It is always easy to blame the “head”, to say, "Hitler did this", and, "Hitler did that". But the truth is Hitler himself did very little. No doubt, like his homologue Stalin, he was a world class tyrant, but the evil actually done in Germany during the Third Reich, from the slave-labour camps to the extermination camps to the war itself,  was all done by German citizens who were all too happy never dispute or to question if what they were told by their government was the truth or not, as their lack of individuality and intellectual inability to think outside a given parameter made them mindless robots and who because of their innate self-conviction that they are a superior race to the rest of us mere mortals, their overall arrogance and genetic predisposition to genocide never once  they did not want to admit to themselves that they were afraid to question the government, refused to see the truth behind the Reichstag Fire, refused to see the invasion by Poland was a staged fake, and followed Hitler into national disaster.

The German people of the late 1930s imagined themselves to be brave. They saw themselves as the heroic Germans depicted by the Wagnerian Operas, the descendants of the fierce Germanic warriors who had hunted wild boar with nothing but spears and who had defeated three of Rome's mightiest legions in the Teutonburg Forest.

But in truth, by the 1930s, the worst of economic crisis that followed the end of WW1 had passed,  and the German people had become civilized and tamed, culturally involved with the fine details in both science and society. Their self-image of bravery was the mirror of their societal slavery. This entailed that Germans were required to behave as if they were brave, even when they were not.

It's easy to look back and realize what a jerk Hitler was. But at that time, Hitler looked pretty good to the German people, had got the economy back on track, and reclaimed the Ruhr from the French, annexed Austria, and then Czechoslovakia, and of course the media was of great help. He was even TIME Magazine's Man of the Year in 1938. The German people culled themselves into believing that they were safe from a tyrant. They lived in a Republic, after all, with strict laws regarding what the government could and more importantly could not do. Their leader was a devoutly religious man, and had even sung with the boys’ choir of a monastery in his youth. One must not forget that Germany in 1930s and 1940s was one of the Christianized countries in the world.

The reality was that the German people, as individuals and has social group, had lost their ability to look at events in a critical way, and those who did were systematically eliminated by the Nazi so those that remained forfeited their courage: they were afraid!. And the German government preferred it that way as a fearful people are easier to rule than a courageous one. But the German people didn't wish to lose their self-image of courage. So, when confronted with a situation demanding individual courage, in the form of a government gone wrong, the German people simply pretended that the situation did not exist. And in that simple self-deception lay the ruin of an entire nation and the coming of the Second World War.

If one compares those times to what is happening today in our world then one can see that self-deception has surged again, and this time it is global.  In this present self-deception that both Europe and USA are going through may lay not only the foundations of the Fourth Reich, but those of the end of humanity as whole.

Let’s look at the USA and Europe today.

The American people also imagine themselves to be brave. In a way they see themselves as the heroic Americans depicted by Western Movies, whose ancestors and relatives were the fierce patriot warriors who had tamed the frontier and defeated the might of the British Empire.

But in truth, by the dawn of the third millennium, the more the American people have become civilized and tamed, culturally obsessed with fine details in both science and society. Their perceived self-image of bravery is the catalyst of their own slavery.  Americans too are required to behave as if they are brave, even when they are not.

The American people, even within the parameters of their cultural wars, endless arguments on futile issues such as the right to life, or not, evolution and creationism, religiosity and atheism in general assume that they are safe. They live in a Republic, after all, with strict laws regarding what the government can and more importantly cannot do. Their leaders are, at least apparently, devoutly religious men.

The reality is that the American people, both as individuals and as a society, have lost their ability to think critically and therefore they too have lost their courage. The government prefers it that way as a fearful people are easier to rule than a courageous one. But Americans don't wish to lose their external self-image of courage. So, when confronted with a situation demanding courage and critical thinking, in the form of a government gone wrong, the American people simply pretend that the situation does not exist.

When the World Trade Towers collapsed, most Americans simply refused to believe suggestions that there was more to the attacks than a bunch of young Arab terrorists and that there is a serious prima facie case to state that parties working for the US Government itself may have known about the attacks before they took place and let them happen nonetheless. American society refused to acknowledge such a suggestion even in the face of a very strong and not so circumstantial case (thanks to the actions of Wikileaks), even as news reports surfaced proving that the US Government that had announced plans for the invasion of Afghanistan early in the year, therefore before the attack on the twin towers, and that now were justifying the attack on Afghanistan under the emotional immediate effect that the attacks on the World Trade Towers, which rightly angered the American people,  into whipping up support to already-planned war where the attack to the twin towers was made to fit entirely and conveniently. Iraq followed on the wave moral indignation of Afghanistan and it went almost unnoticed till it was over.

But so trapped is American society in their own internal conflicts: religious, social and cultural that they need to cling to this belief in their own bravery so as to make themselves blind and impervious to the evidence before their eyes.  It doesn’t only take courage to stand up to Government lies and deception; it takes knowledge, and that consequently leads to the necessary critical and analytical thinking and the ability to read between the lines that allows us to see the lies and the deceptions and react. That mostly comes when in a country the education system is performing as it should, and this is, sadly not the case of the US, and unfortunately also of Europe where we have seen a constant decline of educational standards over the last 30 years.

So when the US Government and the Governments  give themselves  temporary extraordinary powers, powers specifically banned under Constitutional law not only in the USA but also in the European constitutions of the various nations, claiming they need them to have to deal with the "terrorists". We the people of these nations, having already sold our souls to our self-delusions, are agreeing. But what most of us don’t realize or choose to ignore that all these powers that we allow these people to have are not really for our own security but to unable a wealthy minority the control over a vast majority. And moreover very few really grasp that these “temporary powers” that these minorities have recently conferred to themselves will be no more temporary in America or in Europe than they were in Germany during the time of Hitler.

