What Happens Now?
Why Fascism Depends on Your Arrogance
What happens now? World war? National breakdown? Fascists in the streets? I’d bet that like me, it’s probably keeping you up at night.
Here is a tiny essay about what I think happens next.
History tells us something very simple: states run by people with such extreme political beliefs that can genuinely call them fascists, people who believe that they are superior by virtue of blood, follow a universal ten step pattern. Let me outline it:
- Authoritarian government
- Demonization of minorities
- Glorification of the majority
- Media intimidation
- Purges and putsches
- Segregation (laws designed to separate minorities from majorities)
- Expropriation (the legal seizure of the assets of minorities)
- Detainments, repression, internment
- Ghettos
- Ethnic cleansing
How far are we along that path? We are already halfway along the pathway of fascism. And it is only week one. No. That isn’t exact. You can dispute and disagree how far along we really are. What I think is indisputable is this: fascism follows a universal pattern. The pattern is always the same. It has been the same in Bosnia, Rwanda, Germany, Argentina, to name just a few. Why would it be different for us?
Now let us answer the question: “what happens next?”, because those steps aren’t what happens next.
What happens next is you deny all the above. Fascism is always the same. But you think: “it can’t happen here”. “It won’t get that bad”. “That is just a fantasy”. And that is exactly how it does. Don’t you think that is exactly what the Germans, Bosnian, Rwandans, Argentinians thought? You deny all the above — and that is why you are constantly thinking, every single day: “why, this is happening faster and harder than I thought!”. Why you always seem to be taken by surprise, left aghast, shocked, confused.
Fascism counts on you. Not on your support. But on your denial. Should you deny one of history’s simplest and clearest facts — that fascism always proceeds in much the same way — then it does not need your cheering. It already has your impotence.
Denial is a kind of arrogance. The arrogance to think that one is above history, humanity, possibility. Thus denial leaves us powerless to truly change anything. We are too busy pretending what we deny doesn’t exist. The wages of arrogance are impotence.
Fascism counts on your arrogance. And defeating fascism needs your humility. Do you see the paradox? The only real way to stop fascism is humility: to admit the possibility, perhaps the probability, of the very worst, in your very own people, tribe, even self. Should we be arrogant enough to deny that, minimize it, reduce it, then we make it possible, perhaps, in times like these, probable. If we deny what fascism always does, then we are either negligent, or complicit.
Arrogance, that leads to complicity or negligence. You will think I am blaming you. I am not. There is moral judgment in my words. You yourself are your only moral judge. I am nobody at all. All this is just an observation. The moment that you think “all that cannot happen here! That is impossible, we are civilized!” — that is arrogance, and that is the very moment that you create the possibility of it happening here. Complicity or negligence — perhaps both.
Do you think that we are that special? So unique and singular that of all the people in history, fascism will stop its natural progression just for us?I think that history teaches us precisely the opposite: the more arrogant a society is, the more prone it is to fascism. And the more humble it is, the less so.
Humility. What do I mean?
To be civilized is a great responsibility, a wearying task. Freedom has many prices. One is not just our vigilance — but our humility. Noble sentiments, our love and kindness and grace? Not quite. It means that we are also ever aware of the conflicts raging in every human heart. That humans are fallible, broken things — who can be easily tempted, led astray, seduced by hate. Not just “them”. But “us”. The big us: our tribe, people, city, town, state. And the little us: our friends, neighbors, even ourselves. That is humility.
So what happens next? Not just the universal sequence of fascist implosion. Arrogance is what unleashes it. And humility is the only thing in all the world which holds the power to stop it. Like a hand holding a seed, humility alone plants love in the human heart.
Umair
January 2017