Chapter Eighteen Continued: In Search of Utopia

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Sometime before 1929, fellow pastor, Harry Scrimgeour, introduced William Aberhart to the writings of Edward Bellamy, whose 19th century novels became the framework for Utopian societies, in particular Looking Backward: 2000-1887, which was first published in 1887.

Aberhart may have been intrigued by one vision of Bellamy's. The notion of a radiorator, or radio personality, but not just any radio personality, but a radiorating preacher*.

Now, as to hearing a sermon to-day, if you wish to do so, you can either go to a church to hear it or stay at home."

"How am I to hear it if I stay at home?"

"Simply by accompanying us to the music room at the proper hour and selecting an easy chair. There are some who still prefer to hear sermons in church, but most of our preaching, like our musical performances, is not in public, but delivered in acoustically prepared chambers, connected by wire with subscribers' houses. If you prefer to go to a church I shall be glad to accompany you, but I really don't believe you are likely to hear anywhere a better discourse than you will at home. I see by the paper that Mr. Barton is to preach this morning, and he preaches only by telephone, and to audiences often reaching 150,000."

"The novelty of the experience of hearing a sermon under such circumstances would incline me to be one of Mr. Barton's hearers, if for no other reason," I said. (1)

Scientific research into radio waves was then being conducted, and the telephone was already in use, but a radio for home had yet to be invented. But Bellamy is not far off the mark when describing the future of radio:

As Edith had promised he should do, Dr. Leete accompanied me to my bedroom when I retired, to instruct me as to the adjustment of the musical telephone. He showed how, by turning a screw, the volume of the music could be made to fill the room, or die away to an echo so faint and far that one could scarcely be sure whether he heard or imagined it ...

I will set the telephone at eight o'clock." "What do you mean?" I asked. He explained that, by a clock-work combination, a person could arrange to be awakened at any hour by the music. (1)

Aberhart's biographer David Elliot did wonder just how far he would have taken Bellamy's work.

The nature of the State was better defined. Dividends would be given for loyalty to the State; if a person refused to work, or refused to join the Social Credit movement, he would not receive dividends. If he abused his privileges under the new economic system, the Credit House inspector could withdraw his dividends and put him on an "Indian List." The latter expression was not defined, but Aberhart may have had in mind the reservations or concentration camps that Bellamy had described for non-sympathizers. (2)

Major Douglas, the creator of the Social Credit theories, also sought a Utopian world, once his economic principles were adopted.

American Patriotism Defined:

Historian Dr. Rex Curry has done a lot of research into not only Edward Bellamy's work, but also that of his cousin Francis Bellamy, and has written a book Pledge Of Allegiance Secrets.

The Bellamy's promoted military socialism, and it was Francis who authored the Pledge of Allegiance, used in classrooms in the United States. He refers to it as "flag fetishism" that is accompanied by "robotic group-chanting".

He suggests, and he is probably correct, that the Bellamys were the first to "indoctrinate" children into a fierce nationalism, that not only prepared young boys for military service, but created citizens who would either glorify war or be compliant to a country going to war.

None of this is really new. Most armies carried a banner of some kind for inspiration, but Curry argues that it was never a domestic practice prior to 1892, when Francis Bellamy introduced the 'pledge' into the classroom. And along with it, was the robotic hand gesture that started with a military salute, and then the extension of the arm toward the flag, palm down. (3)

Another Famous Salute

Bellamy's futuristic novel, Looking Back, is the third largest selling work of fiction of all time. The first being Uncle Tom's Cabin and the second, Ben Huhr. It was translated into 20 different languages, and was the first book to lay a clear foundation for patriotic nationalism and military socialism.

It's not too hard to imagine where the Nazi salute came from when you look at the photograph of the children above. Once it took on a sinister meaning, it was changed to just hand on head.

According to Dr. Curry, Alfred Rosenberg, was also inspired by Bellamy's book and may have been the one to introduce it to the Thule Society. Though his first interest was antisemitism, inspired by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Aryan supremacy, as introduced by Helena Blavatsky:

"The intellectual difference between the Aryan and other civilized nations and such savages as the South Sea Islanders, is inexplicable on any other grounds. No amount of culture, nor generations of training amid civilization, could raise such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African tribes, to the same intellectual level as the Aryans ..."

