Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

November 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

“Ein Vaterland . . . Ein Reich . . . Ein Volk”

Sdferr heard it and I did, too.  So what the fuck.  As the newly bemused, we note only in passing — and with a knowing smile — that just because you’ve gone Godwin doesn’t mean you’re wrong.  From Obama’s speech, in which he expresses his desire to “perfect” the US (presumably, by disencumbering great and visionary leaders from having to follow the constraints placed upon them by dead white patriarchal shitheels in some hoary old document):

It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.

One Family.  One nation. One people.

That is, power through conformity and collectivism and the charismatic, visionary leadership of a transcendent man and his willing followers.  Without any of this selfish individual autonomy bullshit that’s been preventing us from ever creating a truly “perfect” nation-state.  Because We Can’t Wait.

What could possibly go wrong?

Heads up, Poland.  I’m just sayin’.

36 Replies to ““Ein Vaterland . . . Ein Reich . . . Ein Volk”

  1. Curmudgeon says:

    We *are* the Polacks now.

  2. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Point of personal pedantry:

    the actual slogan was one people, one regime, one leader

    Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer!

  3. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Are you as bemused as I am at all the ardent anti-fascists chanting in unison, and marching in lockstep like, well….

  4. sdferr says:

    If we could assign a meaning to the reversal of order Ernst, how would it go? In the Nazi context, it appears the elements progress from low to high, and in the Obamaian, in the reverse, from high (implying the family has a leader, the father, namely Obama himself) to low.

  5. JHoward says:

    Four years ago “to fundamentally transform the nation”, spoken in a firm, loud voice, was a declaration. A warning. A promise.

    This is another.

    This is neither a good man nor a shy, unintelligent, or unconvincing man. Those qualities would describe his subjects.

  6. leigh says:

    Ima brush up on my Deutsch in preparation.

  7. Ernst Schreiber says:

    variations on a theme is all sdferr.

    The german would actually be eine Familie, ein (Volks-)Staat, ein Volk

    or even perhaps, given the context, ein Volk, ein Volk, ein Volk.

  8. Car in says:

    I hope he fails.

  9. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Hope isn’t a plan.

  10. sdferr says:

    Push the lingo further back Ernst — how would the Latin equivalent to ein Volk, ein Volk, ein Volk look? And then, the Greek: monos demos, monos demos, monos demos

    the low, the good, the low, the good, the low, the good

  11. ThomasD says:

    There is only one viable plan. Crash this mother hard. Not coincidentally it is also the inevitable plan.

    Hitler took over a hardscrabble nation that was used to suffering and penury. They came to him in that state, he did not preside while they fell into it so bore no blame, and could bend them all into hard service.

    We are as soft as we are luxuriant. All those voters who just want their free stuff aren’t exactly going to accept no for an answer, but once reality strikes they sure as hell aren’t going to go out of their way to get it either. And they aren’t going to take a greater liking to the very people who promised them so much for nothing.

    We will run out of other people’s money sooner or later. Better that it be sooner so that we still retain some memory of what it takes to get out of the darkness.

  12. Libby says:

    Let me guess – we’re going to be controlled by one brain/one father telling us how much we can eat, how much of everything else is a fair portion (or if it’s even allowed, Gaia willling), and when it’s time to just take the blue (or is it red?) pill and say goodnight. All for the best of the family. I’m just as weary of the nannies, micro-managing all aspects of our existence, as I am of the takers.

  13. Libby says:

    Oh, look, Michelle wants to expand her “Let’s Move” program to towns and cities. Thanks, mom, for making sure I get enough exercise. Is it mandatory yet?
    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michelle-obama-wants-create-let-s-move-towns-and-cities

  14. dicentra says:

    Heads up, Poland. I’m just sayin’.

    That might be a good place to bug-out to. They’re not as effed up as we are.

  15. palaeomerus says:

    “Heads up, Poland. I’m just sayin’.”

    Yeah, whatever. If we can’t even semi-handle our shit in a newly overthrown Libya and Egypt, then Poland will kick our asses and make awesome video games about it for the next twenty years.

  16. palaeomerus says:

    ‘”EBL says November 7, 2012 at 11:50 am
    http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/11/john-yoo-argues-gop-screwed-up-and.html Fuck me.”

    Disclaimer: For purposes of spewing crude and sarcastic humor I shall operate under the rather dubious premise that you are speaking literally. Ahem.

    I appreciate the offer, but I’m psychologically unlikely to have anything resembling a real boner for the next four years. Unlike the heroic narrative fed us by various sci-fi action movies, IMpending Doom(TM) is serious mood killer, at least for me. I’ll happily pour you high ball while the quiche bakes however. If my hands ever stop shaking.

