IT ONLY TAKES A FEW

“Yet no matter how evil your enemy is, the crucial thing is that he is human; and although incapable of loving another like ourselves, we nonetheless know that evil takes root when one man starts to think that he is better than another” 

- Joseph Brodsky 

Hitler had the hideous talent of bringing out the pent-up evil in vast numbers of people. We think of the Nazis as trickling cruelty and amorality from the top down.  It was more often the ordinary people next door that most often used state-sanctioned petty domestic terror as a tool to destroy those they disliked. Hitler’s major talent was to get up into an arena of adrenaline-soaked Nazis and get the crowd to leave hating all ‘the others.”  His audience would simply take it from there.

In today’s world, the tool of choice to disseminate these sentiments would be putting political opponents “on blast” via Facebook or Twitter. The demagogue sets the tone, and there is no shortage of people to do the dirty work. When Hillary Clinton used the phrase “It takes a village”, there was a deeper truth in those words. Momentum begins at the grassroots for many of history's most virtuous movements, and the grassroots also provides energy for the vilest acts.

Few remember how very small Hitler's Gestapo really was. It took around 40,000 agents and staff to instill order by terror in a country of more than 60 million people. To put that in perspective, the LAPD has approximately 9,000 sworn officers and 3,000 civilian employees to oversee a comparatively small 4 million souls. Looking at those numbers makes one ask, how did the Gestapo pull off their epic reign of terror? One source of free help was their system of "block wardens"

Block wardens were neighbors willing to betray and denounce their neighbors. Each assigned territory consisted of 40-60 households. They were a low level but an integral part of the operation of authoritarianism. Prior to 1933, their function had been to simply pass on to the SS names of neighbors who needed a threat or a good thrashing. Some even volunteered to become a primitive form of vacation rentals offering accommodations to Nazis who’d traveled from out of town to participate in varied party events.

When the Reich assumed power in 1933, the block wardens were tasked with keeping even closet tabs on their neighbors, turning them over to SA, SS, or the Gestapo if they showed the slightest sign of divergent thought. Upon initiation of the concentration camp and protective custody systems which began in March 1933, it was the block wardens who started many of their betrayed former friends on journeys to the gas chambers. Sins as petty as failure to pay adequate homage to their block warden or to hang out the appropriate yard art during party events often led to a knock at the door in the middle of the night.

Given the circumstances, it was important to say only cheerful things around a block warden and to agree wholeheartedly with whatever came out of their mouths. Block wardens got off on the power they had and were preternaturally keen to turn people in with the expectation that their efforts would lead to a rise in status within the Nazi party and greater fear in the neighborhoods. It was in its way the spiritual precursor of the "cancel culture" on Nextdoor and Facebook we see in Carlsbad today. There is always a readily available backstory to serve as a "cautionary tale." 

Of course, the block wardens were not the Gestapo’s only source of information. There were also networks of paid informants, and the Nazi archives are full of statements from ordinary people turning in neighbors, relatives, and friends– sometimes for “patriotic” reasons, but because disputes over property lines, debts, and personality conflicts would get out of hand.

In the classic BBC documentary, "The Nazis: A Warning from History", a woman named Resi Kraus was interviewed. Fifty years prior, out of fear, spite, or any number of less than savory human emotions, she turned her neighbor over to the Gestapo for being a risk to the regime. In the video linked below, hear one story of how an ordinary young German woman destroyed one of her neighbors, Ilsa Sonja Totzke. Totzke’s crimes: friendships with Jews, inconsistent saluting habits, and abnormal “predispositions”.

Resi was a person who was easily manipulated by the propaganda and the warped political-correctness of her day. The “bad people” didn’t share her blind moral ambiguities or personal vulnerability to political propaganda. 

Perhaps she was an archetype of the keyboard warriors of today, especially those who have neither the personal perspective, life experience, or moral courage to be able to recognize the fact their chosen political leadership can be dead wrong and can lead a country or even their communities to ruin. 

If you believe that “all politics is local” you might want to re-read those words from Joseph Brodsky above. No matter how "kind, necessary, and true things sound" it only takes a few to get many to live in terror.  

A CALL TO ACTION

In the Carlsbad of today, there are people constantly watching what everyone else is saying, who are inheritors of that spirit. Few can exercise their First Amendment rights without fear, except when the thought police agree with you. On almost all the social media platforms the thought police are aligned with Councilwoman Cori Schumacher. The Resi Krauses in your life are all Cori Schumacher's people. The name-calling, the crowd bullying, and the threats to “screenshot” anything and everything that approaches divergent thought is nothing less than a conspiracy of a few to silence you and keep people from speaking out.

Some readers would be astounded at the number of messages this author receives from those who are staying and working at home due to COVID, that discuss the rantings on Next Door and Wake Up Carlsbad. Few if any have ever posted on those platforms because they are scared to. They have seen the attempts to "cancel" others, and have seen the choreographed reactions to the most issue-driven critiques turn ugly. They have seen people's addresses published along with images of their children for the sin of speaking out.  

There may be a solution available if you believe as I do, that a "Non-Toxic Carlsbad" is not simply a matter of opposing pesticides or the dredging of the lagoon. The City of Carlsbad has a contract with Nextdoor in order to impart Community News and Information? By virtue of that deal, you have recourse to complain to the City if you have been tossed off or crowd bullied by the leads in your area, some of whom are lying about their address in order to advance their political agenda. 

If your First Amendment Rights are being violated in this way, or if you are concerned that your tax dollars are being used to weaponize division please write the following people. You have a right to belong and to comment on a platform public money helps support.  


Scott Chadwick, City Manager 

scott.chadwick@carlsbadca.gov

760-434-2820

Kristina Ray, Communication & Engagement Director

kristina.ray@carlsbadca.gov

760-434-2957

Celia Ashley Brewer, City Attorney 

celia.brewer@carlsbadca.gov

760- 434-2891