This guest piece is written by a long-term friend, keen political observer, and fellow writer (meriting his own Wikipedia page). His impressive background includes critical work as a very early computer scientist and, had he decided to follow that path, the performance skills of a concert pianist. His musical prowess was influenced by having a significant modern composer, Leo Ornstein, as his father, whose music he later edited and published online with its own website. In 1980 he was instrumental in starting Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). Severo’s excellent book captures the incredible excitement of being a first-hand contributor to truly breakthrough computer designs, Computing in the Middle Ages: A View from the Trenches 1955-1983.RB
By Severo Ornstein
History and literature abound with examples of charismatic individuals leading followers astray. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a classic example: when the townspeople of Hamelin refused to pay the Piper for ridding the town of rats by charming them to their doom with his pipe, he drew many of the town’s children away similarly, and they disappeared forever.
A powerful fictional example comes from Willam Golding’s The Lord of the Flies in which a leader evolves among a group of young boys stranded on a desert island. The group soon reverts to primitivism and the leader persuades the others to shun, taunt, pursue and ultimately kill an unacceptably non-conformist member of the troupe. He then rallies them to pursue the only other individual who had accepted the dead boy. That individual is saved at the last moment when the spell is broken by the sudden appearance of an adult rescue mission from the outside world.
The reversion to primitivism bears a striking resemblance to the rise of the MAGA movement and the ease with which one of the boys assumes leadership of the group and the unquestioning acceptance of that leadership, along with wanton cruelty bears a recognizable resemblance to Trump’s presidency and his MAGA following. Unfortunately, no deus-ex-machina equivalent of the arrival of adults in Golding’s story appears to be waiting on our horizon.
Undoubtedly, the most devastating real-life example of the misleading of an entire nation is the spell cast by Hitler over much of Germany in the 1930s. The parallels with what is now happening in the U.S. are frightening, and Elon Musk’s now-famous salute was immediately recognized as bearing a striking resemblance to the hated Nazi salute. Following Germany’s ignominious defeat in World War I, Hitler filled the German people with expectation of a newly ascendent, heroic Germany. Hitler’s slogan was Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer (One People, One Empire, One Leader) which served the same rallying force as Trump’s Make America Great Again.
Trump’s obvious racism and demonization of immigrants is all too reminiscent of Hitler’s hatred of the Jews and various, “non-Aryan” minorities. Of course some of Hitler’s henchmen recognized the regime for what it was but went along either from fear or for personal gain, much as today’s Republican party has hypocritically kowtowed to Trump despite recognizing the frightful things they are helping to enable.
Sobering parallels
Jonestown offers another striking instance of a charismatic leader who led his flock catastrophically astray by persuading them to join him at an isolated settlement in Guyana. When he fell afoul of the Guyana government, he ordered his followers to commit suicide, which a large number proceeded to do, so overriding was their fealty to his leadership—the same mindless fealty that Trump demands of everyone around him. We are presently experiencing a similar moment in the U.S. but on a frightening national scale.
A sizable fraction of the U.S. public has fallen under Trump’s spell, accepting his rants and lies with great enthusiasm and without question. The rest of us recognize him as a selfish, infantile brute. That such a large segment of the U.S. population has shown itself susceptible to such a manifestly crude artificer speaks volumes about our failed education system. The basic trust in provable truth is on the chopping block, with many citizens showing themselves able to overlook any fact which contravenes Trump’s claims. Presuming that some approximation of sanity will ultimately return, perhaps there will be some examination of the root causes that led to such undermining of the fundamental notions of truth, evidence, and even of fact itself.
Almost more shameful than Trump’s raving is the nearly universal acceptance by the Republican members of Congress. These are, for the most part, individuals capable of recognizing the absurdity and danger of Trump’s notions and behavior, but there is barely a whisper of dissent or criticism. Instead, virtually all Republicans have silenced their consciences and, knowing full well how destructive he is, have nonetheless lined up behind his every cockamamie idea. It seems likely that the next election will replace a number of these craven hypocrites with Democrats, thus shifting the balance of power in the Congress and hopefully putting some brakes on Trump’s rampage. But that remains to be seen and is by no means guaranteed.
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