Last week I mentioned that I was viewing The U.S. and the Holocaust. Now done with the series, but only still just beginning to digest its implications for the present, one comment made by Deborah Lipstadt stands out as particularly relevant. To paraphrase, she said that authoritarians are always testing to see how far they can go, what they can take and where the resistance will harden. Certainly, that dynamic played out tragically in World War II and it continues to resonate in today’s world. Just ask the Ukrainians fighting for their survival against an authoritarian aggressor. At home, January 6 was an authoritarian test run against the basic tenets of self-determination fundamental to our form of democracy.
When considering these large forces playing out at national and international scale it is easy to become overwhelmed and passive. I mean, what can I do about Putin anyway, right? Most of us have this general sense that the center will hold and dampen the threat before it gets out of control. The very human response is then to go about our daily business as normal. While understandable, such a response invites the incursion. We have ample contemporaneous, as well as historical, evidence that more vigilance is required to protect that which we value.
Pick your issue and its clear and obvious that there are forces not aligned with the broader public interest looking to take advantage for their own gain. Think Holtec. Their desire to release radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay is an expression of their corporate financial interest at the expense of the public’s interest in a clean Cape Cod Bay. Think about those who profit from delaying the needed transition to a low carbon economy. The public has an overwhelming interest in slowing the effects of climate change, hello Florida, and yet needed efforts are being slowed by monied interests mining every last dollar from carbon heavy investments they fear will become economically diminished stranded assets. Think about efforts to make it harder to vote. Attempts to ensure minority rule are fundamentally contrary to the broader public interest.
The first step to holding our ground is to become informed. Pick you issue, or issues, and learn. Dig beneath the headlines and slogans and learn what is really going on and who is pushing toward what outcome. From there, pick a side and get involved. The time to make your stand is before something bad happens. I can assure you that someone somewhere is planning to do something, and looking for the opportunity to do so, that you would consider beyond the pale. Just because you can’t conceive of how far some will go doesn’t mean they won’t try to get there.
The only thing standing in the way of the merely self-interested all the way to the authoritarians is us, you and me. Please join me in thinking about what it means to push back and protect that which we treasure. But don’t just think about it, do something. This is going to take all of us.
