{"id":905,"date":"2024-02-17T13:11:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T18:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/?p=905"},"modified":"2024-02-17T13:11:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T18:11:04","slug":"it-cant-happen-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2024\/02\/17\/it-cant-happen-here\/","title":{"rendered":"It Can’t Happen Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1966 Frank Zappa<\/a> released his seminal double-LP, Freak Out! <\/a>by the Mothers of Invention.<\/p>\n

\"Freak

Album cover for Freak Out!<\/p><\/div>\n

While the album was a sardonic and often critical statement on the state of the 1960s, it’s amazing how much the content remains relevant today, in 2024, 58 years later!<\/p>\n

I still own the album on vinyl.\u00a0 And more often these days, I’m reminded of some of the song titles and lyrics:\u00a0 Who Are The Brain Police?<\/a>\u00a0 Trouble Every Day<\/a>, and the song that inspired this post, It Can’t Happen Here<\/a>.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

Only a few years after the release of Freak Out!, I found myself the dependent son of an American diplomat posted behind the Iron Curtain<\/a>, a term coined by Winston Churchill in 1946 to depict the divide between the Soviet Union and Western Europe. This was at the height of the Cold War<\/a>, when Americans were viewed by communist regimes as “the enemy.” As a long-haired college kid at the time, I found the experience educational and informative.\u00a0 Better still, I had the luxury of leaving any time I wished (college was in what was then known as West Germany) so I had enormous advantages that the everyday citizens of the country did not.\u00a0 I drove an American car with diplomatic license plates when citizens had to save up and wait for years to obtain a terrible Trabant<\/a>, Wartburg<\/a> or similar examples of soviet “expertise.”<\/p>\n

\"A

A Trabant P 601<\/p><\/div>\n

I knew I had privilege.\u00a0 I was able to go places, buy things and enjoy myself at leisure.\u00a0 I also knew (and had been apprised of this by embassy personnel) that I was under constant surveillance.\u00a0 It’s likely my bedroom was bugged, our house staff would certinaly report anything that might compromise my family’s position, and that everywhere I went I was followed by the secret police.\u00a0 In fact, I enjoyed spotting my “tails” and would sometimes lead them around on wild goose chases as I navigated the cities and countryside.\u00a0 Despite my youth and privileged status, it was clear to me there was an “us-versus-them” air about my time there.<\/p>\n

When the Berlin Wall<\/a> came down on November 9, 1989, it signaled the end of the Cold War.\u00a0 At least as we knew it (my father had a photograph of him chipping away a piece of it, and enclosed the fragment in a block of lucite).\u00a0 What followed was a period of d\u00e9tente<\/em><\/a>, where if we weren’t “pals” with the Russians, we at least agreed to trade, and generally cooperate.<\/p>\n

So, now back to the topic at hand:\u00a0 It can’t happen here.<\/p>\n

For decades, Americans have been schooled on the “evils of communism.”\u00a0 Until they weren’t!\u00a0 At some undetermined point, but likely in 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved, the Soviet threat seemed to have lifted.\u00a0 But that didn’t end communism; it just took on a new face.\u00a0 For a few years, Russia struggled internally, and then in 1999 Vladimir Putin climbed the steps of power, becoming the country’s president in 2012, where he continues to this day (having rewritten the Russian constitution to allow him to do so, and by eliminating his political opponents — permanently).<\/p>\n

America’s relationship with communism and Russia has been and up-and-down affair for years.\u00a0 During President Obama’s time in office, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made famous the “RESET” attempt.<\/p>\n

\"Spelling

Spelling error – “Reset” translated to “overcharge” on embarrassing attempt to mend US-Russian relations.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Vladimir Putin assumed the Russian presidency in 2012, the wily former KGB officer began to put his lock on the Russian political scene.\u00a0 At the same time, the values and practices of the soviets had been hard at work in the U. S.\u00a0 The educational system was infested with leftist ideologues, and graduates from colleges and universities that had become indoctrination centers began to take up residence in schools, media, law centers and offices of government (local, state and federal).\u00a0 The quote by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev rings out:<\/p>\n

\"Gullible

Krushchev quote on Americans accepting socialism and communism.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, when Frank Zappa sang, “It can’t happen here,” he was not only satirizing mainstream middle America, but was also foretelling the direction the country would take when the “Hungry Freaks, Daddy<\/a>” became mainstream (check the lyrics at the link).\u00a0 Today, the halls of government, academia, healthcare and technology have upended the Constitution and turned the USA into a mirror of the soviet state.<\/p>\n

We have a two-tiered justice system (“laws for thee but not for me”).\u00a0 where you are protected if you’re a member of the privileged class, but jailed or ruined if you’re not.\u00a0 The U.S. has become a surveillance state, as former CIA director James Clapper admitted to Congress<\/a>. There is a secret court (FISC<\/a>) with unnamed judges conducting investigations into private American citizens’ lives.\u00a0 Profligate spending to send purported hush-money (and the anticipated kickbacks) has run the country to the brink of ruin, while the borders have become open doors to the world’s underclass.\u00a0 As Donald Trump once said (and was pilloried for saying it), “\u201cWhen Mexico sends its people, they\u2019re not sending their best. They\u2019re not sending you. They\u2019re not sending you.”\u00a0 Few of the migrants breaking U. S. immigration law are likely rocket scientists, computer programmers, or brain surgeons.<\/p>\n

Russian author Elena Gorokhova wrote in her book, A Mountain of Crumbs<\/a>, “They lie to us, we know they\u2019re lying, they know we know they\u2019re lying but they keep lying anyway, and we keep pretending to believe them.”\u00a0 That pretty much describes the current status of USA.<\/p>\n

As Walt Kelly’s Pogo once observed, “We have me the enemy and he is us.”<\/p>\n

\"We

Walt Kelly’s Pogo the Possum, \u00a9 1971<\/p><\/div>\n

It can’t happen here.\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1966 Frank Zappa released his seminal double-LP, Freak Out! by the Mothers of Invention. While the album was a sardonic and often critical statement on the state of the 1960s, it’s amazing how much the content remains relevant today, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}