Submitted by: Joseph Grifali Jr
Death by Government
by R. J. Rummel
( an excerpt with comments in blue)
I purchased this book some time back and finally got around to reading it. I did not know at the time of purchase exactly what it was about. Even before finishing the book I was incensed at what I was reading. The short excerpt below hopefully gives you an idea of how governments work and have worked since their beginning and how POWER becomes addictive. This is where we are today. The rage that built up inside of me caused me to write this in an effort to let others know just how cruel, mean, vindictive, and murderous government can be against its own people. Rummel spent years of research on his book. He writes about kings, rulers, dictators, that I have never heard about. He tells about the millions and millions of citizens killed by the POWER OF GOVERNMENT. Sure, I got mad at what I was reading but its knowledge that I, and we need to know. Keeping our head in the sand or remaining silent is not the answer. We must know how our “enemy” thinks and how they work so we can combat them at every level. When you read the numbers of those that were murdered by all these regimes think about it. Think long and hard about all those bodies – those lives of men, women, and children that had nowhere to run. Think about how they were murdered and try to rationalize why they were murdered and by whom. Yes, government included. It’s a sad fact of life. Accept it…………………deal with it.
The depth of horrors committed by communist regimes on ordinary humanity is unconscionable (my word). The numbers are so grotesque at this level that we must actually revise our sense and sensibilities about the comparative study of totalitarianisms to appreciate that of the two supreme systemic horrors of the century, the communist regimes hold a measurable edge over the fascist regimes in their life-taking propensities. From the Forward by Irving Louis Horowitz.
Democracies commit less democide than other regimes. (But they do commit democide and have done so. Joe) The less freedom people have, the greater the violence; the more freedom, the less the violence. I offer this proposition here as the Power Principle: power kills, and absolute power kills absolutely. This book presents the primary results – in tables and figures – as well as (most important) a historical sketch of the major cases of democide – those in which 1 million or more people were killed by a regime. It argues that democide is for the killing by government definitionally similar to the domestic crime of murder by individuals, and that murderer is an appropriate label for those regimes that commit democide. …democide has been very much a part of human history and that in some cases, even without the benefit of modern killing technology and implementing bureaucracy, people were beheaded, stabbed, or sliced to death by the hundreds of thousands within a short duration.
Power gradually extirpates for the mind every humane and gentle virtue. Edmund Burke. Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate’er it touches. – Shelley, Queen Mab III Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely – Lord Acton
In total, during the first eighty-eight years of this century, almost 170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivable be nearly 360 million people. It is as though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of POWER, not germs.
POWER will achieve its murderous potential. It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse. Most democides occur under the cover of war, revolution, or guerrilla war, or in their aftermath. (Think about Columbine, Boston Marathon, Jonesboro Arkansas, Littleton, CO, Springfield OR. 9/11 and others. Who did we go after? Who did we attack? Who did we retaliate against? Was it a country? Was it a group? Was it an individual? Joe)
Murder as public policy becomes part of the new social order. Consider the social orders of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and their henchmen.
In sum, then, where absolute POWER exists, interests become polarized, a culture of violence develops, and war and democide follow. In this century alone, by current count, absolute – totalitarian – POWER has murdered nearly 138 million people. (This number is staggering. Joe)
Few are aware of the sheer democide that has been inflicted on our fellow human beings. Hitler murdered over 21 million Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Frenchmen, Balts, Czechs, and others. Stalin , murdered tens of millions, but Stalin, Lenin, and their successors murdered almost 62 million Soviet citizens and foreigners. Mao Tse-tung’s China, Chiang Kai-shek’s China, the militarist’s Japan, Yahya Khan’s Pakistan, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and others killed more than 16 million in genocide and politicide since World War II. This number does not include the 35 million likely murdered by just the Communist Party of China from 1949 to 1987.
The Nazis during WWII murdered around 20 million civilians and prisoners of war. The Japanese 5,890,000, The Chinese nationalists 5,907.000, the Chinese communists 250,000. The Nazi satellite Croatians 655,000, the Tito Partisans 600,000, and Stalin 13,053,000.
