Trump, Orwell and Bonhoeffer: Reflections on American Decline
I have already shared my negative assessment of the autocratic impulses of the Trump administration. Context is important here. I have always been an optimist even when distressed by developments in our political culture. I believed in the core strength of American institutions. Under stress, the centre would hold! After reversals, we would be resilient. As Churchill famously described his faith in the United States- “Do not fret, Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” A realistic acknowledgement of our imperfections, but ultimately an abiding trust in our character and values. I have also embraced our commitment to incremental progress- a defining feature of American history and the American experiment with self governance. My mantra was to quote Martin Luther King, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” An underlying optimism that we would confront our shortcomings and prejudices and ultimately overcome them with hard work, intellectual integrity and moral force. There was good reason for this quiet confidence in our future. We had slavery, but fought a war and passed the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. We had Jim Crow, lynchings and segregation, but passed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. We had the Ku Klux Clan, but they faded away. We had the Palmer raids, the Red Scarce, Japanese internment, McCarthyism, witch hunts and blacklisting, but eventually returned to sanity and continued the march to fulfilling the promises in the Declaration of Independence. Progress may be painful, slow and sometimes marred by violence, but we get there.
Alas, this narrative is being tested now. The backlash, the backsliding, the reinterpretation of history, the re-engineering of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys is disturbing. The arc was pulled toward justice because good people pulled it that way. It is not inevitable. Unfortunately, some people in power today appear determined to reverse the arc- to bend it backwards. Not good!
America is experiencing intellectual and moral decline. Our standards have been lowered, if not abandoned completely. The quality of public discourse is shockingly low, despite the information revolution. All human knowledge is instantly accessible, but misinformation and disinformation dominate the digital communications landscape. Who should we blame? Who is responsible? It is tempting to blame Trump and his populist movement, but such a simple explanation makes me uneasy. To quote Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” We get the society we deserve. We get leaders who reflect our values. Situations and outcomes are not determined by fate, luck or destiny, but rather by our own choices and actions. I am less optimistic than I have ever been about America’s capacity to chart a positive future. Why? Where are we falling short?
The primary culprit is the death of TRUTH and our increasing willingness not to insist on it. Facts don’t matter and falsehoods and lies are becoming the default mode of communication. Lies are peddled without shame- with no fear of penalty or punishment. For example, Trump built his political career on an outrageous lie- Barack Obama was not born in the United States. A deliberate attack on his legitimacy, made with impunity over a sustained period of time. So what- let’s elect the guy. An extreme example of a “no harm, no foul” outlook. Trump then authors the the attack on American democracy on January 6, 2021. He repeatedly lied about a rigged election, fed the grievances of his base and with his non stop demagoguery lit the fire. It was on national television. Four years later, he is re-elected and he pardons the insurrectionists and describes them as American heroes defending our liberty and freedom. It is almost impossible to characterise these events as anything other than tangible proof that something is wrong with our democratic republic.
The constant lying is not on trivial matters. We have now moved on to telling everyone that Ukraine started the war, that Zelensky is a dictator and Putin is a peace loving modern fellow. OUCH!! The sad reality is that no matter how obviously untrue an utterance may be, for the people who choose to believe it, it becomes true. It attains the power of truth, For autocrats, lying is an essential tool of government. Great deceivers have an uncanny ability to identify those issues where people who want to be deceived can be deceived. The lies do not require even the cover of plausibility to work. Frankly, the long history of dictators and authoritarians tells us that the bigger the lie and the cruder it is, the more readily it is believed and followed by loyalists. The big lie works- whoppers are even more effective! Lies work particularly well because they explain complex phenomena in simple terms. Today the “fact free” streaming platforms controlling the media universe have accelerated this process. False statements are shared globally and millions of our citizens are detached from reality. It is Kafkaesque- Alice in Wonderland is now our reality... This is not a good look for the world’s indispensable nation.
Another serious concern is the weak response to the authoritarian behaviour by people who should know better. There is too much fog and smoke, too much excusing, explaining and dissembling. I fear people are numb. The reprehensible state of our politics is leaving a moral vacuum. Bad policies and orders that undermine the constitutional order should be criticised and condemned. Burying our heads in the sand is irresponsible.
You can get into dangerous territory by analysing the motivations of a populace seemingly at peace with the steady stream of deceptions happening every day. Hillary Clinton used the term “deplorable” which was probably unfair and certainly unwise. A gentler term may apply- less judgmental. I will defer to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the courageous anti- Nazi German pastor attempting to describe what he was witnessing in 1930’s Germany.
“Against stupidity, we are defenceless. Because stupid actions don’t make sense, they invariably come as a surprise. Reasonable arguments fall on deaf ears. Counter evidence is brushed aside. Facts are deemed irrelevant. In all of this, the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and being easily irritated becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”
This rings true as a reflection of modern America. We are not mean, nasty or mean spirited. We are just complacent, intellectually lazy and stupid. We give a free pass to those who wish to do mean, nasty and mean spirited things. Unfortunately a “stupid” society can decline more rapidly than a malicious one. Stupidity makes people contemptuous of experience, prudence and expertise. Stupid societies are willing to believe anything and don’t have the skills to recognise their own shortcomings and incompetence. Stupid societies are prone to wild conspiracy theories and all forms of digital nonsense. We must do better! MAKE AMERICA SMART AGAIN! MAKE AMERICA WISE AGAIN!
My 90 day critique of Trump 2.0 referred to George Orwell twice. This was not an accident. Orwell was brilliant and no one in history has written more accurately about the character of totalitarian government. He saw the dangers inherent in mass media controlling the messaging. Both 1984 and Animal Farm vividly portray societies and systems based on organised lying. Truth is the first casualty in a nation veering to autocracy. Autocrats create scapegoats, “Enemies of the People.” The leader is the centre of the action and his authority cannot be challenged. Independent or countervailing sources of influence- a free press, universities, the courts are natural targets for a regime seeking to maximise its control. Freedom of thought is suppressed and the leader defines patriotism and acceptable values. Gradually, expression of certain thoughts and opinions is discouraged. Acceptable opinions are broadcast incessantly and scholars, writers, artists become subject to loyalty tests. If they fail, they are silenced by the regime. Heck, you appoint yourself Chairman of the nations’s leading performing arts centre and you abruptly cancel all funding of the National Endowment of the Arts. Cultural control is as important as political control. In conclusion, I share some of the most striking language employed by Orwell in his books. Ask yourself, are they relevant to 2025 USA?
War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; The Ministry of Fear; The Ministry of Truth; Newspeak; Two Minutes of Hate: Double-think; Leadership Worship.
All thinking Americans should re-acquaint themselves with Mr Orwell. A wake up call!