Blavatsky also promoted the notion of Brotherhoods and Societies dedicated to the Occult. Where I see Bellamy's book coming in, is with the creation of a perfect society, once they got rid of the Jews and bred an Aryan race. And of course, you can't mistake the military socialism.

I know people will argue that none of this was the intent of Edward Bellamy when he wrote Looking Backward.** He was describing failed capitalism, and promoting a form of communism. But people see what they want to see, I guess, when they need to justify their actions.

I did find one passage in the book that describes how we now honour our fallen soldiers, something that I believe was new in the twentieth century:

It was one of the annual holidays of the nation in the latter third of the nineteenth century, being set apart under the name of Decoration Day, for doing honor to the memory of the soldiers of the North who took part in the war for the preservation of the union of the States. The survivors of the war, escorted by military and civic processions and bands of music, were wont on this occasion to visit the cemeteries and lay wreaths of flowers upon the graves of their dead comrades, the ceremony being a very solemn and touching one. The eldest brother of Edith Bartlett had fallen in the war, and on Decoration Day the family was in the habit of making a visit to Mount Auburn, where he lay. (1)

Decoration Day, is now Veterans Day, Memorial Day or Remembrance Day, not that they are bad things.

And the salute only became sinister when it was adopted by the Nazis, and now symbolizes evil. Before that it was just a gesture. It does remind me of a funny photograph though, that has been kicking around the Internet. I'm sure he wasn't giving the Nazi salute here, and it's actually his facial expression that bothers me. Oh well. What can I say?

Chapter Nineteen: Demagogs and Democracy

Footnotes:

* In 1935 Time magazine referred to him as "Messiah William Aberhart, the radiorating Premier of Alberta" (5)

** You can read Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward for free here. I've been reading it and it's actually quite good. Along the same vein as George Orwell's 1984.

Footnotes:

1. Looking Backward: 2000-1887, By: Edward Bellamy, Boston and New York, Ticknor and Company, 1887

2. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 188

3. Pledge of Allegiance Secrets, By: Dr. Rex Curry. (It can be read online here, though I had a bit of difficulty following it. Lots of very interesting photographs though)

4. Bible Bill's Story, Time magzine, March 02, 1936

Chapter Eighteen Continued: Houston Stewart Chamberlain

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) was the British born son-in-law of Richard Wagner.

Born into a military family, that was expected to be his career, but he was far too frail, so chose more scholarly pursuits. Too ill to attend school he was provided with tutors, one being the Prussian Herr Otto Kuntze, who taught him German and sparked his interest in German culture and history. So much so that he decided to make that country his home.

First settling in Dresden, he delved into the music and journals of Richard Wagner, and in 1899 wrote his first book The Foundations Of The Nineteenth Century, which helped to create a renewed interest in the pan-Germanic movement.

It was in Dresden that he met Wagner's daughter Eva, and they were married in 1908.

Foundations of the Nineteenth Century was not only based on Richard Wagner's journals, but also the writings of Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau, the man who first came up with the notion of an Aryan race; and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.*

Chamberlain would become a propagandist for Kaiser Wilhelm during the war and later a member of the Nazi Party, but more importantly his book became the basis for the creation of the Thule Society.

And it was members of the Thule Society who created the enigma of Adolf Hitler, who was passed off as the Antichrist to the occult hierarchy of the society.

Thule member and playwright Dietrich Eckart, directed Hitler's new character, and drew out his seductive power of speech. Thule member Rudolf Hess helped him to write Mein Kampf, and a former university professor of Hess's Karl Ernst Haushofer, is credited with the development of Hitler's expansionist strategies. "While Hess and Hitler were imprisoned after the Munich Putsch in 1923, Haushofer spent six hours visiting the two, bringing along a copy of Friedrich Ratzel's Political Geography and Clausewitz's On War." (1)

The Thule Society would also be responsible for the Nazi flag, the Swastika, 'Sieg Heil', the Nazi salute and their anthem.

