[Peace-discuss] DHS Gestapo

[Carl G. Estabrook]

It's not confusion: it's etymology. (Didn't this come up once before  
on this list, back in Little-Bush-time?)

The root of geheim (adj. = secret) is Heim (n. = home); cf. the  
synonym heimlich (adj. = concealed, hidden, in secret).

 From the same root, unheimlich (adj. = uncanny) has connotations of  
“weird, eerie” as in Freud's 1919 essay "Das Unheimliche," where he  
argues "that social taboo often yields an aura not only of pious  
reverence but even more so of horror and even disgust, as the taboo  
state of an item gives rise to the commonplace assumption that that  
which is hidden from public eye must be a dangerous threat and even an  
abomination ... the Uncanny is what unconsciously reminds us of ...  
our forbidden and thus repressed impulses perceived as a threatening  
force .... Thus, the items and individuals that we project our own  
repressed impulses upon become a most uncanny threat to us, uncanny  
monsters and freaks akin to fairy-tale folk-devils, and subsequently  
often become scapegoats we blame for all sorts of perceived miseries,  
calamities, and maladies" - like terrorists, communists, anarchists -  
or the working-class "fuer sich."

Freud continues, "What interests us most in this long extract is to  
find that among its different shades of meaning the word heimlich  
exhibits one which is identical with its opposite, unheimlich. What is  
heimlich thus comes to be unheimlich. [...] In general we are reminded  
that the word heimlich is not unambiguous, but belongs to two sets of  
ideas, which, without being contradictory, are yet very different: on  
the one hand it means what is familiar and agreeable, and on the  
other, what is concealed and kept out of sight. Unheimlich is  
customarily used, we are told, as the contrary only of the first  
signification of heimlich, and not of the second. [...] On the other  
hand, we notice that Schelling says something which throws quite a new  
light on the concept of the Unheimlich, for which we were certainly  
not prepared. According to him, everything is unheimlich that ought to  
have remained secret and hidden but has come to light."

"Heim (home) is 'the realm of the familiar' - where you are safe and  
secure ... Geheimnis (secret) [has] this etymological idea that home  
is where you have privacy, where you can protect your secrets from the  
outside. Relatedly, heimlich means 'secretive' ... there are two  
strong contrasting connotations at play here - the friendly,  
comforting association with home, and the idea of secrets and  
isolation."

As Steven Wagner said in another context, a Heimlich maneuver...

The two notions are suggested by the operations of the Department of  
Homeland Security and the Geheime Staatspolizei: under Obama, they're  
working to live up to their name.

But of course we've had federal secret political police in America for  
generations, keeping the homeland secure by stealth - the FBI (white- 
washed apparently in Clint Eastwood's new film - "Anonymous" is far  
better history).  --CGE


On Nov 28, 2011, at 9:25 AM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:

> It was a creepy name from the beginning, and an even creepier idea.   
> The whole USA Patriot Act and related system needs dismantling.   
> Shame on Bush, shame on Congress, and shame on Obama, for setting it  
> up in the first place and then for not shredding it by now.  It's  
> also not the only form of police state we experience -- as we notice  
> in the local papers of late.
>
> But (p.s.) there's an easy confusion here between "heim-," which  
> means "home" as in "Heimat" ("homeland"), and "geheime," which means  
> "secret," in the full name of the infamous Nazi Gestapo.  It could  
> be that whoever coined the name "Homeland Security" for our own US  
> police state agency thought it was a clever pun, or that their  
> German just wasn't very good, but we can't actually translate  
> "Homeland Security" as "Geheime Staatspolizei."  The US system of  
> totalitarianism -- or "inverted totalitarianism" as someone called  
> it -- is also more sophisticated in my opinion and I believe enjoys  
> more support in the population than the Nazi/fascist systems  
> (although we do tend to underestimate how sophisticated they were,  
> and how much support they did enjoy at the time).
>
> Ricky Baldwin
>
> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
> From: Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
> To: Peace-discuss List <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 9:21 AM
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] DHS Gestapo
>
> "Homeland Security" in German could be Geheime Staatspolizei: under  
> Obama, they're working to live up to that name.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss