Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

The youth had lost their sense of belonging.  They did not count; there was no center of hope for their marginal egos.  According to my friend, Hitler told them: "No one loves you - I love you; no one will give you work - I will give you work; no one wants you - I want you."  And when they saw the sunlight in his eyes they dropped their tools and followed him.

-Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited

I know how dangerous and spurious it is to bring Adolf Hitler into an argument.  I am aware of Godwin's Law, but give me a minute, because I'm not going to compare anyone to Hitler.  I am, however, going to expand on what Mr. Thurman says about the desperation of people who feel their backs are against the wall.

Who among us, particularly those of us for whom World War II is practically ancient history, hasn't wondered how in the hell a crazy bleepity-bleep like Hitler ever got to impose his particular brand of insanity on the world.  The seventh grade history explanation is: "It was the economy stupid."  The Treaty of Versailles, which ended WWI, crippled Germany and people were using wheelbarrows full of marks to buy bread.  You've heard that right?  Well just imagine if you didn't have wheelbarrows full of marks.  Imagine if you were young and/or poor.  Imagine if the world seemed to be punishing you or forgetting you in turns.  Imagine that your back really was against the wall, and then someone told you that there was someone specific to blame for that.

Hitler blended patriotism, hatred, fear and the actual desperation of the German people into a toxic concoction called the Nazi party.  He crafted a vision: the thousand year Reich, he gave them a plan involving the power of the Wehrmacht and the propaganda and thought control of the Gestapo, and he made sure that his venom always had somewhere to vent.  But don't ever forget that it started with the ability to put food on the table and make people feel like they were part of something.

Disenfranchised people feel like they have very little to lose, and everything to gain.  Keep grinding someone into the dirt long enough and they will hate you to the very core of their soul, and it doesn't even matter if you meant to oppress them in the first place.  It doesn't even matter if you knew it was happening.  Today we have Al Quaida, ISIS, Boko Haram, more white supremacist groups than you can shake a stick at, and within almost any minority community you have militant radical and/or fundamentalist factions that breathe the fumes of hatred, we even have nations (like Iran and Pakistan) that have practically adopted what Thurman refers to as a "marginal ego." Meaning that they feel left out and persecuted by someone or anyone, it doesn't really matter who or what they hate, only that they do.

Their hatred and persecuted feelings can be real or imagined.  You could be an incarcerated young man from the ghetto who felt he never had any choice but to deal drugs and join a gang, or you could be Donald Trump and feel that the world truly is hostile to billionaire white guys, honestly it doesn't matter, when Hitler tells you what you want to hear, you're going to see the sunlight in his eyes.

Humans are masters at believing what they want to believe.  I would call it almost a survival instinct: always find the threat, always feel like your back is against the wall, name that enemy and go for the throat.  It's the only way to protect what you love and value.

The path to the Dark Side.

Here's what I see America: everyone feels persecuted, marginalized and left out: black, white, brown and Native, Asian; Jew, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Mormon, Scientologist, Jehovah's witness, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, Pagan, you name it, they feel like no one gets them, and for the most part they feed on that feeling.  There's just enough vague anxiety to spread around and make it feel real, there's just enough shaming and language policing to make people nervous about actually trying to talk to each other, and God forbid you forget to "check your privilege."  Oh yeah, and there are actually really terrible and oppressive things that happen too: church shootings, police brutality, riots, and oh so much racism, anger and hatred pointed in every direction.  Sometimes it seems like this melting pot is cooking an awfully bad tasting stew.

The difference here, at least this is what I hope, is that we all feel like we belong to this thing called the United States.  We have things that hold us together, and though those things may be tested, they are made of sterner stuff than most of us can imagine.  We have an interesting couple of years coming up here, there's going to be a lot of politicking going on, listen to the voices that remind you that we're all connected, and that there is a such thing as the greater good.  Filter out the voices that encourage you to retreat into little cliques and self interest groups.  Watch the fear mongers, they are not to be trusted, even if you suspect they may be right.  In other words watch out for all the Hitlers, and I'm not pointing fingers here, because I promised I wasn't going to break Godwin's law.  Just remember that Hitler was able to be Hitler because he gave people who were desperate something to believe in.  Apparently it's too late to say, "don't be desperate," so I'll just say be careful what you believe in.