Richter, they're all leaving us.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

They're all leaving us, and I can't say I blame them.  They were GIANTS, Richter, and when the door to hell cracked open half a century ago and the beasts came out, those giants hammered the Nazi nightmare into its coffin and buried it deep.  My grandparents' generation were a different breed, and the line of man has declined since then; we shall never see their like again.

The only surviving World War II vet in my family is my great-uncle Bill, an ornery old man who still scowls and glares around him, as if daring any of his ancient enemies to show their faces.  He's still furious 64 years after Hitler's death, and he is still convinced that the Nazis won the war...just not the German Nazis.  Because, you see, while Uncle Bill and his comrades were up to their arses in blood during Operation Tractable, scrambling to save the Polish blocking force, somewhere around that time the Nazis were infecting America and the British Empire.

Smaller men, slyer men, men with weasel voices that whispered of "national security" and "the future threat" were already taking over.  Not just with imported Nazis through Operation Paper Clip, but a more insidious kind, a homegrown kind that said exactly the same things the German ones said.  Oh, sure, they didn't talk about Jews (much), but they talked about America (Canada, Britain, oh, choose a nation) and Mom and Apple Pie, and Handsome, Strapping Young American Boys, and what to do about the Russians.  And what to do about citizens/subjects that were insufficiently loyal.

He tells me that he recognized McCarthy and Cohn right away, and he knew Dick Cheney the moment he first saw him, back in the 80s.  Donald Rumsfeld was nothing new, and McNamara was the same old song and dance.  Uncle Bill defeated his enemies, and came home to find that the weasels back home had stabbed them in the back by falling for the same nationalistic shit.  He recently watched the Lord of the Rings, and he said he about shat himself when he saw Isildur keep the ring.  He already knew that scene, he said, because he saw it happen in real life.

Anyway, Richter, he's the last one left in my family, and he has nothing but contempt for us all.  It's a genial contempt; he never had anything but kind words for his descendents and relatives, but contempt all the same.  He saw Evil, and he crushed it into powder.  We saw Evil, and we explained to ourselves why it was necessary, and that is isn't really torture, and how our civil liberties need to be "suspended", etc.

So now he's ill, and he scowls at the clock, waiting for death.  And I think he has his old trench knife hidden under his blanket, and I think death is gonna have to fight for it...Because that's how Uncle Bill is.

But when he's gone, Richter, when he and his friends are all gone, we'll be alone.  Alone with the beasts.

[Richter]

A globe decided to try to eat itself, in a hail of bullets and grit with a  nuclear cherry on top, but they walked through it and came out.  They were men who stood up and DID something, while politicians, weasles sweating under masks and makeup amde to LOOK human could only stammer and defecate.

I met them when they were getting ready to go, but they were still DAMN impressive.  Human and fallible as the rest of us, but they had a quality, a worth that you will never replicate.  Those men had an evil empire, they had two, and they two, and they came out on top. 

More coming.

[Richter]

I don't know about you Roger, but they never told me much.  They just DID.  Their example was one of the best teacher's I've had.  Sure, they told us stuff directly, and it stuck.  Some of it was just their old stories too.

Don't be a dick.
Keep things moving (with sarcastic, horrible humor)
Be a dick, and have FUN with it.
Do what you say you're going to.
ALWAYS have a knife.
If you think it's fucked, TELL THEM IT'S FUCKED.

There they go.  We're lucky we knew them, and frankly America doesn't deserve them anymore.  There are no more evil empires to take down, no more reason for every Johnny to march off.  No war to come will ever have the clarity, the necessity their's did.  We're left with the ambiguity, the shades of gray. 
Looking at the sanitized pablum shit, we try to elect lesser weevils. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

There are no more evil empires to take down,

Maybe.  I have this stupid superstition, you know, it's idiocy, but I can't help feeling that our homegrown Nazis and their ilk throughout the world are just waiting for the giants to finally die off, and then they'll be free.  Free to make the trains run on time...and I don't think I want to know where those trains would go, Richter.

But, yeah, that's just a stupid bad dream.  Everything is fine...we don't do things like that anymore, and all the beasts are tame now.  Proper little lapdogs, not so very impressive, just little things with admittedly sharp teeth.

I wonder what they'd look like, though, if snappy black uniforms came back into style.

[Richter]

It never starts with snappy blacks or trains.  They knew this even before they started it the first time.  It will be patriotism first, an inclusive group offering structure.  A place and a dogma for the destitute, promotions and development for the stoic.