Hitler would meet with Chamberlain several times and after one visit, the aging author wrote to the budding dictator:

Most respected and dear Hitler, ... It is hardly surprising that a man like that can give peace to a poor suffering spirit! Especially when he is dedicated to the service of the fatherland. My faith in Germandom has not wavered for a moment, though my hopes were - I confess - at a low ebb. With one stroke you have transformed the state of my soul. That Germany, in the hour of her greatest need, brings forth a Hitler - that is proof of her vitality ... that the magnificent Ludendorff** openly supports you and your movement: What wonderful confirmation! I can now go untroubled to sleep... May God protect you. (2)

Chapter Eighteen Continued: In Search of Utopia

Footnotes:

* Leo Strauss was also a follower of Friedrich Nietzsche; as was Mussolini, and Nietzsche was a follower of Arthur Schopenhauer

** WWI veteran, General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, who took part in the Beer Hall Putsch

Sources:

1. Total Power: A Footnote to History, By: Edmund A. Walsh, Doubleday & Company, 1949, Pg. 14-15

2. Der Fhehrer, Hitler's Rise to Power, By: Konrad Heiden, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944

Book Two Introduction Continued: More About Secret Societies

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Just as the Thule Society played a significant role in the success of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, secret societies also became part of the infrastructure for the Reform movement in all of it's manifestations.

I'm going to get into that in more detail later in the book, but I wanted to take a little break from the 20's and 30's to show their relevance today.

The Northern Foundation

When the Reform Party was first being established by William Aberhart's Godson, Preston Manning (son of Ernest); they passed a motion to allow extremists into the party.

Someone actually stood up and asked "What about Doug Christie?" to which someone else responded "Ah, leave him in. We may need to use him later."

Doug Christie was the pal of Stockwell Day's father who pushed for western separation. He also made a name for himself as a lawyer defending Neo-Nazis, including James Keegstra, Ernst Zundel, Terry Long, etc. You can read a bit about him here. And a bit about his relationship to Stockwell Day himself here.

I'll be getting into more on that later as well, since Day's father was also a member of the Social Credit Party; but I just wanted to provide a bit of background.

In 1989, a small group of Reform Party members got together and created the Northern Foundation, initially to try and prevent the end of Apartheid in South Africa (corporations didn't want to have to pay regular wages to the blacks). However, they eventually decided to act as a vanguard for the far-right in Canada. (1)

"... the Northern Foundation was the creation of a number of generally extreme right-wing conservatives, including Anne Hartmann (a director of REAL Women), Geoffrey Wasteneys (A long-standing member of the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada), George Potter (also a member of the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada), author Peter Brimelow*, Link Byfield (son of Ted Byfield and himself publisher/president of Alberta Report), and Stephen Harper."( 2)

One of the groups that fell under the Northern Foundation umbrella was the Heritage Front of Wolfgang Droege, who was the Ontario Policy chair for the Reform Party when Harper was their chief policy wonk. (3)

Droege was a well known white supremacist long before he joined the Reform Party. In fact he was once the head of British Columbia's KKK. As early as 1981, the B.C. legislature was discussing him after reporter Rick Ouston wrote in the Vancouver Sun, of a cross burning he attended back in the day when Canada had investigative journalists:

"Let us offer a prayer of thanks to God for creating us in his image, for giving us white skin and superior intelligent." That's how the invocation begins at the famous Stave Lake cross-burning. With that invocation, delivered by a blonde woman in her early twenties, the Ku Klux Klan's first public cross-burning in B.C. in years was underway Sunday. Before long, 40 white supremacists, a dozen of them wearing white robes, were brandishing flaming torches, making Nazi-style salutes and chanting 'White Power, ' as an eight-metre-high, rough-hewn wooden cross sent flames into the darkening sky.

The woman speaking identified herself as Anne Farmer. She said she was the National Grand Chaplain of the Canadian Klan and the girlfriend of Wolfgang Droege, the ex-B.C. Klan leader, now in a New Orleans jail ...."Canadian Klan leader Alexander McQuirter, who attended the ceremony, was asked about the Klan's claim to have attracted a 'new breed' of recruit - businessmen instead of workers. He said 'the (people who wear) ties type' are the new Klan majority, but they want to protect their jobs, so they just provide money and other backroom assistance . . .

