Giving Thanks!
“AS RUTH BEN-GHIAT MAKES ALL TOO CLEAR, IF WE HAD GONE ANY DEEPER INTO THIS FOUR-YEAR TUNNEL OF DOOM, NONE MIGHT HAVE ESCAPED IT.”
Comparing the gruesome, granular details of the reigns of Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Gaddafi, Pinochet, Mobuto, Berlusconi and Erdo?an to the acts and aspirations of Donald Trump, New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat makes a powerful argument that on the scary road to fascism, America just came perilously close to the point of no return.
Almost everything Trump has done has come straight from the authoritarian playbook. Every dictator, for example, has built on the accomplishments of his predecessors.
..But most of all we owe gigantic thanks to the 80 million decent Americans who voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It is because of their courage and determination that our badly corroded but still functioning democratic apparatus has proved able to survive. As Ruth Ben-Ghiat makes all too clear, if we had gone any deeper into this four-year tunnel of doom, none might have escaped it.
Excerpts from ‘IRONY’:
In his sometime perverse ambition to lead other men, mankind understands our captive preoccupation with God and will often inject a spirit of divine destiny in his ideological exhortations. We often find that men who aspire to be elevated as leaders, too often, evoke a certain cult around their persona which we may call “the cult of personality”. According to Wikipedia: A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized, heroic, and at times, worshipful image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.
Our news media, quite often, would not and will not acknowledge that this “cult of personality” is practiced in present day democracies. You, as the reader, must draw your own conclusions about this.
Learning about the personal details of leaders who exert power, or at least the illusions thereof, can tend to provide certain levels of fascination to the people who follow them. This may prove that the gap between reality and the unknown can oftentimes be vast.
Good laws – evenly applied - can be the equalizer, for each of us, in our relation with the people chosen to lead; these laws offer one and all, equal protections from unjust decisions. The law protects all members of our society and it makes for a fairer democracy. To this end, it is important to remain fixated upon these very important documents: The Magna Carta (Britain), The Rights of Man (France), and The Declaration of Independence and The Bill Of Rights (United States of America).
After 800 years, why- you may ask-does the granting of Magna Carta still remains a milestone of human history? Why does this feudal charter issued by this medieval king (John of England, 1215) still have such relevance to us today?
Magna Carta is an English charter originally issued in 1215 which influenced the development of the common law and many later constitutional documents, such as the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Magna Carta was originally written because of disagreements amongst Pope Innocent III, King John of England, and the English barons about the rights of the King. Magna Carta required the King to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free or fettered — most notably the writ of habeas corpus, allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment.
https://www.amazon.com/IRONY-Theophilus-Nicholson/dp/1520964846