The kiddies will see it and wonder why it's SO much like V for Vendetta.  Of course, it will be different, this will be THEIR group.  The one that cleaned up the block that Sunday, gave Susan a job supervising, and got Bobby focused on a goal other than Afgani heroin.  These folks will know all the hallmarks, academically speaking, and know WHERE they lead, but they won't have the will or the foresight of the old Giants to stamp it out before it gets steam up. 

I hope they're gone by then Roger.  They got rid of one memetic plauge, one persistent idea of superiority and control, they shouldn't have another waved udner their noses as they're about to go out.  I talked to a man who was there when they cleared Dachau.  He told us how it smelled.  If anyone in earshot came out with a sentiment that reminded him of the group that opened the place, he'd tell them exactly where that sort of thinking led to. 
I wonder if anyone in Germany had the conversation in the 20's or 30's.
I wonder if we've still got the empire stomping in us.
Maybe it's been bred out and sedated by TV, sanitized education, and processed food. 

[Doktor Howl]

More bump.

[Richter]

One cray, diabetic professor of mine in college always taught that dissorders are NOT symptoms.  They're a feel, a scent, each one it's own unique SOMETHING.  Once you've gotten a taste of that something and seen it in action you know that flavor, but until then it's all guesswork.  How many of us have been blooded to the facist stink, these days?  I've never met a REAL Nazi (only a few Hitler Youth), so I can't say I have it for certain.  I think I MAY know what it MIGHT smell like, but that's still e-prime work.  Not solid.

Devil's Advocate pipe's up, "Maybe it's all reasonable.  Maybe we're dealing with such weird ideologies and threats that we NEED to lockdown an entire culture jsut to deal with it.  Superempowered authority and a scared populace.  We are dealing with people who will blow themselves up for christshakes.  If I was thme I'd do nothing for a decade or threee before striking back, train my children to train their grandchildren, skipping generations to obscure the origins."  I also remember the number of leaders that have given BACK that kind of power.  ("and few such lords their be" - WAY out of context R.K.) 

This mornign I saw the scaremonger clan's daily broadcast, going on about the "new" threat of the "Citizen Terrorist".   
FUCK. 

I can't be sure what it is Dok, but it has a reek to it.  It reeks like the student council and the admin bullshit from High School.  It stinks like overbearing management, user peers, and twisted patriotism.  Like how the last 3 "Star Wars" movies made everyone uncomfortable for the Galactic Senate scenes.  Soon enough come the pogroms, the rights we have left going right out the window (only for the duration of the crisis, of course.), the thought crime. 

I wonder what kind of treatment a pocket full of "Seditious Material" on 5160 will land me?  I better practice my waterboarding. 
COWABUNGA!

[Adios]

It all starts so innocently with 'What is GOOD for us.' This works because a basic tenant of freedom has been forgotten and morphed into myth. That is the myth that with great freedoms come great responsibilities. The mindless masses are no longer taught responsibility. They fear it and hide from it while insulating themselves in computer games, teevee and other media designed to provide sanctuary from any responsibility.

Those 'individuals' can't and won't think for themselves because they were never taught how to. It is so very much easier for them to fall into step with every wind that blows. Want to know the real scary part? THEY DON'T WANT FREEDOM BECAUSE THEY CAN'T LIVE UP TO THE RESPONSIBILITY OF IT.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

There are no more evil empires to take down,

Maybe.  I have this stupid superstition, you know, it's idiocy, but I can't help feeling that our homegrown Nazis and their ilk throughout the world are just waiting for the giants to finally die off, and then they'll be free.  Free to make the trains run on time...and I don't think I want to know where those trains would go, Richter.

But, yeah, that's just a stupid bad dream.  Everything is fine...we don't do things like that anymore, and all the beasts are tame now.  Proper little lapdogs, not so very impressive, just little things with admittedly sharp teeth.

I wonder what they'd look like, though, if snappy black uniforms came back into style.

Bump.  I'm always right, and nobody ever listens.

[Luna]

Damn, guys, you didn't leave much for the rest of us to say.

[Miss Demeanor]

How the hell can we, the people, be concerned about our freedom when there are terrorists out there..........besides American Idol is coming on.  Or Real Housewives of Wherethefuckever.  Or some other shitty reality show.  What's more important?  Our government is only doing what is best........for corperate America and themselves.  Nothing to see here.