Guarding Against Extremism in the 21St Century

Anthony R. Wells

Description

"Anthony Wells shows in graphic terms how extremism can develop in a democratic and educated society with strong cultural and religious traditions and values. A wide range of critical factors are examined that show how extremism can take root, grow, recruit all ages, and take total control of society. Dr. Wells reveals how extremism can take root by devious and nefarious means in an era of electronic communications and an Internet that connects the world, and therefore outside influences on those whose intent is to create and pursue extremism.Media controls and influences are shown as means to absolutist ends and demagoguery as the means to evil ends. We are graphically reminded that controlling public opinion by controlling media and all democratic outlets across all aspects of societal domains can deny the freedom of speech that is the sacred right of American society. Extremism can grow like a cancer, suddenly, without warning in some cases, and is there, unchallenged because of the very nature of a free society protected by the First Amendment. This is a must read book to ensure that we are all aware of the present dangers and how we may successfully anticipate and guard against extremism."

Sujets

• Histoire
• Extremism
• Guard
• 21st Century
• History
• Anthony
• Wells

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 04 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669870555
• Langue: English

Extrait

GUARDING AGAINST EXTREMISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY
A Lesson from the Past. German Public Opinion and Hitler’s Policies, 1933-1939
Anthony R. Wells

 
Copyright © 2023 by Anthony R. Wells.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2023905025
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-7056-2

Softcover
978-1-6698-7054-8

eBook
978-1-6698-7055-5
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 04/04/2023
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
851083
CONTENTS
Dedication
Preface
Introduction
 
Chapter 1 Extremism Today
Chapter 2 Why Germany 1933–1939 Holds Lessons for Today
Chapter 3 The First Years of Nazi Power 1933–1935
Chapter 4 Watershed – 1936
Chapter 5 The Pace Quickens to Extremism 1937–1938
Chapter 6 The German People, Extremism, and the Shadow of War – 1939
Chapter 7 The German People and Nazi Social Controls
Chapter 8 Lessons for the Modern World
 
Epilogue
References
About the Author
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1945. He represents all that is good in protecting the United States and its democratic allies against the tyranny of extremism. Benjamin’s life and legal career represent the very best in American values and the preservation of our democracy in an era of global challenges. Benjamin was 103 on March 11, 2023. Thank you, Benjamin, for your life and work.
PREFACE
The events of January 6, 2021, were a critical indicator of how far extremism had grown in the United States. Extremist movements elsewhere in the world had been observed by the government, media, US National Intelligence Community and their Five Eyes allies, and academe before the tragic and devastating events of September 11, 2001. The latter was a turning point in both American and world history. The world has never been the same since the 2001 attack on the United States’s sovereign homeland. Besides the attack by Osama Bin Laden’s small group, consisting of Saudi Arabian and Egyptian nationals, many other terrorist and extremist groups had proliferated in other parts of the world. However, what became very different was the growth internally in the United States of extreme groups that were not associated with these other non-American terrorist or extremist groups. The United States produced its own indigenous extremist groups. The violence displayed on January 6, 2021, was a devastating indictment of how far such groups had grown, unchallenged by the judicial system until violence required a law enforcement and legal response by the United States Department of Justice.
In Brazil, supporters of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the country’s Supreme Court and its congressional building and surrounded the presidential palace in Brasilia on Sunday, January 8, 2023. Global leaders condemned the assault on democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. The similarities with the attack on the US Capitol were noted by the world’s media, and political analysts universally agreed that what happened in Washington DC may have inspired the Brazilian extremists.
Freedom of speech is one of the hallmarks of the United States’s democratic philosophy and institutions. Within caveats of preserving life, property, and national security, freedom of speech is a given in the United States. Forming groupings that exhibit extreme views is not illegal until various legal boundaries are crossed. On January 6, 2021, many boundaries were crossed, not least the possibility that the vice president of the United States and the speaker of the House of Representatives came close to being murdered by an extremist mob that was armed and intent on undermining the Constitution of the United States by preventing the proper discharge of the 2020 election process.
The trials that have taken place since January 6, 2021, have exemplified the modus operandi of the extremist groups involved in attempting to forestall the 2020 election results and the inauguration of the duly-elected president, Joseph Biden. Extremists came within short distances, literally and metaphorically, on Capitol Hill of creating the worst constitutional crisis in US history since the US Civil War. Moreover, the various sentences handed down in US federal courts reflect not just the actions of those involved but also their organizations and underlying raison d’être that motivated the extreme violence, causing death and destruction at the very heart of the American democracy.
January 6, 2021, was not a remote event. There have been other major indicators and warnings of the growth of extremist movements. While the United States avoided political violence surrounding the 2022 midterm elections, there is still growing concern over the domestic violent extremist landscape, with threats more diverse than at any point in recent memory. Domestic terrorism in the United States has been on the rise over the past several years, including a major spike in violent incidents at demonstrations and protests in cities and urban areas. High-profile attacks in 2022 have spanned the ideological spectrum, demonstrating just how complex and unpredictable the state of domestic violent extremism is in the United States currently.
Looking ahead, US law enforcement and counterterrorism authorities remain concerned about the radicalizing impact of conspiracies and disinformation, particularly in the area of antigovernment and anti-authority violent statements and acts.
The United States is the leading democracy in the world at a time when totalitarian regimes in Russia and China and other lesser nations aligned with these countries challenge the United States’s and its allies’ core values and institutions. Aligned with indigenous American extremist groups and activities are the insidious influences of external disinformation and the sowing of internal discoid by cyber means. Foreign entities recognize the vulnerabilities of an open democratic society and communication systems, with freedom of speech its quintessential First Amendment to its constitution. The latter guarantees freedoms regarding religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. The amendment also prohibits the US Congress from promoting one religion over others and restricting any individual’s religious practices. The five guaranteed freedoms make the citizens of the United States the freest in the world.
Extremism challenges these core values. The events of January 6, 2021, were representative of how far extremist thinking, values, organization, and intent to disrupt the greatest democracy in the world had progressed in a country regarded by the rest of the world, and certainly the democracies and the United States’s key allies, as the bulwark against tyranny and dictatorship.
Understanding extremism is essential. To prevent its growth in the United States, it is necessary to go beyond the roles and missions of the law enforcement community and domestic intelligence provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. Dealing with a catastrophic event such as January 6, 2021, cannot be addressed in hindsight. The fundamental background to and understanding of how extremism forms and grows like cancer inside a perfectly civilized body politic is essential. The signs, symptoms, and real-world actions within extremist groups have not only to be both fully understood and anticipated, but the core indicators have to be defined.
The lesson that follows from Germany 1933–1939 is a very effective way to see how a stable society with post–World War 1 democratic institutions could in the short space of six years become the most virulent and oppressive nation in the world, causing more death and destruction in the history of the world.
This is not to imply in any way that the United States is on a rocky road similar to Germany in the 1930s. This is neither the intent nor the lessons to be learned. The intent of what follows is quintessentially this: The detailed analysis that follows shows how various key elements in a democratic society can be influenced and changed for the worse as a result of an extremist movement or movements. The objective is to create a set of variables that can be used to constantly review where the United States’s society and institutions are at any moment in the future regarding the possible growth and spread of extremism. In military and national security parlance, these are “indicators and warnings.”
The introduction details the finer approach taken in this book and the sources and methods employed. Chapter 8, “Lessons for the Modern World,” and the epilogue provide the ways and means by which the United States and its democratic allies can monitor extremist movements within its society and be constantly on the watch for those elements that are not overt and obvious yet bear the indicators and warnings of shifts in society that may not be in the great democratic traditions of the United States and i