To-do List? Check.
Today, my attention was called to Naomi Wolf’s book The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot this morning. I haven’t yet read the book, but I may need to. Maybe we all need to.
The topic of discussion is a sort of excerpt, a list of ten steps for transforming a free state into a totalitarian one, which forms the backbone of the book. Go read them now; I’ll still be here when you’re done.
The plea toward the end of the page, and the portrayal of a tiny minority fighting an unstoppable wave of fascism feel a little exaggerated, as you might expect from the Guardian. They may be reasonably accurate, but they will turn skeptical readers off. That’s okay, even proper. Whether we have as much to fear from Hillary as from Rudy is arguable—not necessarily wrong, but arguable. The use of the word “fascism” in place of the more general “totalitarianism” may be technically inaccurate. But do not let arguments over the closing paragraphs distract you from the list, and the concrete points it uses to portray a clear pattern of behavior. Remember, too, that these are examples trimmed from a very long list to fit a short essay.
I have little to add to the that analysis. I knew all this stuff before, but the list makes that knowledge tidy and concrete. I only wish to observe that the work of transforming our democracy to a totalitarian state doesn’t even have to be a deliberate effort, or the work of a single organization. Given our short terms of office, it is virtually a given that no single administration will create a dictatorship, so if and when the hammer falls, you can bet Bush and company, if they notice anything wrong at all, will insist they had nothing to do with it, that their programs were good and just and proper, and grossly misused by the tyrants to come. The important point is that emergencies are exploited to remove the guarantees of our civil liberties, the laws remain after the emergency passes (or a permanent state of emergency is mandated), and the laws are then exploited as a matter of convenience for executive authority. Dissent becomes a crime. At that point, there is no remedy short of violent mass demonstrations. Get that fixed in your mind: rights are broadly revoked for the narrow needs of a response to an emergency, even if the emergency has to be manufactured, and they are not subsequently returned. Dissent becomes a crime.
When Eileene and I argue politics, she often complains that she is at an unfair advantage because she is not a student of history. A disadvantage, to be sure, but I’d hesitate to call it unfair: one must have a sense of history to weigh political arguments properly. For that matter, one must have a sense of history to vote intelligently. History is an ethical obligation in a democracy. Well, for those of you in Eileene’s boat, here’s a quick list you can brush up on, if only through skimming wikipedia entries. No doubt the book itself contains far more, and more thorough, examples for your reference.
If you don’t know enough history to judge the threat of totalitarianism, learn. Do it now. Later will be too late. Once you know about the Red Scare and the Japanese internment and strikebreakers and Nixon’s enemies list, you will realize it can happen here. Once you know about the gulags and Marcos’s stalling of elections and the Armenian genocide, you will realize it mustn’t happen here.
Rights are revoked in an emergency, and they are not returned. Fight to have them returned now, while dissent remains, technically, legal.