Blog Archives
What to do with militant extremists in our midst? It’s a question Americans have faced before
A lot of people are wrestling with how this country should deal with militant Muslims in our midst. I think most of us have no issue with American Muslims who do not advocate for anything at odds with our US civic virtues and democratic traditions and practices. Concerns naturally arise with US-based Muslims who post, preach and otherwise advocate for the things we hear being said by members of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL) and other radical Muslim groups. Many advocate deporting anyone who engages in this sort of thing. Of course, we have homegrown militants in our midst, among them neo-Nazis and Klansmen who preach things that inspire hatred and sometimes violence on the part of their members and sympathizers. One could argue are they are citizens and enjoy certain legal and constitutional protections which renders deportation or “quarantine” a nonissue, but then some extremist Muslims in the US also are citizens (Some born here). Deporting a US citizen to the country their ancestors came from might be emotionally satisfying to some folks but it would open a door that could quickly be abused by the state.
“Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!”
At the tail end of Stanley Kubrick’s satirical and brilliant 1964 anti-Cold War movie “Dr. Strangelove” the wheelchair bound German scientist (played by Peter Sellers) manages to stand up and take a step or two forward and then excitedly proclaim, “Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!” (This was reportedly an unscripted improvisation on the part of actor Peter Sellers) People in the throes of extreme excitement, passion or even religious ecstasy sometimes yell out to God, their mate or, in the case of Dr. Strangelove, to his leader (The American President whom he not infrequently calls “Mein Fuhrer” during the course of Kubrick’s cinematic masterpiece).
I suspect Sellers added the dramatic final touch not as an expression of the neurologic malady which landed his character in a wheelchair but, rather, as an upwelling of Dr. Strangelove’s impossible to suppress fascist sentiments and loyalty to Hitler.
In addition, I would offer a slightly different take on Dr. Strangelove’s outburst: I believe it was meant to represent the transcendent march of evil across time. That is, Seller’s was acting out the fact that evil, like death, haunts humankind and is impossible to totally suppress, manage or banish. Of course, we all know that those who do not resist and oppose evil not infrequently find their lives overshadowed by it.
The late writer-director-producer Rod Serling actually captured this theme very adroitly in a 1963 episode of the Twilight Zone titled “He’s Alive” (“He” being Hitler) that focuses on a “bush league Fuhrer” named Peter Vollmer.
Of course, we all are cognizant of the fact that evil permeates the human experience and has countless modern day incarnations. It is certainly one wheel that gets reinvented without ever showing much wear or loss of perpetrators and victims. Sometimes, though, the expressions are so continuous across time they appear to come out of some kind of historical-cosmic Xerox® machine. Click these links and reflect for a moment:
http://weirdthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/skitched-20120111-150835.jpg
http://theheartthrills.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/north-korean-soldiers-drilling-2.jpg
OK, so evil is perennial. What we can do about it? Laugh at and ponder comic portrayals such as Seller’s, yes, but never make the mistake of viewing evil people as clowns or easy to control (A mistake many German pre-Nazi leaders made with respect to Hitler and his cronies). But above all learn everything we can about the nature of evil and its subtlest expressions and then work to expose and oppose them.
How do you kill 12 million people? Evil then and now: Recognizing & containing it by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen
Copyright 2013 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
How do you kill 12 million people? Evil then and now: Recognizing & containing it
Color photo from TIME, Inc.
My good friend Jim Haverlock recently asked, “How do you kill 12 million people?” He was, of course, referring to the Shoah or Holocaust. He wasn’t asking about the nuts & bolts of pulling off mass executions but, rather, how did so many ordinary and even extraordinary men and women willingly take part in Hitler’s Endlösung (Final Solution). This is a question that has intrigued and haunted me since early boyhood actually. In fact, as part of my quest for answers I read all of Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels diaries as a young man plus vol. 1 of “Mein Kampf” (Vol. 2 was unknown when I was a youngster), watched archival film of the Nuremberg & Doctor’s trials, and read just about every substantive book on Hitler, the Nazis and fascism that existed at the time (And everything worth reading on the subject since as well). As anyone reading this who ever took a course in World History knows, both Hitler and Goebbels stressed the use of propaganda and the “big lie” as integral to the creation and sustainment of the Greater Germania they envisioned. And both were extraordinary in their zeal and abilities to forge a monolithic state predicated on a shared national myth, and induce the German people to embrace it via lies, artful use of imagery and symbols, fear, rewards and appeals to entrenched biases that went back not just decades but centuries (Particularly in the case of antisemitism which sadly had its roots in early Christian teachings especially the Hellenized spin on Jesus and his message crafted & promulgated by Saul of Tarsus aka St. Paul. Learn more by reading Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity by scholar & historian Dr. James D. Tabor).
One place to turn for insight is historian Dr. Daniel Goldhagen’s books plus those of psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo. They do a smashing good job of laying out the historic, sociological, psychological and economic forces, currents and mechanisms that set the stage for the rise of the Nazis and then sustained them once they were in power.
