How I Learned to Spell Fascism
Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.”
~ John Dewey
Shortly after the catastrophic 2016 presidential election, I was helping my eleven-year-old son make a sign for one of the countless protest we marched in. This was a fairly new family activity that we’d originally adopted in response to The Dakota Access Pipeline protest. Since the election, its become a way of life.
We scrolled through images on Google, searching for a slogan that captured our feelings and gave voice to our fears and frustrations. One picture caught his eye and he asked me, “What’s a fascist”?
It’s shocking to think now, that I had to Google it because I wasn’t exactly sure what a Fascist was. I’m a proud member of Generation X. My generation grew up during an unusual period of peace and prosperity. The closest we ever came to war or conflict was an ominous fear of nuclear war, which was abstract and often an exercise in imagination. Sure, I had an active imagination and I was scared, but I was also a teenager in the 80’s. No tanks were driving down my street, I wasn’t afraid one of my classmates would shoot me or denounce me to the secret police, none of my friends or relatives were fighting in wars.
I’ve had to learn to forgive myself for not understanding how good we had it. It’s all we ever knew which has made the current era all the more shocking. The word “woke” irritates me but it is a little bit like waking up from a dream. Or, living in a nightmare depending on how you want to look at it.
In America, my generation has also suffered from a criminal lack of education in civics. We were getting high off of capitalism: in our mania for music festivals, nightclubs, and the mall, we neglected civics. Capitalism sunk its claws into our public educational system and helped craft a curriculum devoid of critical thinking and stripped civics down to a skeleton. Those in power spun history until it became a fairy tale rather than truth.
My son decided that he wanted his sign to say, “Trump is a Fascist Pig”. I have a picture of him standing next to a life-sized cut out of Bernie Saunders. We would later find out that it was one of the protests arranged by Russia under a fake BLM persona. Peak 2016.
That’s how I learned to spell Fascism. Helping my 11 year old make a protest sign. An activity I cannot fathom happening in my own 11 year old life. With climate change, racial injustice, the rise of Autocracy, human rights violations, income inequality, the rise of narcissism and the deficit of empathy, and the divisions we feel between our fellow citizens, I find myself often afraid for my children. Their futures, their mental health, their ability to make a living, their right to live in a world of equality and human rights on a healthy planet.
I feel as if their innocence has been butchered. The weight they’re carrying as “normal” is so different from my own childhood of catching tadpoles and riding bikes. Or, my teen years of weekends at the mall and slumber parties. My 11 year old is now 15. He’ll be starting high school online. He’s been to legal observation classes. He’s written papers about protest he’s attended. When he can go to school, he has active shooter drills. He’s been locked in the house with his parents because of the coronavirus. This is not okay.
What has happened to the America I grew up in? Part of it was always a lie. People of color have never lived in the America I grew up in. But part of it has been molested and robbed by evil people who now hold a very real chance of taking away the hope of America. In a democracy, people have power. Even if things suck, there’s hope for change. An autocracy is rule by force. There is no hope. If you don’t like the way something is, you better keep your mouth shut or you risk persecution.
On this newsletter/weblog, Lawrence Krubner has invited me to write book reviews. I hope they’ll help guide other’s who are also trying to understand the era we’re living through. Knowledge is Power and it’s also a form of resistance. Now, more than ever, it’s important that we stay strong-minded. Grounded in reality, facts, science, and a collective and objective truth.