So as early as 1981, his name is associated with the KKK in Canada. Fast forward to 1989:

Back home, Droege held low-key meetings with his new group in his apartment. They discussed their plans for their new group, and they discussed a name: the Heritage Front. One man, James Scott Dawson, registered the name; another Gerry Lincoln, designed a logo and some letterhead. Then, in November 1989, the Heritage Front went public. Droege, Lincoln and a few others travelled to Ottawa for the founding conference of the Northern Foundation. Droege had chosen a good place for his coming-out party." (4)

And now 1991:

"In late February 1991, Bill Dunphy exposed in the Sun the fact that Droege and four other Heritage Front activists maintained memberships in Toronto area Reform Party riding associations. Immediately thereafter, Reform Party leader Preston Manning ordered the group expelled." (5)

And yet he didn't. Because according to government records, Wolfgange Droege and the Heritage Front provided security for Manning in June of 1991. And apparently it was Stephen Harper himself who arranged it. (6)

"The Source said that a few days before the Mississauga rally, Droege had said to Grant Bristow [a CSIS operative]: "I need your help to do security for the Reform Party . Just prior to the Mississauga rally, on June 10, 1991, it was learned that Overfield was one of the Directors of the Beaches- Woodbine Reform Party riding association. Overfield had stated that he had a couple of men who were going to handle (i.e., protect) Manning because the police were refusing to give any assistance.... Droege too was to later say to the Review Committee that "their (Heritage Front) involvement, however, was not questioned by the Reform Party; the HF was 'not an issue', even though we were one of the main organizers". (7)

Eventually they were expelled though:

The expulsion enraged the Heritage Front, which saw the Reform Party's policies as very similar to, if not indistinguishable from, its own. How could a party that went on record opposing immigration policies that "radically alter" Canada's ethnic make-up turn around and shun a group like the Heritage Front, Droege asked, when the Heritage Front supports the very same approach? Privately, spokesmen for B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress admitted that Droege had a good point." (5)

And from the Toronto Star just after the security gig:

"The Heritage Front - This Ontario group is led by Wolfgang Droege, a forty-one-year-old naturalized Canadian from Germany who recently served two years in jail for plotting to overthrow the government of Dominica. His front claims a membership of 300 people. It has distributed its literature, calling for an all-white Canada, in various Toronto locations, including public schools. The Canadian Jewish Congress has lodged hate literature charges against the Front. Droege denies being racist, but does see Canada's immigration policy as a threat to whites, 'the most precious force on this planet ... we believe that eventually white people will become a minority in this country because of our immigration policies ... We are racial nationalists working for the interest of whites everywhere." Droege has given the Reform Party his seal of approval. 'They have given us some hope,' says the Heritage Front leader." (8)

And according to Shofar: "... an anti-Semitic column by former Texas KKK Grand Dragon Louis Beam Jr. in the August 1992 issue carried a lengthy account of Wolfgang Droege's involvement with the Reform Party."

Dr. Chin describes the Northern Foundation:

The Northern Foundation of which Mr. Harper was a member, is a male-dominated and self-anointed "white brotherhood". Females are not excluded though, provided that they accept its highly conformist and male chauvinistic culture of fascism. (6)

When it was discovered that Stephen Harper had been a founding member of the Northern Foundation, he claimed that he was kicked out for not being right-wing enough. Yet Dr. Chin believes that his policies match those of the NF.

In my research I lost track of them after 1991, though I still tracked members after that time. However there is another secret society that has emerged.

The Civitas Society

According to their own website:

Founding President: William Gairdner

Other Past Presidents: Tom Flanagan, William Robson, and Lorne Gunter

Founding Directors: Janet Ajzenstat, Ted Byfield, Michel Coren, Jacques Dufresne, Tom Flanagan, David Frum, William Gairdner, Jason Kenney, Gwen Landolt, Ezra Levant, Tom Long, Mark Magner, William Robson, David E. Somerville, Michael Walker

So let's break that down:

William Gairdner - was a founding member of the Northern Foundation

Tom Flanagan - was the Man Behind Stephen Harper

William Robson - is from the CD Howe Institute, a Conservative think tank

Lorne Gunter - was with Ted Byfield's Alberta Report that helped to lauch the Reform Party

Janet Ajzenstat - According to Wikipedia: Her view of Canadian federalism, which dismisses the idea of special status for Quebec or Aboriginals, provoked much scholarly debate, especially following the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord. Ajzenstat also contends that judicial activism undercuts the foundation of responsible government; as a result, her work is well received by Conservative scholars, such as Barry Cooper and Stephen Harper's former chief of staff Ian Brodie.

