Like most everyone I have become fascinated by what is happening in Ukraine. What is particularly fascinating to me is how much of what is happening now happened earlier in the Ukraine in 2014 and how much of this was presaged by what happened in Russia. We did not learn our lessons in 2014 and now we are paying a hefty price.
In 2018 I read a very important book called The Road to Unfreedom by a historian from Yale University Timothy Snyder. It described the road from freedom to unfreedom in Russia, Ukraine, Britain, and finally the United States.
According to Snyder,
“In the 2010s, much of what was happening was the deliberate creation of political fiction, outsized stories and medium-sized lies that commanded attention and colonized the space needed for contemplation.”
This was when people began to speak about the death of truth or decay of truth or living in a post-truth world. In American and the United Kingdom people were shocked to see political leaders who seemed uniquely incapable and unqualified but appealed to large segments of their society nonetheless. Reality was being shredded. As Snyder said, It was “a time when factuality itself was put into question.” The road to unfreedom was being paved with lies.
Journalism during this time was attacked by demagogic leaders for their own nefarious purposes. Donald Trump for example, did not want anyone to pursue him with claims of being a liar, so he usurped the notion of fake news that had referred to internet lies that crushed the truth. As we will see, this is direct from the fascist playbook. Call out others for your own faults. That can create the illusion of innocence. Hitler did it. Putin did it. So did Trump. Trump did that while lifting himself into an office for which he was uniquely unsuited, but his followers did not care. His followers wanted a wrecking ball and they got one and were entirely satisfied. Truth was as irrelevant as morality.
Russia has already completed its road to fascism while America and Europe seem not that far behind. As Snyder said,
“What has already happened in Russia, is what might happen in America and Europe, the stabilization of massive inequality, the displacement of policy by propaganda, the shift from the politics of inevitability to the politics of eternity. Russian leaders could invite Europeans and Americans to eternity because Russia got their first. They understood American and European weaknesses, which they had first seen and exploited at home.”
The times were ripe for authoritarian or even worse. The times were ripe for fascism.
Excellent points. I am trying hard to be more positive though, by focusing on the more-or-less silent majority in the United States that doesn’t necessarily buy into the populist movement. You have to partially blame the 24 hour news cycle and social media which gives extremists undue amounts of airtime. In Russia, Putin controls information; in the West, editors hungry for clicks and revenue have taken over. Abhorrent people like Marjorie Taylor-Greene get daily coverage which creates the impression in millions of viewers that she is actually worth paying attention to. She is not.
All the US needs is a charismatic middle-of-the -road candidate who proposes changes that match the public interest: climate change, healthcare and jobs being the top 3. He or she will have to raise money the way Bernie Saunders did though. Charles Koch and his allies will be doing everything they can to stop a candidate like this.
You make some very good points. What makes me pessimistic is that more than 73 milion Americans voted for Trump and many still worship him and the Republican Party has sold its soul to the devil. How can you not be pessimistic?