Paroxysm, Paralysis

It’s difficult living through the destruction of one’s society. Writing about it seems even more difficult. There’s just too much. How should one choose what to write about?

It is easier now to see why we admire past authors who wrote during social crises: they found something vital and true amidst the chaos, and they managed to put it into words for others. Risking reputation, punishment, and even death, they gave voice to a human experience that was true despite the wishes of the jealous and murderous powers of their time. Authors like Žižek, Havel, Sartre, Borges, Poniatowska, and Pushkin.

Journalists, too, deserve respect for their courage, but their narrow focus necessarily makes the job a little bit easier: just report the news. String together a coherent narrative of truth and analysis. Tell the people what is happening. But authors and essayists are often unmoored; paralyzed over what to say that would be both vital and true.

Reacting: Skillfully & Not

Comedic genius will always be a cornerstone of our collective capability to process trauma. Comedians who find a way to share the truth are deploying a skill to bring coherence and attention to the chaos. They also deserve our respect and appreciation.

Most people, though, simply cannot seem to shut up. As if somehow writing eight hundred words on their marketing scheme for startups or the best travel tips for those who can successfully ignore a dying indigenous tribe on a beautiful sinking island will salve their ills. But that’s not it, is it? They’re hustling. Anything for a buck. Someone has to juice the ROI while others set up the concentration camps.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.

Sounds about right.

Seeking Wisdom

Maybe we just start with the basics and go from there. What is vital? What is true?

1. It is immoral and unacceptable for a government to detain humans and put them in dangerous or unhealthy conditions, regardless of the reasons or the humans.

2. Government police who operate in secrecy and without identification, arresting and disappearing people from the streets, are an illegitimate use of the monopoly on violence.

3. A citizen ignoring their government’s immoral actions is an act of moral avoidance. From a privileged citizen, it is cowardice. Persisting in willful ignorance while that government disappears, maims, and kills one’s neighbors is a direct invitation to become a victim of the same government’s caprice.

4. The magnitudes of a government’s lies are directly related to how corrupt and immoral that government is.

5. Seeking truth and exposing lies, corruption, alliances with bad actors, violence, and killings is always vital to protect large groups of vulnerable humans from being controlled and hunted by comparatively small groups in power.

6. The fact of a person’s or government’s current power is the result of collective belief and permission, not a bare universal fact like gravity. Collective will against those in power has, can, and will lead to a change in the powerful.

Opinions, Fascism & Tragedy

There’s a whole lot else that seems worth saying, but which would quickly devolve into opinions, preferences, or observations that, though supported by research and history, may be arguable at the edges. Like: Hosting and supporting a diversity of cultures, viewpoints, personalities, and desires builds enduring strength and incredibly fruitful societies.

But one of the first things they teach you at Fascist School is that there are no facts, not really. There is only what feels right, and what feels wrong (and then the fascists helpfully tell you how to feel). And the bad guys. There are always bad guys. Somehow they are never the guys doing the disappearing or the genocide. Funny that.

There is nothing terribly new or interesting about this story, where one group of humans exploits the lizard-brain fears of the masses to gain immense power and extinguish opposition to that same power. Maybe only that it’s juxtaposed with a recent history of relative calm, progress, and respect for a preciously new concept we call “human rights.” I think that makes it a tragic arc, but not a new one.

Whence It Came

I’m sure the hand-wringing and whining about how this could possibly happen is also not new. It’s not even like these particular masses were uneducated about the history of fascism, genocide, human rights abuses, or the demises of past empires. Well, those things were in the curriculum, at least. Were any of them paying attention, or just worrying about who would win the Friday night football game?

No, the root of this particular bugabear is as simple as it is devilish: a real, actual, awful and tragic set of economic circumstances befell a generation left behind by technological progress combined with rapacious capitalist greed. As it happened, that generation was also less educated and ready to hear about how their problems came from unknown people living states away.

Then there were the “J6ers,” who are just regular white supremacist assholes. The type of people who do have money and some education, but who turn out to be vile and hateful people concerned primarily with accumulation of status, power, or wealth. And especially so when their perceived adversaries are outside of their tribe. The kind of people who you just really want to punch in the face because they will absolutely pull a gun on you in a Walmart parking lot for getting in the way of their absurdly large vehicle. Snide. Entitled. Racist. Assholes. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. They aren’t the majority, just the leverage point.

Where to Go

Some people have left the country altogether, including, not ironically, the foremost academic experts on fascism. This is a pretty understandable reaction: move yourself to ensure freedom over your physical body and your family. (Note: Leaving the U.S. for the exact reasons of freedom and safety while red hats scream about “freedom” is, in fact, ironic.)

Most people will not have that option. So what is left? Peaceful protest, of course. And it is actually quite effective, historically. Especially when 3–4% of the entire population is visible and consistent in their opposition to abuses of power. That’s generally all it takes. That’s 10–14 million people though. Which is a lot.

But if you can’t protest visibly? Funding, organizing, encouraging, conversing, and writing are all good options. Ask your red hat acquaintances and family members specific questions about abuses of power and if they personally want to see them perpetrated against innocent people. Most don’t.

And for those who do want inhuman treatment of some hated group of the moment? I don’t think punching Nazis in the face will ever go out of style.