Ted Byfield - helped to found the Reform Party and was the father of Link Byfield, a founding member of the Northern Foundation

Michael Coren - Is a notorious homophobe. Quotes of Coren's include: "While everything human must be done to find a cure for this plague [Aids], it is hard to deny that the majority of sufferers in North America contracted the disease through perverse sex. 95% of the world's AIDS population is in the developing world and lack even basic health care. Nobody cared very much about these men and women before AIDS was brought to North America and, frankly, nobody cares very much now." and "According to the standard histories of the Holocaust, some eight percent of those killed in the camps were of the sodomite persuasion... Yet there may be a more opposite and fitting symbol of tribal identity for these poor oppressed people. If we are to believe the Cambridge History of the Second World War, and Gerber's surely definitive The Evolution and Structure of the Nazi Party, over twenty percent of the membership of the German National Socialists were practising pederasts...Surely our homosexualist brothers and sisters would be advised to abandon the pink triangle and opt for a tiny but telling swastika lapel pin instead." and "As for Jesus not condemning homosexuality, nor did He condemn bestiality and necrophilia." Quite a peach, huh?

David Frum - is a former George Bush speech writer who coined the term "axis of evil". He was also behind uniting the right and is a longtime associate of Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day. His sister Linda was one of Harper's patronage senate appointments.

Gwen Landolt - is the president of REAL Women of Canada, who were also members of the Northern Foundation family.

Tom Long - was a member of the Mike Harris government and one of the authors of the horrible Common Sense Revolution.

Mark Magner - was a member of the Canadian Alliance National Council, (The Alliance Party of Canada board) that included Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day

David Somerville - Ex-president of the National Citizens Coalition. He was president when Stephen Harper was VP and Harper eventually replaced him.

Michael Walker - Founder of the Fraser Institute.

So if Stephen Harper wasn't right-wing enough for these guys, why did they invite Republican Pollster Frank Lutz, to instruct him on how to win a majority. One of Lutz's recommendations was to tap into national systems like hockey. "Introducing Mr. Luntz yesterday, former Reform party leader Preston Manning praised the work Mr. Luntz had done for him several years ago. During his speech, Mr. Luntz mentioned that he had met with Mr. Harper -- whom he referred to on a first-name basis -- Friday and had posed for a picture together ... Focus on accountability and tax relief, said Mr. Luntz. Images and pictures are important. Tap into national symbols such as hockey. "If there is some way to link hockey to what you all do, I would try to do it."

So next time you see Stephen Harper at a hockey game, think of Frank Lutz.

That's all for this little interlude, and I will now continue with the history of the Reform Movement. This just gives you some idea of how these "secret societies" and the exploitation of radicalism work.

Chapter Fifteen: Salvation and Shakespeare

Footnotes:

*Peter Brimelow operates an anti-immigration website called V-Dare. From the Southern Poverty Law Center Website: Today, the former senior editor at Forbes magazine [Brimelow] edits an anti-immigration Web page that carries an array of frankly white supremacist and anti-Semitic essays. He described the role of race as "elemental, absolute, fundamental." He said that white Americans should demand that U.S. immigration quotas be changed to allow in mostly whites. He argued that spending tax dollars on anything related to multiculturalism was "subversive." He called foreign immigrants "weird aliens with dubious habits."

Sources:

1. Preston Manning and the Reform Party. Author: Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 100

2. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Author: Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 121

3. Preston Manning: Roots of Reform, By: Frank Dabbs, Greystone, 2000, ISBN -13-97815-50547504

4. Web of Hate: Inside Canada's Far Right Network, By: Warren Kinsella, Harper Collins, pg 263-264

5. Kinsella, 1994, pg. 243-244

6. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper demonstrates continued ultra right wing affiliations by blocking pro social justice Toronto candidate, By: Dr. Debra Chin, The Canadian, 2007

7. Report to the Solicitor General of Canada, Security Intelligence Review Committee, December 9, 1994

8. The Heritage Front, By: Rosie DiManno, Toronto Star, June 19, 1991

Book Two Continued: Secret Societies and Armed Intellectuals

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Exactly at eleven, someone emerged from the vestry and passed up the rostrum stairs. A moment later the man was standing at the desk. Many instantly recognized him. It was the Secretary of the Church. A dead hush fell upon the people. … "He has come, and we, the unready, have been left behind … My wife has gone … My daughter, too."—Sydney Watson, The Mark of the Beast

Before moving on with the founding of the Social Credit and German Worker's parties, I wanted to take a bit of break and talk about the 'secret' societies that worked behind the scenes to promote their cause.

