Mike Godwin must be going crazy, right now, amid the tsunami of post-election comparisons. For the record, I do not think Donald Trump wants to, or will, become a Hitler. Parallels with Mussolini are creepy though, starting with Il Duce’s fervid rallies and relentless slogans, calling on Italians to rebuild classical glories and — translated literally— “make Rome great again.”
As those so-clever 1930s lords did then, today’s oligarchs stare in
disbelief that a gifted shaman leaped aboard their carefully-trained beast,
threw off the intended jockeys and grabbed the reins for himself.*** Back eight
decades ago, at least a few of the Junkers had enough honesty to proclaim: “Mein Gott, what haf we done?” Alas, do
not expect any such honor or decency from Rupert Murdoch, or the Worst Man in America, George F. Will.
Yet, I take solace from history. Back in the 1930s, as today all
over the planet, common folk were mesmerized by new communications technologies.
Back then it was radio and loudspeakers, that amplified the hypnotic voices of
gifted, polemical svengalis, who took over almost everywhere, plunging humanity
toward an abyss.
But not in the English speaking world. Our parents and grandparents were captivated by gifted orators, too. But
here, and in Britain, those gifted speakers were on our side, urging us — as Pericles did in Athens — to make the
most of our democracy. Which
brings us to a question that blue Americans really need to ask their red
neighbors:
When do you envision that America had its
“great” golden age? “Make America Great Again” implies a
clear notion of a time. So when was that?
It would
seem that generally folks are referring to the era of the Greatest Generation –
the boomers’ parents -- who overcame the Depression and Hitler, contained
communism, built a booming market economy and got us into space, while
too-gradually, but deliberately, taking on so many longstanding prejudices and injustices
they inherited from their parents and a thousand other generations.
Oh, but a funny thing about those folks in the World War II generation. They voted high taxes on the rich, which the rich patriotically paid. And they admired labor unions.
Oh, but a funny thing about those folks in the World War II generation. They voted high taxes on the rich, which the rich patriotically paid. And they admired labor unions.
Above all,
that clade of Americans had one favorite living
human, a man adored by his people, his fellow citizens.
No wonder the New Lords have spent hundreds of millions and
decades portraying Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Satan, incarnate. All while invoking nostalgia for the “great”
American era of the 1940s and 1950s, sweeping aside one fact -- that every
notable aspect of that period was Rooseveltean.
A time - I must reiterate - when unions thrived, the rich paid taxes, science
was admired, and moving forward was in our blood.
Oh, you sour boomers, don’t you dare to invoke the Greatest Generation! They were union men, democrats mostly, held
no truck with foppish billionaires, preferred facts over assertions, built giant
projects, gave the world its first general peace and… oh, yes, can I say it
again? Their favorite living human was FDR. And do you know who followed
Roosevelt in that slot? Who was the most-admired American during the 1950s? A
fellow named Jonas Salk.
Oh, they were far from perfect, my parents and their friends.
Their faults were monumental! But they emulated the American Founders, and the
soldiers of a righteous, abolitionist blue Union, and others who pushed our
fine Experiment forward, not
wallowing in nostalgia. (See how I answer right wing adoration of the 1950s.) Moreover, we are not lesser beings
than the Greatest Generation. We benefit
by living in the great civilization
they built. But they raised us to launch from their shoulders. And yes, we have mightily
amplified all of their accomplishments with creativity, science and compassion.
(BTW, the next generation – millennials, especially – are so
much better than us boomers that there’s no comparison. Calmer by far.
Generally wiser, nicer, smarter. As a parent I’ll take some credit. The best
thing we boomers ever did! And we so owe the kids an apology, right now. We
need to get out of their way.)
== They built ‘great’
America. FDR merely summoned their wills. ==
No, fanatics, you don’t get the Greatest Generation, who would
be appalled by your quiver-lipped wrath and shrill, drama-queen wails. No. You must flee farther back from their Rooseveltean era, in search of your earlier “great” time!
Here’s a candidate period for you -- one admired by the
alt-right and Fox – lauded in a song you might recall:
“Mister
we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
Didn’t
need no Welfare State.
Everybody
pulled his weight.
Gee
our old LaSalle ran great.
Those
were the days.”
Is it 1929 then, that alt-right and the folks at Trump rallies
yearn for? Surely the oligarch-junker lords financing the movement would be pleased
to crank-back before FDR. And yet, we
all know that’s not it.
Forget 1929.
It’s 1861, they yearn for. Only this time a confederacy that’s
victorious. Plantation lords and their fervid vassals finally overcoming the
blue forces of science, facts and progress. (And let us admit that this round of the civil war, with help from the Czar, the Confederacy has taken Washington.)
Alas, stupidly, they ignore real history and where this can only
lead.
Their conspiracy will carry us to Paris, 1789.
==
Back to Godwin ==
Okay,
we’ve drifted. Yes, it is vital to nail the Trumpists by demanding they say when they think America was Grrrrreat! ****
Still, circling
back to the beginning, we started with Godwin’s
Law. Recall that I dismissed the likelihood that Donald Trump wants
anything Hitlerian. So don’t exaggerate! It just harms your credibility. I doubt
he’s personally very racist, while cynically egging on those who are. Though
parallels with Mussolini seem apt.
