Reflections on 'The Rise and Fall'

Last night, I finally finished William L. Shirer's massive tome, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich".

I started reading it around Halloween last year. Since the beginning of the Bush 'administration', I've grown increasingly alarmed at the tactics and message that were being sent by the powers-that-be, and being the WWII buff, I recognized many of the things that were going on as having historical precedent.

When I first read 'Rise and Fall' almost two decades ago, I was much younger, and more interested in the war aspect...and came away somewhat disappointed that all the years of WWII were compressed into the last 200 pages of the more than 1200-page volume.

Coming back to it now, I was much more interested in Hitler's rise to power, and how he was able to manipulate the system and dupe the people of Germany....and I wasn't disappointed. There's vast stretches of the book where the names Bush, Cheney, and Rove could be substituted for Hitler, Goering, and Goebbels, and you'd be hard pressed to tell if you were reading history or headlines.

Reading through the 200 last pages, where all of WWII was compressed, also left me with a feeling of unease. Beginning around 1943, after Stalingrad, and as the tide began to turn, Hitler increasingly surrounded himself with syncophants and yes-men, and anyone that even remotely dissented or tried to tell him the truth was removed, retired, or liquidated. In the end, the Fuehrerbunker was a wild world of lies, fantasy, and dreams, completely divorced from the world of reality.

Given the situation of the world today, and the current 'house-cleaning' that's been going on in Washington the past couple of weeks....the Bush 'administration' is starting to take on some of the feeling of desperation and fantasy that punctuated the last days of the Third Reich....the policies and practices of this 'president' have been a dismal failure, and while we don't have enemies at the gate like there were in Berlin, the fact that Bush is surrounding himself with syncophants and yes-men, and is crushing dissent and forcing people that might disagree with him into retirement....that ought to tell you something.

I think it's more telling that our 'president' takes great pride in not reading newspapers, or indeed very many books. There's sure to be a press release in the weeks ahead concerning the 'president's' Summer Reading List...which is sure to be laughable. Other than "The Pet Goat", I'm increasingly convinced that the only other book Bush has read is "The Rise and Fall"....or at least the 'Rise' section.

We would all do well to remember the author's words...from the very last page of the book, on the ocassion of it's 30 anniversary.

Perhaps it will help too if the erring governments and the wondering people of this world will remember the dark night of Nazi terror and genocide that almost engulfed our world and that is the subject of this book. Remembrance of the past helps us to understand the present.

William L. Shirer, May 1990