11/29/20: The Plot Against America — Novel, TV Show, In the Nation, In Ordinary Life #poetry #essay
I had to go to the bank in Wheaton, Illinois last Saturday
I sat waiting for the banker
across from his vacant desk
idly staring out the window
A large American flag
and a large blue flag, with the word
TRUMP
in large white letters
yelled across the street at me
I was surprised that the sight didn’t upset me
It was ominous enough
but I am finally accustomed to the ominous …
An influential book written years ago was titled
“The Paranoid Style in American Politics”
The book was partly a reaction to political figures like Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy
The paranoia has metastasized
into something much more sophisticated …
disseminated by masters of dark arts of data mining and manipulative messaging …
warlock-like masterminds penetrate into the darkness in American mass psychology …
and massage hate to their own ends
for their own money and power …
creating armies of millions of sucker foot soldiers
attacking all that is best in us …
Each thread of ignorance and insecurity and envy
in every ordinary little man and woman
is weaponized
into bloodthirsty hate …
The worst in the worst of us
is empowered.
Yes, there have been many technical advances
in the promulgation of the fascism that is and was always in the American heart …
Fascism ever more powerful
like a virus
mutating to ever more virulent iterations …
A little history viewed from the outer reaches of space:
There were many Americans
particularly in the Midwest
but elsewhere too
who admired Hitler before World War II
and a significant number of them continued their admiration
after Hitler declared war on our country;
The Culture of the American South
and by extension slavery
and the armed insurrection of the Confederacy
was romanticized by many Americans
in the North and South
long after the Civil War
and continues to this day …
The fear of losing our democracy is an emotion born of sentimentality
There is a democratic aspect to our nation to be sure
Of course!
So many
even a majority
believe in democracy and practice it …
They think:
All men and women are created equal
Other people should be treated with respect, kindness and decency
The truth matters
Facts matter
Human life matters
All individuals have a right to flourish
All citizens owe allegiance to and serve the community.
Yes, many people want to be fair and good and right and smart and loving and happy and caring …
But there is also that racist, sexist and fascist strain
that possesses some Americans completely
and lurks in the the shadows of even the best of us
Any idealized view of our past is a myth
American was a fallen place when the first European set foot on the North American continent
Fascism has been here from the moment the white man arrived,
and like everything else
this cocktail of fear, violence, bullying and greed
inescapably
permeates every aspect of our lives
our government
our economy
our families and our personal relationships …
The tools of the Fascist Style in American Life
are:
condescension
badgering
lying
insults and disrespect
cheating
stealing
ruining careers and reputations
gossip
cliques and clannishness
elevation of insignias of power
like titles, awards and money
to the exclusion of actual competence and achievement
scapegoating
persecuting and “other”
Demonization of those who disagree
Conformity.
In the nation, the economy, and in our families and our personal relationships, we inevitably find:
Brownshirts in the halls of power
Brownshirts in the workplace
Brownshirts in social groupings comprised of what are ostensibly called “friends”
Brownshirts in some unfortunate families — smothering mothers and dictatorial fathers, bullying siblings and lascivious uncles and aunts — fascism starts early, myriad unreported cases of child abuse more effective than any indoctrination of the Hitler Youth
Brownshirts in film, TV and other media, social and otherwise
the repetitive drum beat of advertising, propaganda and entertainment
dissociating mind after mind from outer reality and one’s own natural human feeling
Creating legions of ignorant, insensitive dullards
Idiots addicted to excitement and sensation
and deluded by a sense of power
when they are actually pawns
willingly surrendered by the more cunning kings and queens who hold them in contempt,
if a member of the legion of fools
metaphoric or literal cannon fodder
ever becomes aware of the manner of his or her exploitation
it is always too late.
“The Plot Against America”
is a novel by Philip Roth
that was published in 2004
and was adapted for television by David Simon and Ed Burns
and originally aired on HBO in March 2020.
Simon and Burns changed the story from the one presented in the novel in some significant ways
with Philip Roth’s blessing.
The novel sees fascism’s defeat of democracy in America to be a temporary phenomena
an aberration
and by book’s end America returns to more closely following its noble ideals
and fascism goes back underground
Furtively waiting for its next opportunity?
Hope and shame return to America in Roth’s 16 year old vision.
The TV show ends with open question
Character is destiny
What will America’s character be?
An election may or may not save America —
but the Rick Blog thinks that an election is just a moment …
The Rick Blog holds both the book and the TV versions of “The Plot Against America” in the highest of its estimations
Beautifully conceived and executed and so alive
Created with such honesty and humility
examples of excellence in art and humanity
So important
and yet
I add my own point of view about the American character
This struggle between fascism and democracy in America will never be resolved
This contest is America
a battle waged in
our government
our economy
our families and our personal relationships …
and our consciences
in our souls …
We do not have new challenges before us …
we avoided our toughest choices in the past
because of our young innocence …
America isn’t young anymore
we know reality more now
and our responsibility is greater.
We are required to act with moral courage now …
Constantly …
in thought, word and deed
in:
our government
our economy
our families and our personal relationships …
Goodness is not the absence of evil …
It’s the decision not to give in to evil …
Whether evil is externally more or less powerful in a particular moment doesn’t matter …
essentially …
It seems easier when evil is in apparent remission
when democracy is center stage and fascism isn’t let in the building
but tyranny is still in the alley, plotting its next move
The victory of democracy is always an illusion
Fascism is always there
even on Christmas morning …
We are born knowing what
and what not to do …
The American character is really the
characters
of 330 billion, and counting, American individuals
and that is why art is so inportant.
The maker and the viewer of art
create a very specific morality
that matches those unique persons’ circumstances
beyond the generality of morality, ethics and religion
We create a democracy
or a state of fascism
everyday
simply by saying
yes
and
no.
Copyright 2020 Richard Thomas
