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Let’s engage in a thought experiment. Suppose that Ukraine was headed by a pro-Russia regime. After repeated failed attempts at assassination by the CIA, the Pentagon finally decides to invade Ukraine for the purpose of bringing about regime change — i.e., ousting the pro-Russia regime from power and replacing it with a pro-U.S. regime.
What then would be the response of American statists, especially those within the U.S. mainstream press?
There is no doubt about the answer. Everything would be different than it is today with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The media would be proudly embedding itself within the U.S. military’s invading forces. Mainstream papers would be reporting and commenting on the courage of U.S. troops. There would be no sympathetic pictures or videos of Ukrainian civilians killed; they would all be labeled as “collateral damage.” Church ministers across the land would be exhorting their congregations to pray for the troops. Every statist across the land would be tripping over himself to find some soldier to thank for his service. Airlines would be inviting soldiers to board planes first as a way to honor them. Statists would be condemning the “bad guys” — that is, those Ukrainians who were shooting at American soldiers. Every statist would be praising and glorifying the Pentagon for bringing freedom to Ukraine.
How do we know that American statists would react in this way to a Pentagon invasion of Ukraine?
Two answers: Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s how statists reacted when it was the Pentagon that invaded those two countries. That’s how we know that that’s how statists would react if it were the Pentagon, rather than Russia, that invaded Ukraine.
When I was in high school and college, a common question that would be asked regarding World War II was: How could the German people overwhelmingly support Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party? After all, today the Nazi regime is easily recognized by most Americans as the “gold standard” when it comes to evil. Why weren’t the Germany people able to see that?
The answer lies in the power of state indoctrination and government propaganda.
The German people had the same conception about government that American statists do. They believed that the more powerful their government, the stronger their nation. Actually, it’s the exact opposite. The more powerful the government, the weaker the nation — that is, the weaker the populace. That weakness is reflected by citizens with passive and deferential mindsets — ones that are easily molded into believing whatever government officials want people to believe.
That’s why powerful governments will always have the nation’s children herded into state education camps — that is, “public” schools. The purpose is always to mold the mind of the child from its earliest years to become loyal, patriotic, passive, and deferential. That mindset becomes so well-fortified over 12 years in school that it oftentimes lasts until the person dies.
Consider the words of Nazi official Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials: “Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”
Isn’t that why U.S. statists overwhelmingly supported the Pentagon’s invasion of Afghanistan? Didn’t they passively and patriotically buy into the U.S. government’s official pronouncement that the Taliban was complicit in the 9/11 attacks? Didn’t they also passively and patriotically buy into the U.S. government’s official pronouncement that Iraq was about to unleash “mushroom clouds” over American cities?
And isn’t that also why U.S. statists are doing everything they can to avoid confronting the sordid role that the Pentagon, operating through its old Cold War dinosaur NATO, has played in producing the Russia-Ukraine war that has now killed thousands of people?
This is what happens under omnipotent government. You get a weak nation of citizens with passive, deferential mindsets, ones that go with whatever the official flow is.
As I point out in my new book An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story, it is always easy to identify and confront evil in foreign regimes. Anyone can do that, as American statists are easily able to do with respect to Nazi Germany. It is a much more difficult task to identify and confront evil within one’s own regime, which is why most Germans were unable to identify and confront the evil of the Nazi regime. What we need in America is a great awakening, one in which Americans achieve a higher level of conscience, consciousness, and independence of thought, one that would empower them to identify and confront the evil within their own regime.
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Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show Freedom Watch. View these interviews at LewRockwell.com and from Full Context. Send him email.
Featured image is from FFF
