The Plague of American Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism
in the American collective psyche and in what might be called
traditional narratives of historical memory is always viewed as existing
elsewhere. Viewed as an alien and demagogic political system, it is
primarily understood as a mode of governance associated with the
dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s and, of course, in its most
vile extremes, with Hitler’s poisonous Nazi rule and Mussolini’s fascist
state in the 1930s and 1940s. These were and are societies that
idealized war, soldiers, nationalism, militarism, political certainty,
fallen warriors, racial cleansing, and a dogmatic allegiance to the
homeland.[i] Education
and the media were the propaganda tools of authoritarianism, merging
fascist and religious symbols with the language of God, family, and
country, and were integral to promoting servility and conformity among
the populace. This script is well known to the American public and it
has been played out in films, popular culture, museums, the mainstream
media, and other cultural apparatuses. Historical memory that posits the
threat of the return of an updated authoritarianism turns the potential
threat of the return of authoritarianism into dead memory. Hence, any
totalitarian mode of governance is now treated as a relic of a sealed
past that bears no relationship to the present. The need to retell the
story of totalitarianism becomes a frozen lesson in history rather than a
narrative necessary to understanding the present
in the American collective psyche and in what might be called
traditional narratives of historical memory is always viewed as existing
elsewhere. Viewed as an alien and demagogic political system, it is
primarily understood as a mode of governance associated with the
dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s and, of course, in its most
vile extremes, with Hitler’s poisonous Nazi rule and Mussolini’s fascist
state in the 1930s and 1940s. These were and are societies that
idealized war, soldiers, nationalism, militarism, political certainty,
fallen warriors, racial cleansing, and a dogmatic allegiance to the
homeland.[i] Education
and the media were the propaganda tools of authoritarianism, merging
fascist and religious symbols with the language of God, family, and
country, and were integral to promoting servility and conformity among
the populace. This script is well known to the American public and it
has been played out in films, popular culture, museums, the mainstream
media, and other cultural apparatuses. Historical memory that posits the
threat of the return of an updated authoritarianism turns the potential
threat of the return of authoritarianism into dead memory. Hence, any
totalitarian mode of governance is now treated as a relic of a sealed
past that bears no relationship to the present. The need to retell the
story of totalitarianism becomes a frozen lesson in history rather than a
narrative necessary to understanding the present
Hannah
Arendt, the great theorist of totalitarianism, believed that the
protean elements of totalitarianism are still with us and that they
would crystalize in different forms.[ii] Far from being a thing of the past, she believed that totalitarianism “heralds as a possible model for the future.”[iii] Arendt
was keenly aware that the culture of traditionalism, an ever present
culture of fear, the corporatization of civil society, the capture of
state power by corporations, the destruction of public goods, the
corporate control of the media, the rise of a survival-of-the-fittest
ethos, the dismantling of civil and political rights, the ongoing
militarization of society, the “religionization of politics,”[iv] a
rampant sexism, an attack on labor, an obsession with national
security, human rights abuses, the emergence of a police state, a deeply
rooted racism, and the attempts by demagogues to undermine critical
education as a foundation for producing critical citizenry were all at
work in American society. For Arendt, these anti-democratic elements in
American society constituted what she called the “sand storm,” a
metaphor for totalitarianism.[v]
Arendt, the great theorist of totalitarianism, believed that the
protean elements of totalitarianism are still with us and that they
would crystalize in different forms.[ii] Far from being a thing of the past, she believed that totalitarianism “heralds as a possible model for the future.”[iii] Arendt
was keenly aware that the culture of traditionalism, an ever present
culture of fear, the corporatization of civil society, the capture of
state power by corporations, the destruction of public goods, the
corporate control of the media, the rise of a survival-of-the-fittest
ethos, the dismantling of civil and political rights, the ongoing
militarization of society, the “religionization of politics,”[iv] a
rampant sexism, an attack on labor, an obsession with national
security, human rights abuses, the emergence of a police state, a deeply
rooted racism, and the attempts by demagogues to undermine critical
education as a foundation for producing critical citizenry were all at
work in American society. For Arendt, these anti-democratic elements in
American society constituted what she called the “sand storm,” a
metaphor for totalitarianism.[v]