Now let’s be frank, anyone with a minimum of military background knows that small groups of men and women willing to die are quite capable of paralysing an entire nation. There is far too uncoordinated a strategy in the present * terrorist mind-set” to make this global threat of a terrorist onslaught credible or to justify such an erosion of our civil liberties worldwide.  And our modern and highly sophisticated social structures and reliance on technology to go about are daily lives, may be highly performing, but makes us also highly vulnerable. So small groups of suicide bombers could blow themselves up almost daily in strategic points of our cities and we would be on our knees in a matter of weeks, but this doesn’t happen, why? Instead these “highly motivated terrorists” seem to be attracted by big random events New York, London, Madrid all horrific and causing great suffering but military and strategically useless and certainly of no use to the overall strategy of a Jihad to take over the planet.

Add to the “war on terror”, the biggest artificial economic crisis that the West has experienced since the end of WW1, and as the French would say: “Les Jeux sont fait”. Fear coupled with the uncertainty of a stable economic future make for:

FAKE TERROR - THE ROAD TO WAR AND DICTATORSHIP

It really is the oldest trick in the book, dating back to Roman times; creating the enemies you need.

In 70 BC, an ambitious minor politician and extremely wealthy man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, wanted to rule Rome. Just to give you an idea of what sort of man Crassus really was, he is credited with invention of the fire brigade. But in Crassus' version, his fire-fighting slaves would race to the scene of a burning building whereupon Crassus would offer to buy it on the spot for a tiny fraction of its worth. If the owner sold, Crassus' slaves would put out the fire. If the owner refused to sell, Crassus allowed the building to burn to the ground. By means of this device, Crassus eventually came to be the largest single private land holder in Rome, and used some of his wealth to help back Julius Caesar against Cicero.           

In 70 BC Rome was still a Republic, which placed very strict limits on what Rulers could do, and more importantly NOT do. But Crassus had no intentions of enduring such limits to his personal power, and contrived a plan.

Crassus seized upon the slave revolt led by Spartacus in order to strike terror into the hearts of Rome, whose garrison Spartacus had already defeated in battle. But Spartacus had no intention of marching on Rome itself, a move he knew to be suicidal. Spartacus and his band wanted nothing to do with the Roman Empire and had planned from the start merely to loot enough money from their former owners in the Italian countryside to hire a mercenary fleet in which to sail to freedom.

Sailing away was the last thing Crassus wanted Spartacus to do. He needed a convenient enemy with which to terrorize Rome itself for his personal political gain. So Crassus bribed the mercenary fleet to sail without Spartacus, then positioned two Roman legions in such a way that Spartacus had no choice but to march on Rome.

Terrified of the impending arrival of the much-feared army of gladiators, Rome declared Crassus Praetor. Crassus then crushed Spartacus' army and even though Pompey took the credit, Crassus was elected Consul of Rome the following year.

With this manoeuvre, the Romans surrendered their Republican form of government. Soon would follow the first Triumvirate, consisting of Crassus, Pompeii, and Julius Caesar, followed by the reign of the god-like Emperors of Rome.

The Romans were hoaxed into surrendering their Republic, and accepting the rule of Emperors.

This repeats itself when Julius Caesar's political opponent, Cicero, for all his literary accomplishments, played the same games in his campaign against Julius Caesar, claiming that Rome was falling victim to an internal "vast right wing" conspiracy in which any expressed desire for legislative limits on government was treated as suspicious behaviour. Cicero, in order to demonstrate to the Romans just how unsafe Rome has become hired thugs to cause as much disturbance as possible, and campaigned on a promise to end the internal strife if elected and granted extraordinary powers.

Now what Cicero only dreamed of, Adolph Hitler succeeded in doing! Once elected Chancellor of Germany, Hitler, like Crassus, had no intention of living with the strict limits to his power imposed by German law. Unlike Cicero, Hitler's thugs were easy to recognize; they all wore the same brown shirts. But their actions were no different than those of their Roman predecessors. They staged beatings, set fires, and caused as much trouble as they could, while Hitler made speeches promising that he could end the crime wave of subversives and terrorism if he was granted extraordinary powers.

Then the Reichstag burned down; a staged terrorist attack.

The Germans were hoaxed into surrendering their Republic, and accepting the total rule of * Der Fuehrer”. Hitler had German troops dressed in Polish uniforms attack the radio station at Gleiwitz, then lied to the Germans, telling them Poland had invaded, and marched Germany off into World War Two

Our governments to use lies and deceptions to create in us the illusion that We “The People” have no choice but the direction the government wishes us to go in. The “diumvirate” Bush/Blair took us to war in Afghanistan, and then Iraq under the pretence of the “War on Terror”. The invasion of both countries had little to do with terror but plenty to do with money and personal gain. The military manufacturers made billions. Lies abounded, as for the famed weapons of mass destruction so publicized in both the US and in Europe to justify the wars; well those were nothing more and nothing less than a blatant manipulation of public perception.

Our great economic crisis what has it achieved, not much really aside the fact the we “the people” have to pay out of our pockets an exorbitant amount of taxes so that the rich can remain rich and the poor get even poorer.

I guess the time comes when one has to ask the right question:

WHO BENEFITS FROM ALL THIS?

One thing is for sure we “the people” certainly don’t, so who?