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Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.
Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that au-thoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. Te sudden disaster that re-quires the end of checks and balances, the dis-solution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book.
Do not fall for it.
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T
he Reichstag re was the moment when Hit-ler’s government, which came to power mainly through democratic means, became the menac-ingly permanent Nazi regime. It is the archetype o terror management.On February 27, 1933, at about nine p.m., the building housing the German parliament, the Reichstag, began to burn. Who set the re that night in Berlin? We don’t know, and it doesn’t re-ally matter. What matters is that this spectacular act o terror initiated the politics o emergency. Gazing with pleasure at the ames that night, Hitler said: “Tis re is just the beginning.” Whether or not the Nazis set the re, Hitler saw the political opportunity: “Tere will be no mercy now. Anyone standing in our way will be cut down.” Te next day a decree suspended the basic rights o all German citizens, allowing them to be “preventively detained” by the police. On the strength o Hitler’s claim that the re was the work o Germany’s enemies, the Nazi Party won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections on
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