Democide is committed by ABSOLUTE POWER; its agency is government. A preeminent fact about government is that some of them murder millions in cold blood. This is where ABSOLUTE POWER reigns.
“Genocide”: The destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. The origin was created in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin on Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Since this time, it has evolved with many inclusions. Thus the writing of Rummel’s book. Rummel included this excerpt from “Axis Rule…”;
“…made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing),…” “It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.”
The quote above from Lemkin struck a nerve in me. If you really think about it and focus on every word does something strike you? Read the quote again and think about everything that is happening in the world around us today. Does something sound familiar? Are you able to connect dots between the quote and current events? Do you see any similarities? I would hope so. Joe
November, 2018
This is the second installment of “Death by Government”. It is an excerpt about how government, using their POWER, rule’s over their citizens. This is history, something we all should know because it is affecting us today.
If you happen to be wondering why I’m doing this the answer is quite simple. Its history and I love history; especially when I see it today happening all around me. And I don’t like it one bit.
Socialism is being shoved down our throats. It’s coming from all walks of life. Our educational system is broken from grade school through college. Our politicians can’t be trusted. The onslaught from outside our country is horrifying. But what’s even worse is that it is happening from within. If you don’t have your head buried in the sand you should see it. You should see Bernie Sanders, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, Chuckie Schummer, and all the rest of the socialist demonRATS.
Socialism eventually becomes communism and all those I mentioned above are leading us down this path; socialism today and tomorrow and communism just around the corner.
So when you read this excerpt from “Death by Government” keep this in mind: it’s your future, your children’s future, your grand children’s future – if they live long enough to see it happen – if they are not slaughtered like the millions mentioned.
From October 1949 to 1987, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) probably killed more than 35,200,000 of its own subjects. They came from all walks of life; the right, the left, educators, scientists, loved ones, relatives, and friends; even babies. All such human beings were sacrificed for the most massive, total social engineering projects ever forced on any society in modern history, including the Soviet Union. (Social engineering – sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Joe)
For total communist POWER, over half a billion peasants were sacrificed… It was for the achievement of total POWER over the family. It was for the full control and nationalization of everything in China – EVERYTHING. It was for the elimination of any “wrong thoughts” through regular struggle (“brainwashing”) sessions in every neighborhood, group, and organization. (“Wrong thoughts” – Think “Thought police”. We hear that today. Joe)
In short, as for the Soviet Union, the sacrifice was for total control over all behavior and thought in the achievement of Marxist utopia.
Accurate numbers will never be known but research has found that the death toll could be much higher than; maybe as high as almost 102 million people. (Read that again. This is where socialism leads. And to think that many millenials voted for Bernie Sanders. Doesn’t that concern you? It does me. They have been BRAINWASHED. Thank our educational system. Joe)
What is undeniable is that the Chinese communists did kill millions in their nearly forty-year reign over China, not to mention the additional millions they killed before “liberation.” To deny this is to be blind to the diverse sources of evidence, to even what the communist media have admitted and the statements of high party members themselves.
Why all this Chinese democide? For the same reason it occurred in the Soviet Union: as the working out of Marxism, whether of Marxism-Leninism or Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism in the USSR, or Marxism-Leninism or Marxism-Leninism–Maoism in the PRC. In each case, POWER was nearly absolute… Typical of Marxist parties, rigid, doctrinaire intolerance was considered a virtue. Opposition, or to be labeled a “counterrevolutionary” by either part, could be a death warrant.
Notice how the U.S. has accepted more and more socialism. The socialist leader Norman Thomas explained, "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." Liberalism inevitably morphs into socialism. And eventually socialism morphs into communism.
I, for one, cannot fathom the numbers I continue to read. Some of these millions were slaughtered in only a few years. Where is their conscience? They have none. This is our problem today. The socialist demonRATS don’t have a conscience so nothing affects them; nothing bothers them. Nothing touches their soul because they don’t have one. How do we fight an enemy without a conscience and without a soul? As tough as it is or may be, we have to fight fire with fire. If we don’t, we lose.
Here's one of Rod Serlings epilogue's from one of his "The Twilight Zone" shows called "Death's-Head Revisited".
