Now We Must Rise

During the election it became evident through court documents that Trump read and studied Hitler's speeches. I have not had the stomach to read and study Hitler's speeches. I have, however, been pouring over classic texts on the rise of authoritarianism and fascism, in particular Hannah Arrendt's 'The Origins of Totalitarianism." What's more, thanks to the miracle of Twitter, I have taken the opportunity to dialogue with dissidents and historians who have been engaged in the rise of authoritarian regimes in Russia, Eastern Europe, and in the Arab Spring.

One thing that is abundantly clear in all of this research is that the rise of fascism is predicated on societal dysfunction and chaos. So, the more successful Trump is in leading us into carnage the greater the possibilities are for authoritarianism. What is shocking to me, and portending great darkness, was the language Trump used in his speech today. Thanks to the work of some good folks at the Washington Post we can see in stark relief the tone of carnage and dysfunction in Trump's address. This is the necessary pretext of force - of which Trump also promised much.

Check out this following bit of evidence about Trump's designs on chaos and carnage: the first quote is from an interview Trump gave to Fox News in Feb. 2014, the second is a revealing graph from a profile of Steve Bannon, chief White House strategist.

 

The answer to the rise of fascism, then, is to resist the siren call of carnage and instead rise to the standard of human dignity, compassion, resoluteness, creativity, truth, collective peaceable action and above all a love-ethic so strong that it weeps even for the enemy trapped in the role of an oppressor. This was perhaps the deepest truth that Dr. Martin Luther King uncovered. For while the Civil Rights movement was a protest movement against racism, let us not forget that for black America the experience of slavery, share-cropping, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration has been nothing less than the endurance of an overtly fascistic white supremacy at every level of society. When MLK went to battle against racist fascism he did so linked arm in arm, with songs, letters, sermons, poetry and scriptures and he did so in a black suit and tie. He taught the world how to look fascism in the face and say, "No. Not now, not ever again. I will not participate even as a victim." As Trump scripts a backdrop of chaos and carnage, a United States in utter ruins of which, "I alone can fix it!" remember that this script is a lie that he will do all in his now immense power to turn into a reality. This is what we must resist. We have been shown how to rise. We have the tools. Now we must draw upon the best of us, morally and spiritually, and rise. Now is our time. In solidarity let us rise.