“More and more, as I think about history, he pondered, I am convinced that everything that is worthwhile in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.” – It Can't Happen Here
Biblical end times promise to usher in a multitude of devastating conditions from natural disasters, war, economic ruin, and unimaginable depravity, with each day seemingly leading us closer to that inevitable day of reckoning. Whether the end is nigh, or we are simply experiencing another season of darkness, the current state of the world is having adverse effects on the American psyche.
A hundred years ago, an economic catastrophe fueled the mother of all authoritarian coups. Fear and hopelessness drove the masses into the arms of several benevolent dictators. Surely the American Constitution and its institutions, its people, and its culture would never allow that to happen here. Unfortunately, the speed at which people traded their freedom in exchange for draconian Coronavirus mandates, reveals that we may be closer than we thought.
If you’ve ever wondered what America would look like if we inadvertently elected a fascist dictator, you need wait no longer. In Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, “It Can’t Happen Here”, Lewis provides such a glimpse. Based, in part, on actual individuals and events, Lewis’s novel opens in mid-1930’s America as FDR is hoping to be elected to his second term. Things do not go as planned, and populist Buzz Windrip is democratically elected without force or insurrection. Showing how quickly democracy can spiral into chaos, freedoms begin to be lost as Windrip’s police state takes control. Written during the reign of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, economic turmoil during the Great Depression led to a longing for a strongman with a slick tongue to alleviate the people’s fears.
Lewis’s chosen political doppelganger for the main character Buzz Windrip was Louisiana radical, Huey Long. Long, who planned to run against FDR in the 1936 Presidential primary election, campaigned on the slogan “Share Our Wealth”. His populist program included massive federal spending, a wealth tax, and redistribution as its core tenets, mirroring many of the policies of European dictators. Then, as Nazi Germany used stormtroopers, a paramilitary organization, to assist in Hitler’s rise, Windrip’s dictatorship had a posse of their own, Minute Men, ready to strongarm skeptical Americans to his agenda.
Similar signs of fascistic progress are being made in America today. Forty percent of dollars in circulation having been printed out of thin air over the past year, is worsening the coming economic collapse. Biden’s billionaire tax is just one of many attempts to villainize the rich and create class division. Congress recently passed a law to expand the power of the Capitol Police force outside of Washington, a potentially militarized federal force. Modern-day book burners are found in tech companies like Amazon, YouTube, and Facebook, which swap data with governments to suppress unacceptable opinions.
Author H. L. Mencken, in 1918, foresaw the writing on the wall when he penned, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” Fascism is the absolute power of a centralized state that tends to rise during economic distress and political insecurity. In America, state-sanctioned corporate media is controlling a narrative that allows only one side of the story. There has been an increasing suspension of the Constitution and the rule of law as emergency measures are used to gain control, control that is rarely if ever returned to the people after a supposed crisis is averted. Then there is a gradual loss of morality and humanity towards those who think independently. Intolerance of thought and action is stymied as free speech is silenced. A common enemy is identified and vilified for their lack of conformity. In the face of fear, people are beginning to comply.
Could the greatest experiment in history, so steeped in the tradition of freedom and liberty allow fascism to bloom here? Yes and no. It could and will flourish in the absence of constant vigilance on the part of a few. As the majority surrender, a small, dedicated group with the courage to resist is all that is needed to build the dam. It may be the end of the world as we know it. But I do feel fine. For whatever monster finally takes hold, enough of us will be ready to confront it.
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