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”

  1. Not sure if this summary of Michael Ronaldson being questioned by Penny Wong over Alastair Furnival has been posted yet:

    http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2113175/senator-refuses-to-answer-questions-on-furnivals-compliance-with-standards/?cs=12

    Ronaldson basically refused to answer questions. Tellingly, Penny Wong noted that transferring shares to a spouse, which is what Furnival was planning to do, doesn’t count as divestment. Amazing that the media wasn’t aware of this and reporting on it before.

    As a regular reader and very occasional poster, I have to say that the Pub is a real island of sanity in what sometimes feels like an endless ocean of crazy. Congrats to all who make it what it is, especially the moderators.

  4. Newman’s problem is that no government can set how much a doctor can charge. If they find CanDo’s conditions unacceptable they can just go elsewhere.

  6. Looks like sh already hasn’t:

    When asked in Senate estimates on Wednesday morning if Nash offered her resignation to the prime minister she replied: “I’m not going to comment on discussions with the prime minister’s office.”

    Nash said she and the government staffing committee were aware of potential conflicts of interest and Furnival had written Nash a letter outlining how he would deal with them which she then passed on to the government staffing committee.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/26/fiona-nash-resignation-food-rating-website

  7. The reactionaries love of secrecy and money:

    Legal experts fear that electoral reforms soon to pass Queensland’s parliament will ignite an election spending “arms race” in the state.

    Among the wide-ranging reforms, donations to Queensland politics of less than $12,400 will no longer have to be publicly declared, up from the current $1,000 non-disclosure limit.

    Caps on political donations and election expenditure, described by the Queensland attorney general, Jarrod Bleijie, as “unnecessarily restricting participation in the political process”, will also be scrapped.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/26/queensland-electoral-reforms-will-start-spending-arms-race

  9. While we are talking about health, there was this, from the other day –
    Lawrence Springborg’s plan to shift public hospital patients into five star hotels
    http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/lawrence-springborgs-plan-to-shift-public-hospital-patients-into-five-star-hotels/story-fnihsrf2-1226835444593

    and this
    http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/newman-government-proposes-fivestar-hospital-hotel-for-royal-childrens-hospital-site/story-fnihsrf2-1226828799901

    so – you have your surgery, then you are moved to a hotel – you can bet it will not be ‘five star’, more like no star – where you will pay if you need a nurse and where your family and friends will have to take care of you. If you have no family or friends who can do that? Tough. You pay for care, I suppose.

  11. Do politicians have any idea how modern medicine works?

    One is operated on. One goes home to recover. This has been my experience for gallstones, hysterectomy and hernia operation.

    Four to five hours in the hospital.

    If one does not go home, one it needs extensive nursing care, which I Sus past could not be met in a hotel room.

    Same goes for Hockey’s 65 retirement age, which no longer exists. Well on the way to 67.

    Then we have the $6 dollar doctor’s co-payment. Most already pay a great amount. Up to 50% or more of the doctor’s bill. Do not know if $6 would make any difference. What they are really talking about is moving private insurance to doctors’ fees. This would bring an end to Medicare as we know it.

  12. I don’t suppose anybody watches QT any more. Abbott’s been asked twice about statements he and Nash make that completely contradict each other. He says they don’t, but hasn’t offered any clues so far as to why they don’t.

    Third try now. Catherine King doing the asking. She’s asked about three statements that contradicted each other now. Abbott’s defence is that Furnivall has resigned so there’s nothing to see here. Not sure how well that’s flying. He’s coming across as too stupid to understand, which I suppose is some kind of defence.

    Muted for all the dixers, so don’t ask me about those.

  14. I had the day off work yesterday and so spent a lot of time watching and listening to the ABC.
    This included watching news24 for a large part of the day, shows such as 7:30, Lateline and Capital Hill and radio programs AM, PM, The World Today and at least 9 hourly news broadcasts.
    I heard only one mention of newspoll all day and that was as an aside at the end of a general political discussion.
    Last weeks Nielsen poll however received constant attention and analysis all day.
    I would ask if anyone could enlighten me as to why these two polls received such different coverage but I think I already know the answer!
    I will make a point of watching and listening to all these programs again following the next newspoll and will be interested in seeing what coverage it receives.

  16. King now asking why 66 health experts who submitted that the website be reinstated were ignored over the advice of a junk food lobbyist. After a lot of crap from Bronnie over ‘argument’ being allowed in a question – and subsequent re-phrasing – Abbott basically said, “we’re the government, we can do what we like.”

  19. Thanks, Ducky.

    Shorten’s up talking about pay cuts to defence forces. Abbott wants to talk about Conroy, which is way, way off the question, but I don’t like Burke’s chances of getting up a POV on relevance. And there you have it – Bronnie has ruled that ranting about Conroy is being directly relevant. Finally gets around to it, says conditions have changed, no longer at war, so they get paid less now. Abbott got his back up about something Shorten said. Bronnie lost control for a bit, and didn’t even notice Abbott’s time was up. Fiasco.

  20. I don’t know what Morrison’s shouting about. Looks impressive on mute, but I suspect it would be a bit grubbier with the sound up. Still, seeing Hockey on my screen annoyed me more.

    Shorten now on at Abbott about Nash. Direct question as to whether Nash misled Parliament. Abbott says no, sits down. So I take it they’re going to brazen it out.

    Oh good lord, Pyne’s up.