But, even after you’ve read and mastered these works and others like them you likely find yourself still perplexed by the fact so many people down through the millennia and especially during the heyday of fascism could ignore and in many instances take an active hand in wanton cruelty. After nearly a lifetime of studying human cruelty and complicity in cruelty and evil I know there is no simple answer to “why”. Certainly lack of empathy or reduced or impaired empathy for targets/scapegoats is vital to evil and, yes, lies play a powerful role as well, but there is so much more that works to foster wickedness than lies and people’s failure to detect them or act on them or neglect to search them out and deal with them. However, with this said it certain behooves Americans to be vigilant and to call out wrongs and evil as soon as they come to light.
Things are complicated by the fact that evil and good rely on similar mechanisms and tools to govern (God, too, relies on these – see my op-ed piece on this subject titled “Hitler & HaShem at http://www.healingcare4u.org/hitler-hashem.pdf). Heaven knows our government has used lies of varying magnitude to govern across the years of our country’s existence. Probably Nixon and his “Imperial Presidency” took this to a whole new level and set certain wickedness in motion that has grown in scope to this day. In theory, yes, a super crisis or series of crises could lead to martial law and suspensions of Constitutional guarantees. During the Civil War (or as it is better known where I came from, “The War for Southern Independence”) Abraham Lincoln threw many folks who questioned his administration and policies into jail and kept them there, thanks to his having suspended the writ of habeas corpus. However, people rebelled, the press raised hell and the Supreme Court ultimately undid some of the more egregious acts of hegemony. I think any move to contain social disorder by imposition of a police or ultra-authoritarian state would, at the very least, result in the formation of tens of thousands of militias and resistance groups across the land that would make keeping the lid on the pot problematic if not impossible.
Naturally, best to act now and prevent a quasi-police or full-fledged police state then try to overthrow one that is in-place. Keeping our representatives working and honest is certainly part of that.
While no one has knows the full rhyme and reason behind human evil and its various incarnations, it helps to be aware of and reject ideas, movements, and acts that arise from and feed evil: Among them being intolerance, the marginalization and dehumanization of others especially minorities and other vulnerable groups, and unquestioned belief in authority figures and an unwillingness to call them out when they violate the very civil virtues and Constitutional guarantees they are charged with upholding.
I would add this: Although I’ve been a democratic socialist since the mid 1980s I find some ideas and notions articulated by conservatives and even some right wingers of merit. As a Southerner whose ancestors go back to Revolutionary War times (and beyond) in South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi, and whose paternal and maternal forbearers lived under the Stars & Bars (Confederacy) and in some instances fought for the C.S.A., I inherited a mix of ideas and notions, some worthy of consideration if not embrace, others that had no substance when they were articulated long ago and never will. Of those that I deemed worth hanging onto was the longstanding Southern distrust of a powerful central government running everything including many aspects of people’s everyday lives. Although you might think a democratic socialist would welcome an all powerful centralized government, I emphatically do not. History shows all too clearly that the concentration of power in the hands of strongmen leads to abuses and skullduggery of the worst sort. Actually there are at least a few liberal thinkers who would prefer to see a decentralization of power in the US and other countries, and even the break-up of powerhouse countries into small nation-states (Especially those that are unstable or might become so and with this attempt to retain order and stability by imposition of a police or authoritarian state). I’m sure a world comprised of small, less powerful nations, say, the size of Switzerland, would by no means avoid many of the ills that plague major powers today, but I can’t help think they would have less influence and thus less ability to work evil in the world. And for those that do, their neighbors could form temporary confederations and impose various kinds of sanctions or, when regrettably necessary, military containment (Hey, sometimes the only way to stop a thug is send in the police).
But until power shifts from Washington to the states (if it ever does), best to keep an eye on the politicians on Capital Hill and do everything possible to keep our representatives working, honest and limited in the evil they can do. The same applies to the press and other so-called sacred American institutions.
Dr. Anthony G. Payne (waxing philosophic from his porch swing)
RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
My spiritual watering hole website: http://summerclouds.weebly.com/
Why does God allow evil (Theodicy)? See Are you an atheist, religionist, deist, fideist or ???
CBN video presentation “God & Hitler”: http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/churchhistory/godandhitler/index.aspx
Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose by Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen
Copyright 2013 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
Dark times and the allure of evil solutions
Rare German vintage cigarette card from the 1933 “KAMPF UM’S DRITTE REICH” album.
https://biotheorist.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dark-times-and-the-allure-of-evil.pdf
Mind expansion: Recommended Reading
ALL THE BOOKS LISTED BELOW ARE ONES READ & RECOMMENDED BY DR. ANTHONY G. PAYNE
CRITICAL THINKING
Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner
The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan, Ph.D.
Snake Oil Science by R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D.
The Scientist As Rebel by Freeman Dyson
Any and All Books by James Randi
Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine by Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D.
