Got the car inspected, then went to Target and got a few more gifts. Spent most of the rest of the day packing and trying to decide what else I have to do to get ready for my trip. Scrabble group today.
WIDER: I've been reading "They Thought They Were Free," a fascinating book by Martin Mayer, first published in the early fifties. It's about the rise of Nazism in Germany and is eerily similar to what's going on in the U.S. now. (Oh,I know about Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here"--but, of course, it can. I want to read that next.) Mayer interviews a group of "little men," not the movers and shakers who brought about war and genocide, but ordinary citizens. Their lack of understanding of the true nature of their government (and, notably, of Hitler) and their acceptance of its horrors are mirrored, I'm afraid, in our own society today. Will write on this after I finish the book.
Speaking of "It Can't Happen Here," I just looked that up. On the second or third page, there's a speech by a "General Edgeways" that, incredibly, includes language so similar to Obama's recent "escalation speech," you'd swear Lewis came back from the grave. Here's an excerpt:
". . for these United States, alone among the great powers, have no desire for foreign conquest. Our highest ambition is to be darned well let alone!...But, as I explained to you, we must be prepared to defend our shores against all the alien gangs of international racketeers that call themselves 'governments,' and that with such feverish envy are always eyeing our inexhaustible mines, our towering forests, our titanic and luxurious cities, our fair and far-flung fields...For the first time in all history, a great nation must go on arming itself more and more, not for conquest--not for jealousy--not for war--but for peace...."
Got it, general: War is peace! New boss just like the old boss....