"All of the Dachau's must remain standing.... They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the earth into a graveyard. Into it, they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers...."
You'll notice his use of the word "conscience". Of which liberals, Marxists, progressives, Nazi's, et al have none. They have no conscience so they are free to do whatever to whoever anything they want without giving a damn..
Are you one that has forgotten? Have you become a "gravedigger"?
November, 2018
This is the third and last (maybe) installment of “Death by Government” by R.J. Rummel. This excerpt, which is taken from a time we all should be familiar with, will take us from socialism to communism. This account is documented fact. If you are not familiar with this “guerrilla group” (there were others) you are ignorant of history. All three excerpts was a means to educate those ignorant of history. We can only hope. Remember Vietnam? Remember Cambodia? Did you only listen to the nightly news that did not give you all the facts? And of course, a few lies were promoted. The nightly news did not give you all the gruesome facts that were going on inside these countries. Here is one fact that should make you sick. The number of those murdered was in the millions. Obviously an exact number cannot be made, but estimates are considered very close. Again I ask you to really think about the numbers that were murdered. Can you even imagine that number?
It began in the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s. There was a “guerilla group” called Khmer Rouge. This communist group alone murdered over three million (3,000,000) men, women, and children. Cambodia had a relatively small population but it clearly shows the demographic cataclysm.
There are three periods to this catastrophe, and each involves war and democide. The first begins with General Lon Nol’s coup against his head of government, Prince Sihanouk, in March 1970. The coup precipitated an all-out guerrilla war against Sihanouk by the Khmer Rouge, a war that eventually would involve the United States and North and South Vietnam. This period ended with the Khmer Rouge takeover of the capital of Phnom Penh in April 1975. (Did you think that war for the U.S. ended in 1973 with the Paris Peace Agreement? U.S. military forces were still engaged into the late 1970’s. Joe)
Over the next four years (the second period) , the Khmer Rouge leadership tried to consolidate power and establish a totally self-reliant, independent, and communist society.
It not only refused to bow to Vietnam’s power and recognize her brotherhood as a fellow communist nation, but openly provoked her to war.
The third period began in December of 1978. Vietnam launched an all-out offensive against the Khmer Rouge, easily defeating them and taking over the capital the next month. The Vietnamese established a puppet government headed by Heng Samrin, a former high officer of the Khmer Rouge. (The periods were explained. Now let’s see how the Khmer Rouge controlled the people during their reign. Joe)
This century’s bloodiest Megamurderers should be known to all of us. They were:
Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Adolf Hitler, Chiang Kai-shek, Vladimir Illich Lenin, Tojo Hideki, Pol Pot, Yagha Khan, Josip Broz Tito. The monstrous bloodletting of these nine men should be entered into a Hall of Infamy. Their names should forever warn us of the deadly potential of POWER.
But the greatest democide during these years was committed by the Khmer Rouge. Although they at first fought alongside Vietnamese forces, they had no love for them. Sometimes they even betrayed or fired on them. In Kompong Thom province, for example, in September 1970 the Khmer Rouge fired on Vietnamese forces from behind, even as they were attacking a government unit. Prefiguring their disregard for human life during their rule to come, the Khmer Rouge purged their ranks of those who were insufficiently dedicated of had the wrong background, those who had been trained in Hanoi or been Khmer Vietminh, or those who held “incorrect” doctrines. Virtually all of these were killed in suicidal missions assigned them or murdered by 1973. The Khmer Rouge even massacred whole families that had done nothing more than shelter Vietnamese when they occupied a village or town.
The most deadly was their general treatment of urbanites and peasants living in their controlled areas. When they assumed full power, the Khmer Rouge rapidly emptied cities, dispersing the people into the countryside and forcing them to assume the lives of peasants.
