RE: A great book. . .
LAST EDITED ON Feb-01-08 AT 10:35AM (MST)[p]If by conclusion you mean the following paragraphs from the book, then yes, by all means I agree with him.
Quote:
The Short Run Imperative: Speak Out Now or Forever, Perhaps, Be Silenced If they work, most of these suggestions will only produce changes in high RWAs in the long run. But we may not have a long run. We have to contain authoritarianism now lest it destroy us. We?ve got to act now. I say this with some hesitation. I've been studying authoritarianism since 1966, and I've been publishing my findings since 1981, but you never heard of the results presented in this book before, right? Partly that's because I've always gotten an ?F? in self-promotion.15 And I've always worried that publicity would invalidate my future studies. But I've mainly laid low, sticking to academic outlets, 16 because what I've found is alarming, and I know that raising this alarm can horrendously backfire. We do have to fear fear itself. Thus I took pains in my previous writings to present my findings in a concerned voice, but I tried hard not to sound like Paul Revere. Here?s how I put it in 1996 at the end of what I intended to be my last book on the subject:
?I am now writing the last page in my last book about authoritarianism. So, for the last time, I do not think a fascist dictatorship lies just over our horizon. But I do not think we are well protected against one. And I think our recent history shows the threat is growing...We cannot secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity, if we sit with our oars out of the water. If we drift mindlessly, circumstances can sweep us to disaster. Our societies presently produce millions of highly authoritarian personalities as a matter of course, enough to stage the Nuremberg Rallies over and over and over again. Turning a blind eye to this could someday point 246 guns at all our heads, and the fingers on the triggers will belong to right-wing authoritarians. We ignore this at our peril.?17
Eleven years later, as I am now definitely writing the last pages in my last book on the subject, I believe circumstances such as ?9/11" have nearly swept us to disaster, the authoritarian threat has grown unabated, and almost all the protections I saw in 1996, such as a ?free and vigilant press,? are being eroded or have already been destroyed. The biggest problem we have now, in my view, is authoritarianism. It has placed America at one of those historic cross-roads that will profoundly affect the rest of its history, and the future of our planet. The world deserves a much better America than the one it has seen lately. And so do Americans.
So what's to be done right now? The social dominators and high RWAs presently marshaling their forces for the next election in your county, state and country, are perfectly entitled to do what they're doing. They have the right to organize, they have the right to proselytize, they have the right to select and work for candidates they like, they have the right to vote, they have the right to make sure folks who agree with them also vote. Jerry Falwell has already declared, ?We absolutely are going to deliver this nation back to God in 2008!? 18, 19
If the people who are not social dominators and right-wing authoritarians want to have those same rights in the future, they, you, had better do those same things too, now. You do have the right to remain silent, but you'll do so at everyone?s peril. You can't sit these elections out and say ?Politics is dirty; I'll not be part of it,? or ?Nothing can change the way things are done now.?The social dominators want you to be disgusted with politics, they want you to feel hopeless, they want you out of their way. They want democracy to fail, they want your freedoms stricken, they want equality destroyed as a value, they want to control everything and everybody, they want it all. And they have an army of authoritarian followers marching with the militancy of ?that old-time religion? on a crusade that will make it happen, if you let them.
Research shows most people are not in this army. However Americans have, for the most part, been standing on the sidewalk quietly staring at this authoritarian parade as it marches on. You can watch it tear American democracy apart, bit by bit, bite by bite. Or you can exercise your rights too, while you still have them, and get just as concerned, active, and giving to protect yourself and your country. If you, and other liberals, other moderates, other conservatives with conscience do, then everything can turn out all right. But we have to get going. If you are the only person you know who grasps what's happening, then you've got to take leadership, help inform, and organize others. One person can do so much; you've no idea! And two can do so much more.
But time is running out, fast, and nearly everything is at stake.
"Roadless areas, in general, represent some of the best fish and wildlife habitat on public lands. The bad news is that there is nothing positive about a road where fish and wildlife habitat are concerned -- absolutely nothing." (B&C Professor, Jack Ward Thomas, Fair Chase, Fall 2005, p.10).
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