ABSTRACT
Enzensberger: In Europe we have the impression that the political situation in the United States has intensified enormously and has come to a head in recent years. We hear of preventative arrest, of police riots; the American Left has published lists of concentration camps which are ready to be used; there are rumors that the American government had investigations carried out of how the country would react if the 1972 presidential elections were cancelled, if elections were simply no longer permitted. Can we conclude that the entire system of law and order is becoming more and more identical with its opposite – that is, lawfulness with racketeering, order with arbitrary rule: an almost jointless welding of politics and crime, of mafia and government? How can these developments be explained?