For Aberhart, there was nothing other than his own extreme beliefs, based not only on the dispensationalism of Cyrus Scofield, but the ultradispensationalism of Ethelbert Bullinger.

The fact that Ernest Manning and William Aberhart wrote a play based on a novel by Sydney Watson, shows that they were into some pretty weird stuff. Watson's novels became a framework for the Left Behind series that now fuels the Religious Right.

So Aberhart and Manning were not just using the fear of God, but the fear of Oh, my God!

The Thule Society Revisited

There is a great deal written about the Thule Society and their impact on the Nazi Regime and the 'Final Solution'. Some of it true.

Yes, many elements of the society were involved in the occult, but no; Adolf Hitler was never a member. He didn't have the right pedigree.

However, we can't ignore the historical significance of the Thule Society in the rise of the Nazi party. In fact they created the enigma of Adolf Hitler; the man who became the embodiment of the Holocaust, despite the fact that he did not act alone.

Like depression era Alberta, post-war Germany provided a perfect climate for the return of the Antichrist, and some members of the Thule Society began holding seances, hoping to conjure him up. The copy of the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion that made it's way to the group, via Alfred Rosenberg; included a description of him, based on that of the Russian philosopher, Vladimir Soloviev.

The Antichrist 'does not look like what he is,' and therein precisely lies the danger. He is a young man with a strong personality and seductive power of speech and writing. He is an ascetic and a vegetarian. He will win fame first by a book in which respect of the ancient traditions and symbols stands side by side with a bold and thorough radicalism in social and political problems ... absolute individualism with an ardent fidelity to the common weal ... Then, in Berlin, he will become ruler of the `United States of Europe'; he will conquer Asia and North Africa; America will submit to him voluntarily. He is an absolute genius, and he may, says Soloviev, wear a small mustache. (1)

So when Thule member Dietrich Eckart, saw Adolf Hitler walk through the door at one his beer hall meetings, with that unusual mustache, he knew that he had found his Antichrist. He could fill in the rest later.

And with the assistance of other Thule members, he set out to do just that:

1. Seductive power of speech: The playwright and stage director Eckart, and some of his colleagues; taught Hitler how to control his voice, even using the negative effects of mustard gas, to an advantage. By working in proper use of the hands and dramatic facial expressions, they created a mesmerizing performer. And of course we know that Eckart was a Thule.

2. He is an ascetic: Early party members were recruited for what was then a citizen's army, to be part of an athletics program. Later athletics became a huge part of their training and we all know how Adolf Hitler exploited the Olympics. The first to do that actually (will Stephen Harper be the last?); and he was the one who started the Olympic torch rally.

An early recruitment ad for the party read:

The N.S.D.A.P. (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparfeh National Socialist German Workers' Party) has formed its own gymnastics and sport division within the framework of its organization. It will embody and propagate the military idea of a free nation. ... It will instill a boundless desire for action in the hearts of our young members, hammer and burn into their brains that history does not make men, but men history. And that the man who lends himself defenseless to the chains of slavery deserves the slave's yoke. In it, we will continue to cultivate loyalty between comrade and comrade, and joyful obedience to the leader.... (2)

3. He will win fame first by a book: We already know about his book Mein Kampf, and while many of the personal accounts included by Hitler were proven to be either exaggerated or false, what may not be common knowledge is the input provided by the Thule society. Thule member Anton Drexler, on the day that Hitler was accepted into the German Worker's Party hurried to Hitler and gave him a forty page pamphlet entitled: "My Political Awakening." He urged Hitler to read it and also invited Hitler to come back again.

And Konrad Heiden believed that the support for ".. building a strong nationalist, pro-military, anti-Semitic party made up of working class people" were not Hitler's ideas, though he would have supported them.

