Twenty years ago this week, the Berlin Wall was torn apart. I was 18 years old, and it was an electric time as bit by bit the Soviet bloc began to crumble. Ronald Reagan’s bold demand “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” became a reality suddenly in a matter of days. We sat in front of the TV and watched as men and women, young and old climbed on the wall, danced on the wall, and actively dismantled the wall. I guess that’s when the embers of freedom that were in my DNA began to flame up.
At the end of the year Leonard Bernstein led the Berlin Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Instead of the word freude—“joy,” Bernstein instructed the chorus to sing “FREIHEIT!” Freedom.
A lot has happened in the past 20 years. I am more passionate about freedom now than I was then, and mostly because as Tennyson wrote, “freedom requires eternal vigilance.” Tyranny is encroaching, and we must stand up to it. Sadly, the trends that led to Germany’s division are at work in this country, and unless our government is stopped there will be long lasting consequences.
I hope it will not take a wall being erected in this country before the love of freedom is revived.
This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to the U.S. Congress and said something our current government is not willing to say: if Israel is attacked by a nuclear Iran, the Germans will see this as an attack on Germany. What a wild turn of events. The nation once committed to annihilating the Jews are defending the Jews, and we the nation that once defended the Jews are negotiating with the enemies of Israel. It is chilling.
I have quietly watched over the past year and a half as Barack Obama has had a meteoric rise to power. The first time my radar thought there was something wrong with candidate Obama was the day he stood in Berlin and the crowds chanted his name. The last person to elicit that kind of response in a united Berlin was Adolph Hitler. Throughout history, tyrants all look the same. Like a disease, tyranny has symptoms.
Here are the signs:
1. Tyrants surround themselves with ideologues who swear undying loyalty to the tyrant, and who may or may not be equipped for the positions they hold. These underlings serve as henchmen and women who have no ability to think through the orders they are serving.
2. Tyrants need to have images of themselves everywhere in public view. The tyrant appears on posters, billboards, radio and television daily. The tyrant needs the people to be loyal to him, and also needs his narcissism supported. For a tyrant, government is about a person embodied in an ideology. They need to be a god.
3. Tyrants repeatedly say one thing in public addresses, and do another in private. Tyrants tend to be great orators that can stir crowds, but these speeches are a bait and switch tactic.
4. Tyrants believe that there are two sets of laws, one for the government, and one for the governed. Tyrants live lavish lifestyles in private while calling for the people to sacrifice ‘for the common good.” Can you say “Geithner.”
5. Tyrants repeatedly try to remove freedom. This is gradual at first, but then usually when they feel the opposition is sufficiently weakened, by seizing power. A tyrant cannot see another person or group sharing any voice or power. Tyranny by its nature demands one point of view. Although it seems like the Fox battle was petty, from the administration standpoint they must be silenced. Thankfully they are losing that battle with the public.
6. Tyrants place a low value on human life and see it as a commodity. Human beings are valued only by their ability to support the tyrant’s agenda or power. The health care legislation certainly is doing this. Everybody has their price, and their cost.
7. Tyrants believe that they have the answers to every problem facing the country, and that a crisis is an opportunity for them to take more power from others. Eventually tyrants always conflict with two groups: Christians and Orthodox Jews, because these two groups are loyal to another power. Throughout history tyrants have tried to kill Christians and Orthodox Jews. It began with Egypt, and continues to today.
8. Tyrants attempt to control the flow of information. There must be one message and so they must control every form of communication. This is why tyrants always crack down on the arts and education. This is why the two NEA’s, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Education Association have been in the center of the culture wars for over two decades.
9. Tyrants marginalize, and eventually vilify their mainstream opponents with the intent to push them out of the government and society. Noam Chomsky anyone?
10. Tyrants eventually choose an ethnic group or a minority in the nation to be the scapegoat. This group then receives the criticism the tyrant rightfully deserves, and the tyrant gets the country to punish that minority. By this point, all opposition and the voice of reason has been silenced and genocide ensues. Remember the Kurds, the Gypsies, the Croates, the Jews, the Arminians, the . . .
11. All tyrants end the same way—in their own blood. The best example of this is Mussolini who was lauded by the U.S. press but eventually died a ghastly death at the hands of his own people. Given the veal cakes for their dog, the $100 a pound steak, and the date nights on private jets, I think the Obamas are closer to Marie Antoinette.
Tyranny always begins with elation, but as life gets harder for the people and things sour tyranny becomes just what it is. Tyranny is a dark grey creep that prevents creativity, innovation, joy, prosperity or freedom. For a time, tyranny may remove the worst part of life, but at a price. Eventually everything good in life will be replaced by one thing—fear. When you begin to be afraid of the government, you know that tyranny is on the rise.
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I am praying for a rebirth of freedom. There are signs that people are waking up. And I am praying that the current government is still weak enough for a glorious revolution to happen, a revolution where men and women sweep a new liberty and a new freedom into this land without bloodshed. It can happen. May it be so, with God’s help.
