Jour : 30 janvier 2016

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American totalitarianism (1)

American totalitarianism (1)

Making a pretext of sinking of eight American vessels and of revealing of a « plot » to involve the United States in a war with Mexico and Japan, President Wilson appeared on April 2 1917 before the Congress and asked for a declaration of a state of war and on friday April 6, 1917, the United States went to war. Wilson’s slogan « force, force to the uttermost, force without stint or limit » was a declaration for a « total war and marked the passage from American dictatorship to American totalitarianism. At this juncture, the austere and stern scholar turned, under the circumstances of the war, into one of the greatest of war Presidents controlling every aspect of the war effort maintaining morale at home and abroad, mobilizing the nation for war and fight. The government became dictator over industry labor and agriculture ; it took over the railroads and the telegraph lines, farm production was increased  by one fourth and fuel and coal production was raised by two fifths, a colossal shipbuilding program, with more than three million tons in a single year was launched  Conscription had been voted putting Under arms some twenty-five million men; Wilson made use of propaganda at home and abroad. From the beginning of the war Wilson waged a wide and aggressive psychological warfare against Germany; He tried to sow dissension in Germany by insisting that the United States was not fighting against the German people but against his tyrannous and autocratic government. The hunt against dissent and “disloyalty” had been implemented and the First World revealed a constant continuity and a logical development between Alien and Sedition Acts of the 1790s and the Sedition and espionage Acts of Wilson’s presidency during the first World War or lately the Smith Act of 1940.

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Rise of American dictatorship (2)

Rise of American dictatorship (2)

American dictatorship entred a new phase at the beginning of the ninettenth century with the netry to the White House of Andrew Lackson in 1828 jackson’s inauguarated a new eraa in American dictatorship . Jackson had been described according to Justice Story as the « king of Mob » because of his populism and his appeal to the people as he had always  one of them. Once in popwer, Jackson vigorously carrieed his main ideas into practice ; Under his presidency he strenthened the power of the executive by opposing his « Maysville veto » disapproving voting money by Congress for olocal roads an d canals from Maysville to Lexington into  Kentucky. He opposed South carolina when it attempted to nullify the protective tariff of 1828; in 1832, Jackson strenly vetooed a bill for recharter of the second bank of the United States

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Rise of American dictotatorship (1)

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Rise of American dictatorship (1)

The genesis of American dictatorship began with Sahys’s Rebellion (1786-1787) in massachusetts. A series of popular uprisings  at Northampton and Worcester. At Springfield, the leader of popualr uprising was daniel Shays an former captain in  the Continental army. To end the rebellion an army of four thousand four hundred men was raised and put Under the command of general Lincoln supported by troops funded by voluntary loans from wealthy citizens iof Boston and othe towns. thanks to the governor james Bowdoin the insurrection was at lenght suppressed but Shays’s Rebellion had a far-reaching political conséquences. the rebellion by disclosing the danger strengthen the hands of the conservatives who were seeking for a strong power able to prevent further popualr uprisings. the ultimate  and the most ultimate conséquences of Shays’s rebellion was the laying down the foundations of American dictatorship with the establsihment of political institutions and the creation of a strong governemetn and a striong executive capable of insuring domestic tranquility » and the proetction of the property. shays’s rebellion was the pretext for Wahington for underlying the inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation  and for  claiming  a corecive power and a new political reorganization.. Experience of Shays’s rebellion taught the necessity of bestowing on some central authority the power to prevent more disorders and social and popualr uprisnings.  A partir fo these cosndierations emegede the necessity of building an imperial organization  Virginia Plan recommended that a national executive was to be estabslished consisting of a supreme legisaltive, Executive and judiciary. the establishment of the United States was the making and the outcome of a coup d’étata fomented by the federalists as the supporters of the Cosntitution called themselves. in pennsylvania state convention whicj met Novemver 21, 1787. On September 17, 1787, The new constitution of the United states had been definitely ratiifed

The firts chapter of American dictatorship has been inaugurated by the repression of the « Whiskey rebellion. On the 6th of April 1789, the first Congress elected george Washingtion as President and Adams as Vice-President. five years after Washington took office, broke out the whiskey rebellion, an insurrection of inhabitants of western Pennsylavania  and Virginia agaiants Hamilton’s excise tax of march 3, 1791.  On Hamilton’s recomemndation, washington orderd out the militia in order to suppress the rebellion . Wasghington in his address to Congress justified the repression of the rebellion by the « subversive » proceedings and the « spriti of opposition » to the « just authority of governement and the rights of individuals » Washington qualified acts committed by the insurgents as acts of treason « being overt acts of levying was against the United States »

the second chapter of American dictatorship was the two infamous Alien and SEDITION ACTS of 1798 aseries of four Laws directed against foreigners suspexcted for dissent and disloyalty.

 

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Ideological roots of western totalitarianism

Ideological roots of western totalitarianism

 The natural law is a guide-post and lumber-room which points in different directions and permits a convenient diversity of arguments.  The theory of eighteenth-century jurists of the natural law Scholl justified conquest as a right incident to war. The failure of the natural philosophy in general and the natural right philosophy in particular to provide definite and restrictive answers makes the right of security preeminently serviceable in the justification of both imperialism outside and totalitarianism inside. Though the natural right to liberty did not lend itself to territorial expansion and to enslavement of their peoples, it could be used in the same time as ideological weapon for expansionism and imperialism through a corollary natural right to « safety » or security. The concept of security is logically flexible yo a degree permitting much more sweeping political implications.  in virtue of the natural doctrine and the natural right to security and self preservation, the law of nations has been deduced from natural law and this apparent assumptions was the ideological fundament allowing both the infant United States to annex adjacent territories and the European powers to colonize and to enslave other people Inside and outside continent. The natural right of security and self preservation lead to override the right of self-determination and here for the first time the idea that « our rights » must not be destroyed leads to the destruction of that cornerstone of the natural right philosophy the universal right to political liberty. This imperialistic idea had become synonymous of another idea that of subordination of the political liberty of citizens to the general welfare of the larger geographical unity. Imperialism imperatives were the impetus for domestic totalitarian system under the pretext that the governed, for their internal and external security must to consent to government whether for better or for worse.

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