....there is ground for suspicion that Hitler copied this whole fine story with small changes from the autobiography of his later political friend, Anton Drexler, Mem Politisches Erwachen (My Political Awakening), which appeared in Munich in 1920. (3)

But a much more compelling argument for the manuscript Mein Kampf not being Hitler's own thoughts, comes from another Thule member, Rudolf Hess. Hess was arrested with Hitler after the Beer hall Putsch in 1923, and helped him to edit his 'autobiography'. ("Acting as Hitler's private secretary, he transcribed and partially edited Hitler's book Mein Kampf".)

Hess did more than take dictation. He was then twenty-seven, a man of flawless manners. His admiration for Hitler filled his whole person and, like an expert secretary, he tried to make everything as easy as possible for the author; when Hitler's flow of thoughts clogged or his store of knowledge was wanting, Hess was rich in helpful suggestions. Having enjoyed a fair academic education, Hess had a mature contempt for bloated school learning; he found it right and proper that his leader who far surpassed him in sheer intelligence had not stuffed his own head too full; he also found it right and proper that Hitler should avail himself of his friend's knowledge where it suited him and leave it unused where it did not suit him. (4)

While attending the University of Munich, Hess studied under Professor Karl Ernst Haushofer, who is credited with the development of Adolf Hitler's expansionist strategies. "While Hess and Hitler were imprisoned after the Munich Putsch in 1923, Haushofer spent six hours visiting the two, bringing along a copy of Friedrich Ratzel's Political Geography and Clausewitz's On War." (5)

At Munich University there was then a former German general who, before the World War, had spent some time in Tokyo on a diplomatic mission; he had become a professor and lectured on a new science which he called geo-politics. This professor and retired general, Karl Haushofer, was the teacher and friend of Rudolf Hess; he was an occasional guest at Landsberg, and Hitler and Hess were certainly stimulated by their conversations with him; Hitler's 'space as a factor of power/ is Haushofer's expression (4)

There wasn't a great deal in Mein Kampf about foreign policy, but Haushofer did have an effect on Hess who would later be Hitler's deputy, and he would often advise on military matters:

Hitler's learned friend. General and Professor Karl Haushofer, had developed a new type of military science based on a division of the world into great land and sea masses. Previously the power dominating the sea had dominated the world; today, however, Haushofer, himself a pupil of Rudolf Kjellen, the Swedish geog- rapher, taught that this condition had been reversed. Immediately after the World War he had been of the opinion that the great battle fleets would gradually be transformed into 'scrap iron' by growing swarms of U-boats and airplanes. Both planes and sub- marines depended for their power on land bases from which they could not stay away for any protracted period. But that is not the chief reason for the rising importance of the mainland in world politics. Through the development of the continental trade economy, the great inner spaces have become less dependent on the coast'; in modern world politics, domination of the production centers is decisive, no longer domination of the trade routes.(6)

Haushofer also spoke of the necessity of creating a 'United States of Europe', as in Soloviev's Antichrist.

The Thule Society would also be responsible for the Nazi flag, the Swastika, 'Sieg Heil', the Nazi salute and their anthem.

Did secret societies have anything to do with Stephen Harper's success? That's coming up next.

Book Two Introduction Continued: More About Secret Societies

Sources:

1. Der Fhehrer, Hitler's Rise to Power, By: Konrad Heiden, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944, Pg. 1-2

2. Heiden, Pg. 107

3. Heiden, Pg. 67-68

4. Heiden, Pg. 281-282

5. Total Power: A Footnote to History, By: Edmund A. Walsh, Doubleday & Company, 1949, Pg. 14-15

6. Heiden, Pg. 319-321

Chapter Fourteen Continued: A Star is Born

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

The Antichrist 'does not look like what he is,' and therein precisely lies the danger. He is a young man with a strong personality and seductive power of speech and writing. He is an ascetic and a vegetarian. He will win fame first by a book in which 'respect of the ancient traditions and symbols' stands side by side.

