223-33asx.html
    Abbott’s mob still making friends internationally.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/diplomats-concerned-australia-is-undermining-sri-lanka-inquiry-call-20140223-33alk.html

  24. Section 2 . . .

    Catherine King on Dutton’s Medicaire musings.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/gp-copayment-would-mean-the-end-of-medicare-20140223-33ab3.html
    GREAT READ! Michael West tells Abbott to get real on energy pricing.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/study-shines-a-light-into-dark-corners-of-electricity-pricing-20140223-33ah7.html
    Bruce Petty has Hockey on the ski jump.

    MUST SEE!! Alan Moir gives us Hockey giving out his economic credentials at the G20 meeting.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/alan-moir-20090907-fdxk.html
    Pat Campbell’s look at the Middle East.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/pat-campbell-20120213-1t21q.html
    David Rowe – an interesting depiction of Abbott and Credlin in dressing gowns?
    http://www.afr.com/p/national/cartoon_gallery_david_rowe_1g8WHy9urgOIQrWQ0IrkdO

  25. And from the Land of the Free –

    The 2014 “Political Animal Awards”.
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/02/23/2014-political-animal-awards-the-christie-big-shoes-to-fill-award-wi-gov-scott-walker/
    Social safety net Utah style! And Ed Schultz goes right off on it.
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/02/22/republicans-traumatize-school-children-by-starving-them-forcing-them-to-watch-as-their-lunch-is-tossed-into-the-garbage/
    Is religion dying in America asks The Young Turks. Some interesting stats.
    http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017177352

  26. Hockey throwing a number around like he throws his weight!….he might as well throw confetti or petals while leaping like a cupid cherub in a scanty toga!

  27. Hockey’s been in the job a few months..a joke before, an absolute financial nobody and now he “proposes to his COLLEAGUES”…his colleagues, do you mind!……”folks..I’d like you to meet my colleagues…: Mr and Ms.Goose!”
    The guys a f#ckwit!!…they’re ALL f#ckwits !…and we now have that fool Mesma, ( looking in the news-pic like some small furry creature had crawled on top of her head and lie down and died there) casually suggesting that Cambodia may like to consider taking some “illegal” immigrants off her hands…..a bit like “would you like some fries with that?”
    They’re all a waste of oxygen.

  28. A few years ago Powderfinger wrote a song called Like a Dog, it was about John Howard and his treatment of indigenous people. The lyrics are just as applicable today to Abbott.

    Bernard Fanning, who worote the lyrics, said this –

    The song is about John Howard, the whole attitude of his government towards Australia and how all that seems to matter is reforming the tax system. No one cares about the actual people and the fact that a lot of people in this country still feel disadvantaged- indigenous people in particular.

    http://www.hindleysite.com/songs/likeadog.htm

    Like a Dog
    In all that he takes in all that he shows
    The higher the stakes the lower the blows
    And all the mistakes that he’s never known
    Whatever it takes he’ll be stealing the show

    Now he nervously shakes as we rattle his stage
    But he’s happy to be stuck back in his halcyon days
    Now we’re trying hard to reconcile a history of shame
    But he reinforced the barriers that keep it the same

    If you treat me like a dog
    And keep me locked in a cage
    I’m not relaxed or comfortable
    I’m aggravation and shame
    But it’s a fine fine time for the people in the lucky land

    If you treat me like a dog
    And keep me locked in a cage
    I’m not relaxed or comfortable
    I’m aggravation and rage

    I think it’s too early in the day for the music, but if you want to listen, here it is.

  31. Cabinet Minister Greg Hunt is making public his ‘deep, strong, absolute, personal commitment’ to Immigration Minister Scott Morrison.— Latika Bourke (@latikambourke) February 23, 2014

    .@latikambourke If Hunt feels the need to go to those lengths to defend Morrison then the Govt knows he's damaged goods.— Bridget O'Flynn (@BridgetOFlynn) February 23, 2014

  32. MUST SEE!! Alan Moir gives us Hockey giving out his economic credentials at the G20 meeting.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/alan-moir-20090907-fdxk.html

    How embarrassing.

    What we need to remember is that Hockey has effed-up every portfolio he’s ever been in. When he was Minister for Employment, during Workchoices, he not only failed to convince the people that he was administering a good and decent, productive program, but the government of which he was a member lost the election, with its leader banished from parliament.

    That’s the one that sticks in my mind, particularly when it was put to Hockey that he was on a cosy little sinecure as a Minister, and he replied that he thought he was actually underpaid, and should be able to negotiate a payrise for himself because of the stirling efforts he was making. A scheme like Workchoices would allow him to do that.

    It got that bad.

    The man’s a half-wit, a bad ham actor who has a repertoire of about three faces – “happy”, “angry” and “grim” – that he uses mostly at inappropriate moments, because by definition life’s not that simple.

    But Joe is.

    He’s “liked” out there in the community, only because the rest of his colleagues are so unlikable. John Howard said, “At least he’s avuncular”, like a big cuddly Baby Bear who’s trying to be taken seriously.

    The G20 Finance Ministers are serious people. Joe Hockey goes to them and tells them to “Go for growth!”.

    Well, who’s not going to put their hands up for that one? “Yeahhh! Let’s go for growth, and can we leave now?”

    Joe’s been in office for a few months (I know it seems like years). He hasn’t done anything except spout a few slogans about The Age Of Entitlement, and then borrow more billions to shore up his finances and to pay for Abbott’s extravagant pork barrelling. And he presumes to lecture others about what they did wrong, and how he “Has A Plan” for them?

