german Know-Nothings today

Written on August 5th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

Published on MrZine.org, by Victor Grossman, Aug 2, 2015.

“I don’t know.” Those words, often repeated 160-odd years ago in the USA, earned the gang of those using them the nickname “Know-Nothing Party.” Those were no expressions of intellectual modesty; party doings were secret, so members were not supposed to disclose anything about them, but just say, “I don’t know.” Their patriotic title was actually “American Party,” but many members truly knew almost nothing except that they hated immigrants, especially Catholic Germans and Irish, and wanted to bar them from entry, from citizenship and from the vote.

This uplifting program, including violent attacks on those fleeing famine in Ireland or repression in Germany after a lost revolution, won the “Know-Nothings,” by 1856, eight state governorships, five seats in the US Senate, and forty-three in the House of Representatives.

Today we are also bedeviled by Know-Nothings — in many countries. We hear similar views in London and Paris, in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, in Munich and Berlin. And we hear of results worse than in 1855 in Maryland or Massachusetts: of desperate misery in the “Jungle” of Calais or at the Italian-French border, of broken windows and flaming roofs in refugee hostels in more and more German towns. Such attacks, vicious graffiti, insulting hog carcasses, increasingly, Molotov cocktails as well, numbered 202 in Germany alone in the first half of 2015, already surpassing the number in 2014 … //

… The old Know-Nothings in the USA, with nothing to offer voters except hatred, were soon overrun by the approaching Civil War, though the human problems still remain. In Europe, especially in Germany, the forces misusing the problems of properly treating such increasingly desperate “undesirables” represent a growing threat, far more dangerous than the old Know-Nothings … and eager to seize their chances.

(full text, hyper links).

Links:

Greek Youth Against Austerity, on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin No. 1150, by Syriza Youth, Aug 4, 2015;

Austerity is a Dead End – Alexis Tsipras, on transform, Aug 3, 2015;

US/Pennsylvania: First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem seeks to leave national Presbyterian Church, on The Morning Call, by Sarah M. Wojcik, Aug 3, 2015: the largest Presbyterian church in the Lehigh Valley has begun a process that could lead to a split from the most visible national denomination — a move initiated after a survey showed most of its congregants disagree with church positions including, those allowing same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay ministers …;

‘Piperisks’ reveals a failed pipeline process, on John Riddell, by blog oner, July 29, 2015;

What Is Consciousness & Where Is It? – Deepak Chopra, 49.46 min, uploaded by science and non duality, Dec 26, 2013;

Website: Altered States, freedom from the known (in many languages);

… and this:

Virgil Armstrong

Interview:

Virgil Armstrong im Gespräch mit Jo Conrad von Bewusst.tv, 59.01 min, (auf deutsch übersetzt), von falcon öffner am 8. December 2012 hochgeladen;

more videos with Virgil Armstrong on YouTube-search.

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