Fascist Tendencies – Our Default Mode?

White nationalists protested in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 ~ The Boston Globe 

(photo by Steve Helber/Associated Press)

A Long Hot Summer

This past summer I read Arundhati Roy's War Talk, which is a series of essays on some of the political, racial, and religious tensions in the world today. It also speaks to the global militarism that exists in our world in the wake of the Bush era's War on Terror. Roy’s essays made me painfully aware of how bad things can get. In her native India, conflicts have become violent and bloody. She often refers to the various fascist state governments arising in India.

On the heels of Roy’s book, I happened to see the film, Night Train to Portugal, starring Jeremy Irons. The backdrop to the story-line was a resistance movement in the 1970's during a fascist regime in Portugal. I was reminded of the persistent nature of fascism in our governmental systems.

We all witnessed the disturbing events last month with white nationalists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia. Many of us were appalled that so many of the white majority, especially among white evangelical Christians, could not even bring themselves to speak out against white nationalists and Neo-Nazis in our midst. 

Then just last week our president, while campaigning for a senatorial candidate in Alabama, took opportunity to tap into underlying racial hatred in the name of patriotism. While making such inciting remarks, our commander-in-chief used vulgar language not usually allowed on broadcast television and certainly not used in public speeches by elected officials, yet we are seeing vulgarity and racism become the new normal in our public discourse. 

In the past, most of us knew to keep our racist remarks behind closed doors, but now our leaders are emboldening public expressions of bigotry. Now that our racism and bigotry are out in the open, I wonder if we will address those ills for the greater good of society, or if we will embrace them more fully to our own detriment.

Uncertain Times

I am coming to realize that fascism may in fact be the default mode of government that everyone falls back to when times are crazy, unsettled, or uncertain. We see it in our own country with white supremacy coming to the forefront in our own political struggles. For many of us these fascist tendencies are becoming the source of acute distress even while they have coalesced among us virtually unnoticed.

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat of Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, Massachusetts recently delivered a very honest and moving sermon for her congregation’s High Holy Days, “After Charlottesville: a sermon for Rosh Hashanah.” In her reflection she states,

“In recent months, when I've had cause to say, "this isn't the America I thought I lived in," my non-white friends have said, "...this is the America we've always known." And they've pointed out that the fact that I'm surprised by this kind of ugliness shows that I've never had to walk a mile in their shoes.”

Later in the sermon the rabbi goes on to point out the difficulties we have in facing our own evil:

“It's easy to want to ignore this brokenness altogether. And it's easy to get so caught up in the brokenness that it becomes all we can see. The High Holidays invite us to resist both of those impulses, and instead to live in the tension of knowing both that things are broken and that repair is possible."

I took heart in her reminding us that even though this world is broken, it is our calling to repair it. This is the Jewish understanding of tikkun olam, “repair of the world.” To read her entire message of hope and healing, visit her blog, Velveteen Rabbi.

Voices of Resistance

Many have been speaking out in resistance to the current political climate that seeks to suppress pluralism and equality. While we must never surrender our voice at the ballot box, the best “resistance” may not be political, at least not in terms of party politics. Political action is important, but not all of us are political activists.

Each of us has our own strengths and varying spheres of influence. The best resistance may lie in the things that make our lives more awake. True resistance may find its best expression in the arts. Often it is in the realm of music, drama, and the visual arts that we can keep compassionate humanity alive, regardless of who is in power at the moment.

We can also find those voices of resistance in education at many levels and avenues in the community. Moreover, as Rabbi Barenblat has reminded us, our faith traditions* can serve to repair our broken world. There can be many voices of resistance to draw upon when we find ourselves in that “default mode” of fascist tendencies. We can find ways to keep hope alive while we continue to strive for the common good and justice for all.

In my next blog post, I will share a poem I wrote when I was examining the prospects of our “default mode” of government.

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* For a response from another faith tradition, see "Grace in a Time of Hate."

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