[Peace-discuss] DHS Gestapo

Mon Nov 28 17:19:24 CST 2011

http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/Ron%20Paul


On Nov 28, 2011, at 5:13 PM, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:

> The people are mostly sheep who feel it is their patriotic duty
> as good citizens to go along so that they can get along.
>
> This is what we call the Hind Lick Manoeuvre.
>
> "Speak your mind, even if your air waves are obstructed."
>
> On 11/29/2011 1:51 AM, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
>>
>> 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
>>>
>>> ________________
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