"Remember, that all throughout history there have been tyrants...but in the end, they always fall. Always." -- Mahatma Gandhi.
Have you ever had one of those frightening dreams where you feel a malevolent presence nearby? It’s holding you down and you can't escape because you can’t make your body move. Sleep paralysis occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. In this state, your brain and body aren’t on the same page. Your brain says run but your body doesn't respond. And as hard as you try to scream, you barely make a sound. Today's world seems like one of those bad dreams. Most of us can see the imminent danger and feel a malevolence lurking in our midst. But somehow we seem incapable of fighting it or even running from it. We stand in bewilderment and confusion, to the point of catatonia.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." -- Albert Einstein
In that case, our world is crazy. For history has shown us repeatedly that the rise and fall of great powers follows a predictable pattern -- hard work, strong values, and prosperity evolve into overreach, internal decay, economic failure and sometimes, bloodshed. This pattern is emerging in the U.S. today, right before our eyes, and it seems the most we can muster is the equivalent of a silent scream.
Before I continue, I should first declare that I am Canadian. And I am confident when I state that most Canadians have always been fond of Americans. As your good neighbours, I suppose we should respect the result of the recent presidential election. Fair enough. But let's face the facts. Many people around the world are becoming increasingly alarmed from what we are witnessing since the election, including Canadians.
Our collective fear is that democracy is at risk in the very country that prides itself as the beacon of democracy. As such, we need to have a closer look at one other thing history has taught us. It’s what usually follows internal decay and inequality: the appearance of opportunists. Like vultures attracted to the odor of rot, they descend on society solely to feed on whatever disillusionment they can find. The playbook is pretty standard from a historical perspective. They gain power by promoting and instilling fear. Then, they wait patiently for the opportunity to use (in some cases, create) that one event that appears to prove them right and allows them to seize complete control.
With any luck, we will all muddle through and survive the next four years, suffering only incompetence and dysfunction. However, there is one potential outcome that truly frightens me: A bona fide terrorist attack on the American homeland. One that is carried out by a foreign terrorist organization and one that creates considerable destruction. I fear this could be the one catalyst that gives the executive branch the opportunity to eliminate civil liberties, dismantle institutions and replace democracy with an authoritarian government, if it chose to. It's happened many times throughout history in other parts of the world.
Some of history's examples may seem a bit far-fetched in comparison to what we see happening in the U.S. But using an attack as cover to get control is the common theme in all of the following examples.
The most notorious of the bunch was Hitler, who used the Reichstag fire as his bogeyman. In more subtle fashion, Putin used the “Chechen” terrorist apartment bombings and Erdogan, the failed coup in Turkey, to achieve their goals. They all saw the opportunity and moved swiftly. Most didn't see it coming until it was too late.
Although we are already seeing pockets of resistance, it feels like the only current firewall standing between democracy and authoritarianism is the judiciary. (It doesn't look like the Republican-controlled Congress has the backbone and unfortunately, the media doesn't have the credibility it once had.) But I don't think it would be diligent to put all our faith in a handful of judges, no matter how well-intentioned or courageous they may be.
So, it's imperative to stay vigilant and learn to recognize the pattern in the event it occurs. Because at that point, the last line of defense will be the citizens of the U.S. The truth is they are far from powerless. There are a number of non-violent ways to fight tyranny, if it comes to that. One example of this is Satyagraha -- the term used to describe the means by which Gandhi engaged in peaceful disobedience to fight British imperial control. One of his most effective methods was to declare days of "fasting and prayer." In other words, not show up for work, thereby bringing the entire economy to a halt, until their point was made. There are other methods, including coordinating the actions of the nation's many civil society in campaigns against any action that chips away at democracy.
The future doesn't have to be preordained, despite the damning pattern of history. It is within everyone's power to steer the course of history. But first there must be an admission that inequality and broken politics are symbiotic. They feed off each other. They also breed anger and fear…and we have seen where that leads. Tyranny cannot be fought until the elites recognize that there is a problem; we need to address inequality.
Only then can a country rally to prevent small number of self-serving opportunists to dictate their future. Opportunists in any society are greatly outnumbered by reasonable people. Everyone needs to collectively wake up from this bad dream, shed the paralysis, and scream ... at the top of their lungs!!