    I know that, most likely, Joe’s heart’s in the right place, underneath all that fat, but really… “Going For Growth” is pretty obvious, isn’t it? Does he really believe the Finance Ministers are going home telling their wives, husbands, their friends, their staff, “I met a man called Joe in Australia. He put me straight. We have to Go For Growth. It was such a simple idea, I can’t work out why I didn’t think of it myself.”

    Don’t worry about Joe Hockey. He’ll stuff up again, just as he has always stuffed up. He doesn’t have the talent or the determination to overcome an anarchic sociopath like Abbott. He is a follower, not a leader. Whatever he touches turns to sawdust. Worry about the economy, but not the man who claims to be running it.

  34. http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/locals-forced-to-dip-into-their-super-to-keep-businesses-afloat/story-fnii5s3x-1226834656285

    http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/domestic-violence-support-at-risk-as-funding-deal-expires/story-fnii5sms-1226835339406

  35. http://www.geofflake.com.au/mp-disrupts-community-event/

    http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/161815/stephen-walt-the-new-kennan?all=1

  36. http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/father-frank-brennan-tells-lawyers-campbell-newman-skewing-balance-between-law-and-order-for-political-gain/story-fnii5v6w-1226835382199

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/bank-of-england-governor-mark-carney-wants-to-make-banks-pay-their-own-way-20140223-33ah8.html

  37. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-sydney-lockout-new-location-but-the-same-old-mistakes-20140223-33ab4.html

    http://delimiter.com.au/2014/02/24/abbott-dodges-repeated-tassie-fttp-questions/

  38. Another nothing day in parliament today. No new legislation, except that introduced by non-government MPs. Instead we have more of the interminable and pointless debate on the GG’s opening speeech. It is not the usual thing for responses to this speech to drag on for months after the opening of a new parliament but when you have a government with no policies and nothing planned except the introduction of now stalled repeal bills all you get is pointless busy work. Tones and Peta might as well hand out colouring-in books and crayons to keep the pollies entertained. There’s bugger all for them to do in the house these days.

    Here’s today’s program –
    http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/chamber/dailyp/daily_program/upload_pdf/19%20Monday%2024%20February%202014.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22chamber/dailyp/daily_program%22

    Compare it with what happened on the very first full day in parliament after the 2007 election. Labor hit the ground running with the apology to Australian aboriginals and then went straight into the introduction of a stack of new legislation. The workload increased from then on.
    http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query%3DId%3A%22chamber/hansardr/2008-02-13/0000%22

  39. The odious Mesma asks Cambodia to take our refugees. What a great idea. Maybe she could next ask Vietnam to also show compassion and take all those Iraqis, Sri Lankans, Pakistans who sought our compassion. Come on Australia, you know it makes sense.

  40. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10657082/Ukraine-revolution-Britain-offers-cash-to-Kiev-as-the-world-waits-on-Putin.html

    http://www.latrobevalleyexpress.com.au/story/2108195/halls-fair-stint-over/?cs=1462

  42. http://www.smh.com.au/business/fairfax-medias-proposed-merger-with-john-singletons-macquarie-off-the-table-20140223-33aka.html

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/02/07/abc-efficiency-how-well-does-it-stack-up-against-its-rivals/
    Feb 7 – now out from behind the paywall

  43. http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/31991#.UwnqnjjNuM8
    Yes, its a worth a listen. Hear what he says about Hartcher & CSG.

    http://mumbrella.com.au/chris-mitchell-australian-struggled-profitable-since-gfc-208815

  44. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/diplomats-fear-australia-will-wreck-un-probe-into-sri-lankan-war-crimes-20140223-33akk.html

    http://pando.com/2014/02/23/called-to-account-a-suicide-bombing-a-lawsuit-a-bank-accused-of-financing-terrorism/
    A longer but interesting read.

  45. Fiona- It was the first march I had ever attended, but my conscience made me go- lots of perfectly ordinary people, mums and dads, babies in prams students, old people, some unions, some church people.Nice Liberal ladies in floral frocks and hats wearing badges which said F.O,.G. closer inspection meant they told George W to F*** Off George! We were confronted by sunglasses wearing police, police horses and it felt very intimidating. We were not allowed anywhere near the US embassy. The crowd listened to speeches in Forrest Place, marched a bit down St George’s Terrace and the quietly dispersed. Numbers for TV were underestimated-and like your dad I was outraged at Howard’s comments.
    Perth March in March is Sunday 16th March 10.30 am at Langley Park.

  47. Old Kero’s amazing. I hate using the word “hypocrisy”… it doesn’t seem strong enough for her and Pyne.

    The sanctimonious way Pyne stands up, like a demented choir boy, puts his hand on his heart, and LECTURES members opposite regarding the decorum of the House.

    Then Old Kero takes her cue and puts on that plummy voice of hers, wagging her finger at people who ask questions that contain anything but the “naicest” language.

    Sheesh. The cheek of them is breathtaking.

    How very appropriate that this thread was published. It shows the way they’re gradually wrecking everything of which THEY claim to be custodians.

  48. Abbott virtually just admitted that he’s going to go for the pensioners now.

    THEY voted him in, the poor fools. THEY phone the shock jocks and talk about how they have to eat cat food, and how they huddle around their single bar radiators, too scared to turn on the second bar because of the Carbon Tax. THEY are the ones who damned the Rudd and Gillard governments, despite continued pension rises under their administrations, to record heights.

    And now Abbott’s going to dud them.

    Jesus wept.

Comments are closed.