LIVING CONDITIONS UNDER THE COMMUNIST KHMER ROUGE REGIME:
No freedom to travel abroad or from village to village – No freedom to choose employment – No freedom of speech – No freedom of organization – No freedom of religion – No courts, judges, or appeals – No codified law or rules – No public or private worker rights – No independent work or living – No skilled private or public medical care – No foreign medicines - No mail or telegrams – No radio, television, or movies – No international telephones or cables – No newspapers, journals, or magazines – No books or libraries – No general schooling – No holidays or religious festivals – No money – No banks – No wages or salaries – No markets – No businesses – No restaurants or stores – No independent eating – No personal food – No regional gastronomic specialties – No private plots to grow food – No personal names – No independent family life –
No sexual freedom – No music – No freedom from work after the age of five – No personally owned buses, cars, scooters, or bicycles – No personal clothes, pots, pans, watches, or anything – No freedom to cry or laugh – No private conversation.
(Under these conditions, what was life like? Think about it. This is COMMUNISM. Joe).
(Years ago I said something that I still believe today. I said that if socialism takes hold and we become their slaves we will not be allowed to travel from state to state without permission. Neither will we be allowed to change jobs or move without permission. Essentially EVERYTHING we do or say will be forbidden. Read the conditions again and think how your life will change. What kind of a life will your grand children have? Joe)
Farming was completely collectivized; eating was communal; peasants worked according to schedules and rules set up by the Khmer Rouge cadre, each of whom had absolute command over the life or death of each peasant. The peasants worked from morning till well after dark; and death in the field, village, or town could come from violation of the smallest rule.
In 1975 the capital could no longer be defended. The Khmer Rouge ordered everyone out of the city at gunpoint. The order to evacuate was implacable. EVERYONE MUST LEAVE. Some ill or infirm hobbled along; some thrown from hospitals crawled along on hands and knees. Reported a British journalist who from the French embassy watched the slowly moving mass of evacuees, the Khmer Rouge were - tipping out patients from the hospitals like garbage into the streets…. Bandaged men and women hobble by the embassy. Wives push wounded soldier husbands on hospital beds on wheels, some with serum drips still attached. In five years of war, this is the greatest caravan of human misery I have seen.
This inhuman expulsion was first and foremost an opening salvo in the Khmer Rouge campaign to utterly rebuild Cambodian culture and society; to construct pure communism forthwith.
(Let me sum up what happened in a couple of villages: Joe)
The village was Kauk Lon. Troops forced the village of 360 men, women, and children to march into a nearby forest. As they walked among the trees, they were ambushed by waiting machine gunners, who cut them all down.
Next was the massacre at Mongkol Borei. Fifteen communist soldiers rounded up ten civil servants with their wives and children, about sixty in all. Their hands were bound behind them, forced into a truck at about 5pm. Drove them to a banana plantation adjoining Banteay Neang village. They were begging for their lives as they were pushed into a clearing. The communist soldiers pushed each official forward one at a time and forced him to kneel between two soldiers armed with bayonet-tipped AK-47 rifles. The soldiers then stabbed the victim simultaneously, one through the chest and the other through the back. Family by family, the communists pressed the slaughter of each official. The wives were next with the same treatment. The children and babies followed with the same. .
In short, the Khmer Rouge instituted a system of terror. This caused many under their control to flee to South Vietnam or to Lon Nol-held areas, particularly Phnom Penh. Such flight caused the Khmer Rouge to lessen their harshness. But once power was regained, however, and flight stopped, they reintroduced total revolution with even greater harshness. The death toll by the Khmer Rouge numbered in the tens of thousands and quite possibly could be 200,000 plus for this period. This democide by the Khmer Rouge was a human disaster for any country.
The Cambodia of the Khmer Rouge was a nation-sized concentration camp in which all suffered the torments of hell. It was divided into compounds with keepers, each applying the heat, brimstone, and pitchforks to his inmates largely as he saw fit. There were no rights, but everywhere in this hell inmates had two duties: instant and unquestioning obedience to every command of the Khmer Rouge cadre; and work. The result was terror, fatigue, hunger, disease, and death.
(THIS IS COMMUNISM – HELL ON EARTH. What’s so sad and so frightening is that so many people are brainwashed into believing all the lies about socialism, which brings on communism.
Notice how the U.S. has accepted more and more socialism. The socialist leader Norman Thomas explained, "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." Liberalism inevitably morphs into socialism. Socialism inevitably morphs into communism.
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