Eichmann's Descendant

I recently read a book entitled Eichmann Before Jerusalem, by Bettina Stangneth.  It examines Adolf Eichmann as one of the primary architects of the Holocaust, a man who, during his trial in Jerusalem in 1961, would come to be viewed as he wanted to be viewed, which was as a bureaucratic functionary following the orders of others from behind a desk.  Hannah Arendt famously wrote about Eichmann's seemingly meek identity as a tragically focused bureaucrat in "The Banality of Evil."

Interestingly, Stanley Milgram, in his book Obedience to Authority, references Arendt's concept of "the banality of evil" as "close to the truth" of motivators for average citizens to engage in wrongful acts under the order of those in authority.  Most people are not trained to distinguish between just and unjust authority, and they can easily become confused when individual ethics conflict with unethical commands from the hierarchy -- any hierarchy.

In Eichmann's case, however, Stangneth proves something much more sinister.  Eichmann's views were recorded on approximately 70 hours of audiotape by a Dutch Nazi named Willem Sassen.  The intent of the tapes seems to have been a preservation of Nazi ideology through an official Holocaust denial.  But that's not what happened.  What happened was that Eichmann revealed that he felt inferior to the Jews, who were, in his view, more intellectually advanced.  His response?  Genocide as a justification for the survival of what he viewed as his own race.

What have I taken away from this?

Partly, I have grasped a new understanding of what the far right means by the term "elites."  Their accusations toward "elites" are fairly endless, blaming them of cultural degradation and personal immorality that, in their view, cannot be borne.  What they are actually saying is what Eichmann said.  These people sound intelligent, educated and evolved.  So where does that leave the "tribe" of far-right Republicans?  It is our task to ensure that the far right answers that question without violence, without criminal overthrow of our duly elected government, and without abandonment of the Constitution and the rule of law.  We mustn't wait for far right Republicans to feel better about themselves by physically, professionally, socially and psychologically assailing articulate and thoughtful Americans because someone has deemed them "elites."  

Further, I have learned that sometimes, a few malign individuals can have an enormous impact on society.

Eichmann deported more than 450,000 Hungarian Jews to their deaths in a span of eight weeks in the spring of 1944.  450,000 people.  Eight weeks.  For these crimes against humanity, he was praised by the Third Reich as a "fixer," an "innovator," a man to whom the Fuhrer could turn with difficult "problems."

Friends, Eichmann was almost certainly psychopathic, a man of many masks who was exceptionally adept at telling people what they wanted to hear.  How did he persuade 450,000 people to willingly get onto trains deporting them to their deaths?  He negotiated in excruciating detail the conditions of their paperwork allowing them to emigrate to other countries.  The negotiations were fake, the dialogue a mere distraction from the Nazis' murderous intent, and the paperwork never arrived.  But hope is a dangerous palliative in such extreme circumstances --and it can lead -- as it did lead -- people to cooperate with those planning their demise.

Some people have outsized impacts on the unfolding of history -- those of great virtue and those of great evil.  

Eichmann was the latter.

So is my stalker.

I don't think I overstate the seriousness of our circumstance in this country when far right elements within the FBI are, unbeknownst to the vast majority of the American public, engaging in falsified law enforcement reporting for anti-democratic objectives.  My stalker alleges that the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative and the FBI's affiliated "target of interest" program unconstitutionally surveil and falsely report on millions of law-abiding American citizens, with a disproportionate number of Democrats and journalists among them.

The FBI's apparent attempt to dismantle the Freedom of Information Act has prevented the public from ascertaining how extensive and widespread this criminal scheme actually is.

But our democracy requires that we learn the answer, and quickly.

Does it alarm anyone else that my stalker, as a leading member of Russian-affiliated organized crime, appears to be running the FBI in a more meaningful way than Christopher Wray is running it?  How about the fact that my stalker is the head of an alt right militia, according to those who know him well?  How about the detail that my stalker is reported to be one of the most powerful figures organizing human trafficking within the United States?  How about the fact that my stalker alleges the FBI and affiliated agencies are perpetrating what he calls a "hidden Holocaust" against law-abiding Democrats and journalists in the interests of furthering an agenda of totalitarian control?

My stalker is one man, as Eichmann was one man.

Yet what do they have in common?

The view that they stand above the law.

The view that gratuitous killing is enjoyable.

The view that all "sacrifices" are justified in the quest for totalitarianism.

The view that every lie is "excusable" in a world in which one wants one's own "tribe" to "win."

The view that "victims" should be given just enough hope to get them to cooperate with plans of their own egregious harm.

The view that everyone should be told what he or she "wants to hear," in order to best further a perpetrator's personal quest for power.

The view that everyone can be made to cooperate with a totalitarian system if they are appropriately "incentivized" by threats and rewards.

The view that the atrocities they commit will forever remain concealed from the public view.

Friends, I don't think Eichmann should have had free reign to wreak havoc in the lives of innocents in Europe in the 1940's.

And I don't think my stalker should have free reign to wreak havoc in the lives of innocents in the United States in the 2020's.

Eichmann served Hitler's agenda.

My stalker serves Putin's agenda.

I don't think he should be allowed to continue.

My stalker seems to feel delighted that the FBI has been intimidating witnesses to lie to federal authorities concerning their participation in the "target of interest" program, their compensation through Infragard, their false witness statements coerced through horrifying threats extended to their family members and to themselves.

I don't think this is an accomplishment of which the FBI should be proud.

In truth, this "accomplishment" must lead us to ask whether there is any daylight between far right segments of the FBI and Russian-affiliated organized crime.  Is there any distance between these groups?  Is there any distinction?

Whatever the case, my stalker should be stopped from furthering his totalitarian agenda, just as Eichmann should have been stopped.

Certain individuals have the capacity to manifest historic impacts on society, whether for good or evil.

Those on the far right who deliberately mislead and harm the American public have chosen their side.

Let us not allow them to persist to the detriment of us all.

Lane MacWilliams