How Do Geese Really Walk?

Luky has been reading several books all at once. He says he's preparing a "white paper" on Truth and The Future . . . I'm not sure what he means, but from our conversations I take it he intends to treat some of the same themes that have recently been covered by the likes of human writer-thinkers like Tom Friedman (www.thomaslfriedman.com/), Ray Kurzweil (www.kurzweilai.net/), Sam Harris (http://samharris.org/) and others. In general they've all been warning us that our future survival won't be too patient with the ways in which humans often identify themselves today. "After all," Luky likes to say, "there is no political party called 'critical thinking'."

He was comparing notes with one of his canine pen pals, the brilliant socio-political thinker, Bif Harris (pictured - not related to Sam, I don't think), and apparently they were on the same page regarding the average American's natural tendency to embrace fascism. Bif lives near Seattle and Luky occasionally acts a little envious just because Bifs neighborhood always ranks smarter than Atlanta, GA.

Anyway, Luky says that Erich Fromm's 1941 treatise, Escape From Freedom has a lot to teach us about our own times. He was quoting (from memory, apparently, as we walked through the predawn dog park) on Fromm's assessment of how otherwise good and moral people were enticed to defend Nazism . . .

"It can be observed in many instances that persons who are not Nazis nevertheless defend Nazism against criticism by foreigners because they feel that an attack on Nazism is an attack on Germany. The fear of isolation and the relative weakness of moral principles help any party to win the loyalty of a large sector of the population once that party has captured the power of the state."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked him as he finished his business. "Nobody in his right mind would be a Nazi!"

"Perhaps that is true," Luky's whiskers twitched in the air as if he were confirming the quality of his produce, "but there were many critics of the regime in its early days - including the French - and many otherwise ethically-minded folks took that as criticism of all Germany."

"Oh, good heavens," I had to comment since he mentioned the French, "let's face it - they don't even think there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! If they aren't with us, they're against us! Those traitors!!"

Luky looked at me and smiled. At first I didn't get it - I mean, he does have four legs - but later I realized that he was walking through the lawn in a fake goosestep. What the hell . . . he thinks he's so clever!