Examining Other Aspects of Our Civilization’s Malaise
At 2GreenEnergy, we have a tendency to get so wrapped up pushing for climate change mitigation that we lose focus on other diseases that our civilization has contracted. Here’s something I came upon this morning that reflects a fear that many of us share about U.S. politics today:
Donald Trump represents something unprecedented in modern American politics, something far more alarming than his personal bullying and bluster.
We’re looking at a major party presidential candidate running a campaign that is, above all, defined by a proto-fascist contempt for anyone “different.”
But he’s not just running a campaign. He’s igniting a movement defined by hatred and fear, a movement powered by an undercurrent of violence and mob-thinking.
The problem isn’t just Trump, it’s Trumpism.
Defeating Trumpism means more than defeating candidate Trump.
It means actively countering the outright racism, misogyny, nativism and religious bigotry on which Trumpism is founded.
This is all true, and it’s terrifying. Our civilization actually is heading in the direction of world fascism; that’s what angry, ignorant people do, i.e., hand over enormous levels of power to sociopaths.
Paradoxically, the only way to reduce the level of anger and ignorance is with the very social programs that “Trumpism” abhors: focusing of resources on generating heath and prosperity for the lower and middle classes, via things like high quality public education, rehabilitation, family planning, affordable day care, nutrition, gun control, racially-blind policing, and so forth. Instead, however, we have masses of people pushing our society in the precise opposite direction, towards an even greater level of intolerance, violence, and stupidity.
Trump supporters have correctly identified a real problem in our world: over the past few decades, everyone but the super rich has suffered with stagnating wages and an overall reduced quality of life. It’s a burning problem, but they are trying to put out the fire with gasoline.
Where’s this all going? I don’t know, other than to say, again, it’s terrifying.
Some of this has happened before and we got out of it.
During the “gilded age”, also known as the robber baron era, there was a huge gap between rich and poor. The captains of industry or their agents would actually take a suitcase full of money to legislative bodies and bribe legislators. They would even buy judges. Business ethics were nonexistent. Finally the people got tired of it and the problem was corrected. Of course it’s impossible to tell what will happen, but history does tend to repeat itself and I expect that it will do so again.
Much can be learned by reading the biographies of the influential people who lived at that time including John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, Andrew Carnegie, etc.
You are correct, Frank, and the way we got out of it was through the combined efforts of three very different and massive movements in the populace: the labor movement, the socialist movement and the communist movement.
These movements spotlighted the corruption in politics, and generally demanded both economic and political justice, as well as specific reforms like the minimum (living) wage, child labor laws, overtime pay, the weekend, workplace safety.
As Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
I don’t recommend blows as part of the solution, but we must engage in more than a battle of words, and these must be among the keys:
Truth, Non-Violence, Cooperation, Direct Action, and Perseverance.
These five keys combined may not be enough, but they’re each indispensable.
At least we have got rid of the culture of deference, with all its attendant dangers.
Had Germany had a strong questioning culture with media scrutiny, pluralistic thought, a de-centralized power structure with strong local government, and social media to highlight the injustices, prejudices and downright cruelty of the Nazi party and all it stood for, then it is hard to believe they would ever have come to power, or if they did, that they would have acted as they did.
Obedience to responsible authority – for example sticking to speed limits put in place for all our safety is one thing, unthinking obedience to despots, and a class ridden society in which people of lower rank feel they owe respect to their “betters” i.e. those with higher social position regardless of whether their actions deserve respect is highly corrosive of accountability, and at best lets corruption flourish, and at worst leads to genocide.
The whole mess we see now in Syria complex as it is might possibly have been avoided if there had been dialogue, inclusion and a degree of accommodation of moderate opposition on things like allocation of water, opportunities for employment, and the right (within a reasonable framework of law) to disagree with the president and his party. People who feel included in a social contract with their government are far less likely to want to overthrow it.
See the link below to a New Scientist article discussing alternatives to nationalism.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329850-600-end-of-nations-is-there-an-alternative-to-countries/
You make two great points here:
People who are entirely disenfranchised can be counted on to rebel, and
People who question authority–at least to some degree–tend to make the world safe from tyrants.