    We as a nation just voted for a train wreck on oncoming poverty and weakness because of Bush and plus we aren’t racist anymore right? The gap was 2 million.

    Let the enlightened experts breed and break their own serfs. I shall not assist in that.

  17. palaeomerus says:

    “ow would the Latin equivalent to ein Volk, ein Volk, ein Volk look?”

    It would be a visual of the fasces of course as schlepped by magistrates and lictors.

  18. leigh says:

    There is only one viable plan. Crash this mother hard. Not coincidentally it is also the inevitable plan.

    We’ve been saying this at the house for the last four years. It’s going to happen and I hope it happens soon.

  19. palaeomerus says:

    Ein Olive, Ein onion, Ein Vodka!

  20. Pellegri says:

    VNV Nation – Nemesis

    Those who shout loudest impose their will
    Upholding laws that serve a few.
    Declaring peace, while the sirens sing,
    In the name of “progress,” in the name of madness,
    Drum beats faster, crowd shouts louder,
    and chaos replaces order.

    I want justice for the voice that can’t be heard,
    Vindication for every suffering and hurt.
    Let retribution hold dominion over Earth
    Because judgment day’s not coming,
    Judgment day’s not coming soon enough.

    VNV Nation – Sentinel

    Can we say that we are free?
    Our hands are bound and voices silent.
    I’m sure it’s not a dream,
    I am awake, my eyes are open.

    I can’t accept and won’t concede,
    In aftermath we find redemption.
    The causes that are seized,
    And disguised as revolution.

    Quell the rage that deeply seethes,
    The extremes of these devotions.
    Dismantle the machine,
    The device of their creation.

    I can’t accept and won’t concede,
    That this is who we are.
    The conflict that is seized,
    And disguised as greater notions.

  21. leigh says:

    I give you William Butler Yeats.

    THE SECOND COMING

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

  22. Pellegri says:

    I had that memorized in college, leigh.

    I still do.

  23. leigh says:

    Same here, Pellegri.

  24. Pellegri says:

    What will become of us if there’s no one to watch over us?
    If we should face the certainty of our destruction?
    Forfeiting everything, pointless cries, futile dreams–
    There’ll be no laughter, there’ll be no tears, when tomorrow never comes.

  25. “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.”

  26. palaeomerus says:

    Ein Hagendaz! Ein Fahrvergnügen! Ein verrücktscheissekampferganger!

  27. McGehee says:

    One bourbon, one whiskey, one beer.

  28. John Bradley says:

    Heads up, Poland. I’m just sayin’.

    That might be a good place to bug-out to. They’re not as effed up as we are.

    My friend, who emigrated to this country from Romania in the early ’70s, is semi-seriously considering moving back to Bucharest.

    For the freedom.

  29. sdferr says:

    Still reading and considering Obama’s victory speech. He says:

    […] It’s important. Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs. And when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy.

    That won’t change after tonight, and it shouldn’t. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. We can never forget that as we speak people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.

    But despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America’s future.

    We make decisions by campaigning in smallness and trivialities and then act on big things. This is Obama’s version of deliberation.

    “Most of us share certain hopes”.

    And then he proceeds to tell us what “we want”. He needn’t listen to hear.

    We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers.

    A country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation, with all the good jobs and new businesses that follow.

    We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.

    We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth and the best troops this — this world has ever known.

    But also a country that moves with confidence beyond this time of war, to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being. We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America, open to the dreams of an immigrant’s daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag.

    To the young boy on the south side of Chicago who sees a life beyond the nearest street corner.

    To the furniture worker’s child in North Carolina who wants to become a doctor or a scientist, an engineer or an entrepreneur, a diplomat or even a president — that’s the future we hope for. That’s the vision we share. That’s where we need to go — forward.

    It’s Divine. Since it can only have been divined. Or as I might say, imagined.

  30. palaeomerus says:

    Captain Cook was divine for a while too. A cloud of smoke and some ignorance can go a long way with the right cloud. For a while.

  31. palaeomerus says:

    cloud-crowd.

  32. […] did Obama say Tuesday night after he won? Protein Wisdom, again: It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has […]

  33. palaeomerus says:

    Ein kindli Käseburger, ein Coke(TM), und Ein klein pommes frites. Dànké !

    Ich bin ein COMBO esser!

  34. leigh says:

    There was also a drag queen named Divine. He’s dead now, though.

  35. Jack Roy says:

    And Michael Walsh is calling for a new apparatus to be the ‘sword and shield” of the Republican party. I’m sure if you’re so attuned that “one nation-one people” hits your radar, then of course you picked up on that allusion.

    And you still don’t know what “bemused” means.

Comments are closed.