The copy of the Protocols that Alfred Rosenberg brought back from Russia, included the version of the Antichrist, as laid down by Vladimir Soloviev, and interpreted by the alleged forger Sergei Nilus (The Great within the Small and Antichrist, an Imminent Political Possibility. Notes of an Orthodox Believer). And in it "Soloviev's Antichrist finally disappears in a battle against the desperate Jews, many of whom he had massacred before." (1)

Places Everyone

After speaking with Adolf, Dietrich Eckart was convinced that he had found the right person to 'act' as leader. He was an unknown, passionate about politics and had a huge ego*.

And the artist-prince believed that others now recognized the greatness, that he long knew he had.

Passed over for promotion in the army, on the grounds that he "lacked leadership qualities," it was that very lack of leadership qualities that would have appealed to the founders of the German Worker's Party. He was someone they could mould, and so long as they kept his ego fed, could manipulate.

And he had a strangeness about him that would appeal to the mystics in the Thule Society.

And while much has been written about Hitler's involvement with that society, with historians putting that notion to rest, I don't believe he would have qualified to join.

Members were affluent, influential people from Munich society: professors, noblemen, manufacturers, senior officials, businesspeople .... Those wishing to join had to complete a questionnaire and submit a photograph, which was examined for purity of race. The following ‘blood declaration’ also had to be filed: ‘The undersigned assures to the best of his knowledge and conscience that no Jewish or coloured blood flows through his veins or those of this wife and that there are no family members of coloured race among his forefathers ... (2)

Adolf's father was the illegitimate child of a peasant girl. His grandfather was a gypsy. He had no pedigree.

The Thule society was occult in nature, and engaged in symbolic rituals. There were several levels of membership, and while the agenda may have been different for many, they all had a common goal. Purity of the Aryan stock and a belief in the racist philosophy of Guido von List, which asserted the superiority of the Aryans, at least in their interpretations.

And everything that came to define the future Nazi Party, was drawn from that society. Their flag, their anthem and even the creation of their party leader.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

Dietrich Eckart immediately introduced his find to his friends Alfred Rosenberg and Anton Drexler. They obviously approved, and now worked to transform the eager Hitler into the Antichrist of Soloviev's vision.

He already had the mustache, an obvious spiritual sign. But they must now make him athletic, seductive, a powerful speaker and a vegetarian**. But above all he had to be able to pull off omnipotent, if they were able to sell him to the affluent moneyed people of the Thule Society.

And the popular playwright and director, Ekart, used his skills to transform*** the former soldier, who looked like this when he enlisted:

To This

Chapter Fourteen Continued: Aberhart and Manning Find Their Antichrist

Footnotes:

*Hitler would sue his friend Hanisch, from his Vienna days, who was handling the sale of his artwork. He felt that a painting of his that Hanisch sold for ten kronen, was worth at least a hundred, and believed that he'd been cheated. Art critics now agree that it was definitely a ten kronen 'work of art.'

**Hitler's vegetarianism was only part of his created persona. He actually loved sausages, cavier and wild game. (3)

***One aspect of neoconservatism that is often overlooked is the practice of image politics. Political Science professor and author, Trevor Harrison, discusses in his book about Stockwell Day: Requiem For a Lightweight: Stockwell Day and Image Politics; how Conrad Black selected Day to run as leader of the Alliance Party. Day, who only had a high school education, was full of self-importance, had the right look and was virtually unknown outside of Alberta. Soon he was being introduced to the cream of society and speaking at $1,000.00 a plate fundraisers. But Black may have been unaware of his questionable past, that surfaced during the election campaign.

And of course the challenge with Stephen Harper was to change his appearance from this:

"Up until the writ for the 2006 election was dropped, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was widely viewed outside his home province of Alberta as a sullen and condescending policy wonk. Many believe it was this image of a strident right-wing ideologue that helped seal his party's defeat in 2004. But in 2006, the voters saw a new and improved Harper, one who is more centrist, more polished, a party leader who has been made over both professionally and politically. Gone is the helmet hair-do. Gone is the petulant Harper with the legendary simmering temper..." (4)

All politicians, present and future, work to create a saleable image. But for Neocons, it's a religion. All part of the "noble lie".

Sources:

1. Young Hitler, By: Claus Hant, The Thule Society

2. Der Fhehrer, Hitler's Rise to Power, By: Konrad Heiden, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944

3. Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover, By: Ryn Barry, Pythagorean Books, 2004

4. Stephen Harper: The next prime minister, CTV News, January 24, 2006