  22. http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/02/26/will-asic-try-again-on-gays-gunns-insider-trading-proceeds/

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/02/26/gas-shortage-tapping-the-bubbling-wells-of-spin-and-self-interest/

  23. If Broomhilda didn’t blow full time on The Idiot’s answer she is seriously deficient, either in probity or in mentis.

  24. This little black duck

    I thought people needed a pleasant rest break from Bronnie’s kerosene bath.

  25. Burke tried to ask a question about company that donated to LNP then collapsed, and whether the money will be paid back to the workers. Bronnie says Abbott not responsible for the LNP, so no question.

    And now Turnbull’s up. Every QT is a bit like a roast. A set of minsters get a set comedy routine each, and they all get prompted to deliver them in turn. And that’s pretty much all that happens. They’re immune from criticism in all their portfolios because the Speaker tends to rule any difficult-to-answer question as ‘argument’.

    Shorten wants to know how Abbott can possibly have confidence in Nash. Abbott says – easily. After all, she’s no more corrupt than he is. Well, he didn’t really say that, but it’s the gist of it.

    I just caught the question to Hockey before I muted. it’s about the carbon tax, would you believe. He gets another chance to be an opposition minister then, ranting about what the government… whoops, opposition, are doing… have done.

  26. Remember last Parliament? Questions would get asked, and they’d be dispatched to the boundary, question after question, day after day, week after week. They were used as springboards for skilled and elaborate, often quite detailed defences of what the government were doing. Which left the dixers to elaborate policy areas the opposition didn’t choose to attack on.

    What we have here are questions from the opposition being stonewalled, and dixers being used to attack the opposition. That little weasel Hunt is up now.

  29. Wilkie’s playing an interesting game here. He’s up to propose Conroy be admonished, but he did spend a lot of time going on about how abhorrent the government’s AS policy is. Mesma’s going to have a go at sanctimony here. It’s going to be unwatchable. Mute.

  30. Missed QT – been to Colesworths. Which brings me to a rant.

    The intelligence of some parents amazes me. There was a poor little kid in the supermarket, age about 10, with the most dreadful cough. It sounded like croup, but I think he was too old for that (I know lots about croup, two of my kids belonged to the Frequent Croupers Club). I really hope it wasn’t whooping cough. He whooped and coughed away while mummy AND daddy did the shopping. Clearly both parents had the day off from whatever they usually do. Did mum really need to discuss every single item with dad before she plonked it in the trolley? Surely one of them could have stayed home and looked after the kid. You’d think a normal family would do that. He should have been at home watching DVDs or mucking around with his Playstation, but no, this poor, possibly infectious kid was dragged around the shops. If we find ourselves in the midst of an outbreak of ebola fever or the Black Death we’ll know why – it will be spread by stupid parents who won’t keep their sick kids (or their sick selves) at home.

    I disinfected myself as soon as I got home, so this post should be free from any contagiousness.

  34. Andrew Wilkie not showing us all what a knob head he is.
    When I see him standing there prattling on I’m reminded of my grandpas old saying ” the things you see when you don’t have a gun!”

  36. That is a shocker of a picture of Mesma, she looks ancient. Whoever took that should be given a golden echidna with bar.

  37. Shorten’s doing all right here. He’s nailing the Coalition on faux-patriotism, hiding behind the military and waving the flag whenever they get criticised.

  39. Today’s First Dog on the Moon. If only more of us were like Ingrid….and I love the description of our Dear Leader at the end.

  41. Well, we have arrived. We truly are a Fascist state now.

    They might as well shut Question Time down.

    I am no big fan of Shorten but even Gough or Keating at their best would struggle for traction in this parliament. There is no room for the opposition to question anything, Bishop shuts down any productive line before the killer blows can be laid.

    Now it appears that the military is full of saints and that any questioning of anyone connected to the military – even when prosecuting a civilian role – is abhorrent and the questioner should commit hari-Kari for daring to.

  43. Bronnie and Morrison tag-team on forcing the debate back onto Conroy. Having done that, he is free to ignore everything Shorten talked about, and just slam Conroy over and over. He won’t make the news doing that. He’s probably a bit pissed off – he wrote a set piece all about Conroy, and Shorten just broadened the terms with a fiery and passionate speech. We’re a few minutes in and Morrison’s got nothing.

  45. Just a reminder – Andrew Wilkie and Angus Campbell were at Duntroon together – 1981 to 1984. Wilkie is sticking up for an old mate. Maybe there’s more to it than that. Campbell must know exactly where all those Wilkie bastardisation skeletons are buried. He probably has a few of his own in the same tomb. Mutual protection maybe?

  46. Looks like Wild Bill is putting the blame where it lies: with The Idiot and his scumbags.

  47. I sure hope Ingrid is right, because this piece by Tim Dunlop in The King’s Tribune is terrifying (apologies if subscriber-walled):

    In reality, little of this argument about “entitlements” is really about economic fundamentals. It’s about ideology.

    This means that the Australia we have grown up with – the one that tries to use a government of the people fulfil values of fairness and equity; that tries to balance the needs of business against the interests of workers; that accepts that access to decent health care is fundamental to a civilised nation; that recognises the same about education; that realises that the natural environment is a finite resource that needs to be managed for all of us; that understands the advantages of having a national broadcaster that is not beholden to the vagaries of a commercial market – that Australia, that nation, is under attack.

    That’s what “ending the age of entitlement” actually means. It means destroying the Australia of the fair go.

    http://www.kingstribune.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1972:australia-must-be-destroyed&Itemid=375

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