No, I’ve
taken you on this journey in order to convey a chilling moment of realization
that I had today, when looking at Donald Trump’s White House appointments. A
shiver of recognition that can only
have come from watching way too much History Channel (before they
became the Bigfoot Channel.) Specifically…
…I looked
at the epically prototypical brownshirt who is Donald Trump’s chief aid and
‘strategist’ — Steve Bannon, whose silver-spoon life and cushy parasitism at
Goldman Sachs then subsidized a plunge into manipulative
populist cant, raging against the civilization that benefited him for decades. (Forecast;
no bills will be introduced to actually change Wall St. parasitism.)
I know
him, you see. Not directly, but every howl against modernity. Every appeal to Cyclical History (the central incantatory touchstone of the reactionary right.) His
contempt-drenched ragings against science and every other knowledge caste. I
know the cult of neo-feudalists who aim for a return to the standard human
condition of 6000 years, and his raves are identical to their calls for a
return to kingship, to dominance by Aryan males, to Church and hierarchy and
empire, stirring mobs to crush citizenship.
Using populism to wreck government by-the-people.
Using populism to wreck government by-the-people.
Moreover,
in all traits he seems eerily reminiscent of (may Godwin forgive me) a certain historical
figure whose arc and ambitions and face
strike chilling parallels. A fellow named --
The chief
aid, factotum, ear-whisperer, private secretary and ‘strategist’
who controlled the flow of information and access to you-know-who. The Grima Wormtongue of humanity’s
darkest time.
A stretch? Then photoshop-modify the hair. Ditch the
peach fuzz. Hell, drawl the name.
Now guess which of them said: ““Darkness is good… That’s power. It only helps us when they get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing.”
Now guess which of them said: ““Darkness is good… That’s power. It only helps us when they get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing.”
Okay, that was Bannon. Here’s the full paragraph: “Darkness
is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power. It only helps us when
they get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing.”
And now some of you are mumbling: "Brin are you insane? Bannon will surely see this! It will stand out and get you on a list." To which I answer, well... ******
I do have to ask: has any
member of this generation actually read Mein Kampf? Anyone? At all? Read it! Or at least skim -- look past the screeching racism and rage at the deeper threads of romanticism and the incantations of cyclical history. The calls for not improvement or progress, but restoration of a spectacular purity and glory that never, ever existed in the past.
Then note while flipping through those pages, it isn’t Donald Trump whose voice you can hear, speaking the lines. (Trump is more like Huey Long or Father Coughlin or yes, Il Duce.) But Bannon is there. His voice.
Then note while flipping through those pages, it isn’t Donald Trump whose voice you can hear, speaking the lines. (Trump is more like Huey Long or Father Coughlin or yes, Il Duce.) But Bannon is there. His voice.
Oh
my Godwin.
== Best friends ==
Do
I exaggerate?
---
Enough...
---------------------------
* I was a participant in a long-ago, early-primitive message group, when attorney Mike Godwin coined his famous ‘law.”
** Speaking of clichés, it can be apt to swap the phrase “Godwin’s Law” into Godwin’s Law: “If an online discussion (regardless of topic) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will invoke Godwin's Law.”
*** As DT eagerly toes the line of Koch orthodoxy, I have to wonder if he experienced recently a moment like that in the film NETWORK, when Howard Beale meets Ned Beatty's wonderful mogul, Arthur Jensen. Watch it. Watch Network, including the classic "Mad as Hell!" scene... and then my response to it.
**** Tony the Trumpeter Tiger?
****** Will I be put on lists? Oh, sillies, of course I'm already on lists. And other lists of people whose 'accidents' would be probed. I do have some courage and sense of duty to a civilization, planet and species that I love, and so willingly take some risk. But probably foremost is the fact... that I wrote the character Nathan Holn, in The Postman. And there are some tough hombres out there who don't care that I portrayed Holn as a villain. They adore him, anyway. And me as Holn's 'creator. And hence, I've been offered shelter in places where... let's just say it would take an army. Martin Bormann would have envied these 'redoubts.' Of this I have little doubt.
******* Oh! Late breaking development. I'm not the first to notice the resemblance! Aw shucks. And also... relief.
Enough...
---------------------------
* I was a participant in a long-ago, early-primitive message group, when attorney Mike Godwin coined his famous ‘law.”
** Speaking of clichés, it can be apt to swap the phrase “Godwin’s Law” into Godwin’s Law: “If an online discussion (regardless of topic) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will invoke Godwin's Law.”
*** As DT eagerly toes the line of Koch orthodoxy, I have to wonder if he experienced recently a moment like that in the film NETWORK, when Howard Beale meets Ned Beatty's wonderful mogul, Arthur Jensen. Watch it. Watch Network, including the classic "Mad as Hell!" scene... and then my response to it.
**** Tony the Trumpeter Tiger?
****** Will I be put on lists? Oh, sillies, of course I'm already on lists. And other lists of people whose 'accidents' would be probed. I do have some courage and sense of duty to a civilization, planet and species that I love, and so willingly take some risk. But probably foremost is the fact... that I wrote the character Nathan Holn, in The Postman. And there are some tough hombres out there who don't care that I portrayed Holn as a villain. They adore him, anyway. And me as Holn's 'creator. And hence, I've been offered shelter in places where... let's just say it would take an army. Martin Bormann would have envied these 'redoubts.' Of this I have little doubt.
******* Oh! Late breaking development. I'm not the first to notice the resemblance! Aw shucks. And also... relief.