Ignorance (How It Drives Science) by Dr. Stuart Firestein
Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre, M.D.
A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What NeuroscienceCan and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves by Robert A. Burton, M.D.
DEEP ECOLOGY
Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered by Bill Devall & George Sessions
Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century by Bill Sessions
Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization by Christopher Manes
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
FICTION (with a powerful message)
House of Earth by Woodie Guthrie
HEALTH & MEDICINE (including stem cell medicine)
Click this link to access Dr. Christopher Centeno’s new 52 page e-book titled “The Stem Cells They Don’t Want You To Have” (FREE download): http://bit.ly/NPlVmZ
Snake Oil Science by R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D.
The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by Jerome Groopman, MD
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, MD
Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine by Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D.
HISTORY/POLITICS
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) by Eric H. Cline
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Mataxas
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great (The Arts of Leadership & War) edited by Larry Hedrick
Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers by Filip Muller
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Dr. Stephen Greenblatt
The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths by Leonard M. Scruggs
Slavery Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives by Paul D. Escott
Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity by Dr. Daniel J. Goldhagen
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Jr.
The Face of Imperialism by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.
The Rich And The Rest Of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Travis Smiley & Dr. Cornel West
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn
Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee by David Crockett
HUMAN NATURE & PSYCHOLOGY
Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World by Suzanne Woods Fisher
The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Sciences, and the Myth of Free Will by Heidi M. Ravven, Ph.D.
The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity by Bruce Hood, Ph.D.
The Illusion of Conscious Will by Dr. Daniel M. Wegner
What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire by Daniel Bergner
A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What NeuroscienceCan and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves by Robert A. Burton, M.D.
The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions by Drs. Jaak Panksepp & Lucy Biven
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer, Ph.D.
50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True by Guy P. Harrison
Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind by Robert Kurzban, Ph.D.
Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose by Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families by Pamela Paul
Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality by Dr. Gail Dines
Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto by Anneli Rufus
The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D.
The Biology of Belief by Dr. Joseph Giovannoli
Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning by Viktor Frankl, M.D., Ph.D.
Faces in the Clouds by Stewart Guthrie, Ph.D.
RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY
Purity of Heart by Rev. Bert M. Farias [In “Purity of Heart” Rev. Farias eloquently states things which, I daresay, most mainstream and even many Charismatic and neopentecostal congregations either gloss over, tiptoe around or mangle (oftentimes resulting in their landing in the thorn patch of profound legalism). Two thumbs up and kudos to Rev. Farias, whose ministry website is http://holy-fire.org/]
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Mataxas
Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World by Suzanne Woods Fisher
Finding Sanctuary (Monastic Steps for Everyday Life) by Abbot Christopher Jamison
Breakthrough Faith: Living a Life Where Anything is Possible by Larry Sparks
PSALM 83, The Missing Prophecy Revealed – How Israel Becomes the Next Mideast Superpower by Bill Salus
Sooner Than You Think: A Prophetic Guide to the End Times by Sid Roth
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection by Benedicta Ward
Jesus’ Words Only (Free in its entirety on-line) by Douglas J. Del Tondo, Esq.
My spiritual watering hole website: http://summerclouds.weebly.com/
The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity by Dr. James D. Tabor
Blood Kin of Jesus (James and the Lost Jewish Church) by Kenneth Hanson, Ph.D.
Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity by Dr. James D. Tabor
The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity by Rev. Jeffrey J. Bϋtz
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan, Ph.D.
How Jesus Became Christian by Barrie Wilson, Ph.D.
Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Dr. Robin R. Meyers
The Bible Against Itself: Why the Bible Seems to Contradict Itself by Dr. Randel McCraw Helms
Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Bart D. Ehrman, Ph.D.
The Ancient Roots of Christianity: A Native American’s Look Through Christianity by my fellow Choctaw Nation Tribal member, Rainbow Eagle
God and His Demons by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.
The Real Kosher Jesus: Revealing the mysteries of the Hidden Messiah by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? by David James
The Rainbow Covenant: Torah and the Seven Universal Laws by Michael Ellias Dallen, Esq.
Faces in the Clouds by Stewart Guthrie, Ph.D.
Rats in the Cosmic Laboratory: Is God A Scientist? by Dr. A. G. Payne
Hitler and HaShem (The Almighty) by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Heart of a Missionary by Dr. A.G. Payne
The Spiritual Aspect of Holistic Medicine by Dr. A. G. Payne
Religion is not about God by Prof. Loyal Rue
The Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan
Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith by George E. Vaillant, M.D.
The Undercover Philosopher by Michael Philips
Why We Believe What We Believe by Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman
“WALKING AROUND THINKING ABOUT STUFF”
EXTENDED BEING WEBSITE: http://extendbeing.weebly.com/
Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine by Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D.
“Living Longer, Yes! But, Living Well?” by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Fascination with Dying and Death as Participation by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Is an attachment style problem complicating or undermining your life? (Examiner article) by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
For Seekers & Other Heretics 
