The NYT reports that many Germans have become aware of swastikas on church bells in many churches in the country. Most of the bells are clearly visible and have been around since 1934. The bells have a swastika and an inscription: “Everything for the Fatherland — Adolf Hitler.” Citizens church goers have been getting married, baptized and everything else under the bells for decades. The article says debate about their removal has become a hot political issue recently. 

The NYT writer states, "history is never far from the surface in Germany, a nation that, under the Nazi regime, murdered six million Jews and has long prided itself on taking on its troubled past with unsparing honesty." What the writer misunderstands is that the surface in fact is the German citizen's belief in authority and government. Not that the government abused its authority but that the concept of "authority" in practice is the source of the problem. Protest to government and debate amongst "authorities" serve only re-inforce authoritarism. As explained by Martin Luther King Jr., "never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."  

Authority refers to the right to rule others by force. Authority is another "virus in the minds" of people worldwide - as it only exists in the minds of people.  FUNKTIONARY defines it as follows:

"authority" - (so-called)—a cartoon, an alleged image of the Law. 2) a cartoon clothed in flesh and blood. 3) the notion of an implied right and application of that "right" of individuals or groups of same to control or exercise external power over others, which has no meaning in reality. 4) power over...which is thoroughly institutionalized. 5) ruling through coercion. So-called "authority" is the justification for remaining impotent. The real threat to "authority" is the masses overcoming info-gaps and verigaps through self-knowledge and the proliferation of symbols of opposition, not crime or destruction of property.

"Authority-" is not a force but a farce! "Every great advancement in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority." —Aldous Huxley. Government is the hefty price we pay for our lack of being further evolved as humans. "The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority." —Stanley Milgram Regarding obedience to authority and carrying out "orders" Milgram states, "Thus there is a fragmentation of the totai human act; no one man decides to carry out the evil act and is confronted with consequences. The person who assumes full responsibility for the act has evaporated. Perhaps this is the most common characteristic of socially organized evil in modern society." At its root, government is based on violence and coercion. Without violent authority, studies show that violent behavior will all but disappear in its wake. Authority breeds the violence that it combats and perpetuates. Violence perpetrated by individuals is learned through noxious social experiences typically suffered under some assumed "authority." "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government." —Dr. Martin L. King. Jr.. 1967. Read "Obedience to Authority" by Stanley Milgram, and "Constitution of No Authority" by Lysander Spooner. (See: Violence, Government. Yurugu, BOG. "The Law," Hierarchy. Obedience, Duty, Defiance, Disobedience, Compliance Priests, Preachers, Citizens, States, Involuntary Taxation, Tax Invasion, Behavior, Orders, Allegiance. Internal Revenue Service, Corporate State, Anarchy. Taxtortion, Power, Experts, Doggy & Neuropeans)

obedience - a Self-Other irreversible relationship in which there is only communication (mind-to-mind), i.e. no contact, and an imbalance of power. 2) the highest form of the power-fear systemic. 3) slavery sold to both children and adults alike deceptively packaged in a respectfully sounding label. 4) reverse terrorism. You can compel obedience but you cannot compel responsibility or respect. Everyone should have a say in waking-up to (or waking up from) whatever they have been programmed to obey. It is difficult to reduce to obedience anyone who has no wish to command. If you can't read very well and follow it up with the absence of critical thinking skills, then obey your masters and oppressors until you can—for your own survival. Life is more trouble-free when you obey. If you speak TV-English, by all means obey the beast, if you like freedom of movement with your slavery. TV's ought to have warning labels: "Use of this device can be hazardous to your freedom.'" How can you take a man seriously who watches T.V. obediently, drinks habitually and desires freedom too? The historian Howard Zinn is clear on the role obedience has played on our conditions throughout the centuries. "[Civil disobedience] is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions of people have been killed because of this obedience. ...Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is people are obedient while the jails are full with petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem." More atrocities are commited in the name of economics than in the name of hate, ideological or religious intolerance. (See: Authority, God, Atrocities, Conditioning. TV, War, The COMB, Control, Power, Violence. Religion, Should. Duty, Hatred, Other, Inhumanity, Communication, Programming, Indoctrination, Poverty, Gangbanking, Education, Unlearning. Force. Orderlies, Police, Force Continuum. Judicial Tyranny, Residency, Labor, Property, Servitude, Critical Thinking, Holodeck Court, Questioning, Pulpit. TUFF. Authenticity. Fear & Authoritarians).

Undeceiver Larken Rose explains

"The belief in “authority,” which includes all belief in “government,” is irrational and self contradictory; it is contrary to civilization and morality, and constitutes the most dangerous, destructive superstition that has ever existed. Rather than being a force for order and justice, the belief in “authority” is the arch-enemy of humanity.

Of course, nearly everyone is raised to believe the exact opposite: that obedience to “authority” is a virtue (at least in most cases), that respecting and complying with the “laws” of “government” is what makes us civilized, and that disrespect for “authority” leads only to chaos and violence. In fact, people have been so thoroughly trained to associate obedience with “being good” that attacking the concept of “authority” will sound, to most people, like suggesting that there is no such thing as right and wrong, no need to abide by any standards of behavior, no need to have any morals at all. That is not what is being advocated here – quite the opposite.

Indeed, the reason the myth of “authority” needs to be demolished is precisely because there is such a thing as right and wrong, it does matter how people treat each other, and people should always strive to live moral lives. Despite the constant authoritarian propaganda claiming otherwise, having respect for “authority” and having respect for humanity are mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed. The reason to have no respect for the myth of “authority” is so that we can have respect for humanity and justice.

There is a harsh contrast between what we are taught is the purpose of “authority” (to create a peaceful, civilized society) and the real-world results of “authority” in action. Flip through any history book and you will see that most of the injustice and destruction that has occurred throughout the world was not the result of people “breaking the law,” but rather the result of people obeying and enforcing the “laws” of various “governments.” The evils that have been committed in spite of “authority” are trivial compared to the evils that have been committed in the name of “authority.”

Nevertheless, children are still taught that peace and justice come from authoritarian control and that, despite the flagrant evils committed by authoritarian regimes around the world throughout history, they are still morally obligated to respect and obey the current “government” of their own country, They are taught that “doing as you’re told” is synonymous with being a good person, and that “playing by the rules” is synonymous with doing the right thing. On the contrary, being a moral person requires taking on the personal responsibility of judging right from wrong and following one’s own conscience, the opposite of respecting and obeying “authority.”

The reason it is so important that people understand this fact is that the primary danger posed by the myth of “authority” is to be found not in the minds of the controllers in “government” but in the minds of those being controlled, One nasty individual who loves to dominate others is a trivial threat to humanity unless a lot of other people view such domination as legitimate because it is achieved via the “laws” of “government.” The twisted mind of Adolf Hitler, by itself, posed little or no threat to humanity. It was the millions of people who viewed Hitler as “authority,” and thus felt obligated to obey his commands and carry out his orders, who actually caused the damage done by the Third Reich. In other words, the problem is not that evil people believe in “authority”; the problem is that basically good people believe in “authority,” and as a result, end up advocating and even committing acts of aggression, injustice and oppression, even murder.

The average statist (one who believes in “government”), while lamenting all the ways in which “authority” has been used as a tool for evil, even in his own country, will still insist that it is possible for “government” to be a force for good, and still imagine that “authority” can and must provide the path to peace and justice."