There is a saying (I can't remember its author unfortunately) to the effect that 'history repeats itself but never in the same way the second time around'. In other words, if an historical parallel is being drawn, it would be very surprising if the details were the same.

The lesson of the burning of the Reichstag is that Governments can and do panic their populations into accepting draconian measures that would otherwise be rejected. The evidence I have heard seems to indicate that Van der Lubbe was an unwitting pawn of the Nazis, meaning that the Nazis deliberately and cynically planned the whole thing. However, it is not necessary for a Government to have instigated an incident for the Reichstag parallel to apply. It is only necessary for that Government to use the incident to whip up popular prejudice in order to strip away legal and civil rights

Notwithstanding comments about Dulwich Hill, Smith belatedly points out chillingly that converts to the Australian Patriotic League have risen sharply. This is of deep and abiding concern and NEEDS to be dealt with at local, state and federal level. A racist undercurrent of zealous, misguided young people who 'think they're doing the right thing', draping themselves in OUR flag engaged in blind ignorant thuggery is not a country I want. However this government has shown repeatedly that it is prepared to let 'free speech' have its way, especially when it serves their ends by effectively shifting the boundaries of public discourse ever further to the right; which they have done ever since that appalling Hanson woman was allowed to say her ignorant racist piece without censure from the House. I recall when people in their teens and twenties were the ones who espoused slightly leftish views of tolerance. Nowadays they're rightish views of apathy and intolerance; blithely ignorant of the consequences. Never thought I'd say this but way too many people are not quite what we'd term the sharpest. Why are so many people so bloody ignorant? What is wrong with having friends and neighbours who're a bit different from oneself? The angst of the Cronulla riots MAY have had something to do with turf. Then again, it had as much to do with misguided anger over being culturally and socially excluded; which is the case with many if not most ethnic based groups. Admittedly, most dont express their frustrations so negatively as to bash lifeguards. That was one of the lowest acts imaginable and a direct strike against a great aussie icon. That said, its time we ALL made an effort to not turn such a blind eye. We ARE a racist society; albeit one with a generally tolerant heart, we still leave way too many on the fringes. Lets start turning that around, because, in my view, if ever we do face a real act of terrorism on aussie soil, you can bet it will be a home grown affair....born out of frustration more than idealogy.

Hello from the US. I hate truncating articles like this...

Father Smith, maybe you need to take a sabattical from Australia, so you can see your country in a little perspective -- perhaps to Baghdad or Gaza, or an evangelizing tour of Saudi Arabia. Sometimes when one is in a place all his life, he has trouble seeing the forest for the trees. That's why I'm glad my children are living overseas, learning about the world. My daughter and her husband spent their anniversary last month, for instance, in Bali. The hotel keeper informed them that they were only the second foreign couple to stay there since the last round of terrorist attacks. When my son went to visit China for the first time, he had some trouble getting back into the US, because all flights were grounded. Our lives are intimately connected with the carryings-on of certain people, and to be fair to "people of Middle Eastern Appearance", such as Jews, Armenians and Assyrians, I'll be specific: They are Arabs, Moslem Arabs -- People who burn American flags for entertainment, get their jollies off by kidnapping and beheading "people of European appearance" and everyone else who doesn't agreee with them (including fellow Arab Moslems), and who dance in the streets and pass out candy whenever Americans and Australians suffer. As for the Jews, Armenians and Assyrians, they're some of the best people on the planet -- just so you know I'm not racist. It turns my stomach when I read about what these people are doing in Australia.

I don't altogether criticize your article. I hate your "sensitivity" towards the hoodlums that are causing innocent people so much grief, but it's a treat to read someone who actually knows that the Reichstag was in Germany.

Cheers to all you Dulwich Hillers. I lived there in the 1960s. You've got a wonderful country :-)

Too many superlatives, too many dollars dumped into the pot of multi-culturalism for far too long, to retract on what was done at Cronulla.

I lived in & went to school in the Eastern subs and later on became a 'Westy'. The undercurrent has always been there, a subtle, diffused anger at being working class - the Silvertails getting the better jobs, preferential treatment etc. It breeds discontent, festering through the generations. I am now the father of two teenage boys of 'mixed race'. Recently I found out my own heritage was 'Ethnic- Indigenous Australian'.

Deal with it, dump your ethnic prejudices from the old country, learn to live in harmony - could it really hurt just to try it for real?

Are we going to see a repeat? I would say so. Legislation didn't work in Nazi Germany either, nor will any repressive, draconian laws enacted in the states or Federally.

As for the comparisons of Nazi Germany. Look at what the successive Federal governments have done in the last 15 - 20 years, followed up by their state & territory mates. Now we have Victoria about to introduce a suite of 'Mickey Mouse' Human Rights legislation. A travesty of what the UN attempted to do with the DOHR in 1948.

In the vein of creating 'bogeymen' in the forms of Anti semitic,anti Arab, Anti Immigrant and such, the architects of the schemes have orchestrated a very careful (if not perhaps illogical) social engineering experiment.

Ah.... conspiracy theorist I hear them cry!

Take a look at the over-arching reasons behind the 'War On Terror', and see nothing more than a shallow, lie filled premise behind it.

Transfer this to our 'fears' of what precisely - because even the eminent academics can not tell you precisely just what a 'terrorist' is per se.

Hyperbole and hot wind, like a cyclone warning in the Top End.
Some run about clearing up the debris, preparing for the worst,-others just stock up on beer and see what happens.

I'm left wondering if other posters were reading the same article to the one I read (as another poster has previously stated).

Dave Smith is asking a question we all should ask when a government seeks to reduce our freedoms and pointing to a worse case scenario for when it goes bad. I didn't see him suggesting that JH has been working on the goose step and the stiff arm salute or ordering a large batch of those special shower heads.

Thinking about the things the PM gets blamed for on these threads is kind of amusing. On the one hand we have those who insist that he is a rabid racist determined to see non-whites suffer for the crime of being non-white, behind every bad thing that happens to non-whites in this country. On the other hand we have those who would see him charged with treason for letting his personal passion for muslims and other ethnic groups ruin this country as he attempts to hand the country over to them on a platter.

Now that is confusing.

R0bert