We, the generation that in the United States is called Baby
Boomers, born in the first two decades after World War II in wealthier countries
in Europe and North America, were exceptionally lucky. We lived in a remarkably
humane, just and fair-minded world. True, that world had been paid for by the
insanity that swept the European continent in the first half of the 20th
century and resulted in an unprecedented bloodbath and destruction. After tens
of millions had been slaughtered, it was finally decided to try something
different – like political and economic democracy, equality, respect for human
rights, inclusiveness and tolerance.
It was certainly less true of the Soviet Union and the
communist bloc as a whole, but everything is relative. Once Uncle Joe finally
snuffed it, even his henchmen needed a reprieve from 45 years of relentless
murderous madness. The Nikita Khrushchev and early Leonid Brezhnev eras were free of mass
repression. In major cities across the USSR, a new middle class emerged with
some access to information, foreign travel, imported luxuries and unsanctioned
books and art.
Above all, while official propaganda still foamed at the mouth
with hatred for the West, class enemies, spies and traitors, it was tired,
unconvinced and not at all convincing. The communist ideology was the butt of
jokes on people’s kitchens.
In that environment it was impossible to fathom how someone
like Hitler could have come to power by the ballot box. How the absolute
nonentities – sly and manipulative, but poorly educated, inarticulate, clownish
and, let’s face it, utterly stupid – could seize and hold power, make decent
people commit atrocities in their name and persuade entire nations to undertake
harebrained, misguided, self-destructive projects – and do so enthusiastically,
too. Even more incomprehensible was how
the Germans, the Russians, the Italians and others could lavish so much
adoration on those nonentities.
Now we have an opportunity to answer those questions.
Russia, for example, has been prostrating itself before Putin
since his return for an illegal third term in 2012 and, especially, since the
annexation of Crimea in 2014,
Unlike the case of Stalin, deadly fear is not a factor here:
the fawning is voluntarily and imbued with sincere conviction. And, unlike
Stalin who had the absolute monopoly not only on information but on what people
said, and subjected his subjects to an unending stream of lies about Soviet
economic, military, cultural and other successes, today all facts about Putin
are well-known. The offshore accounts, the squandering of trillions of
petrodollars, the hollowing out of education, healthcare, and science, the destruction
of private enterprise and the collapse of all institutions of state are plain
to everyone to see and to read about on the Internet and even the few remaining
independent media outlets. His misguided military adventures are in plain
sight, as well, along with Russia’s isolation and impoverishment.
Apparently, Putin’s supporters believe that their leader is
leading the country to some future goal. Unlike Stalin or Hitler, however, no
goal has been spelled out – aside from holding on to power till the day he
dies.
But that is Russia. Its traditions of democracy are shaky.
Serfdom was abolished only in the mid-19th century and was promptly replaced by
the communist yoke. The rise of Putin’s buddy Trump in the cradle of modern
democracy is more unexpected. But it offers an extraordinary case study and
provides a lesson in hubris to all those Americans who have claimed for the
past 70 years that free elections, independent media and other perks of
American democracy offer unimpeachable safeguards against demagogues trading on
prejudice and spewing hateful rhetoric.
It’s not Trump that is a problem, of course, but his voters – a
record number of whom have already cast their ballots for him in the Republican
primaries – before even California, New Jersey and several other states have
even had their chance to vote.
It has become commonplace to blame Trump for stirring up
racism, nativism, misogyny, intolerance and other types of hatreds. In fact,
it’s the other way around. It is his voters who created Trump. This is a
crucial point, which political scientists will spend many decades to analyze.
Trump is an empty suit, a reality TV actor whose stock in trade
is outrageous statements that even he knows to be untrue but that get him
attention – like the birther attack on President Obama which he kept up for
several years. Trump got into the presidential race the same way – by making an
outrageous claim about Mexican rapists and criminals streaming over the US
border. All he had hoped for was get
some percentage of the vote in a crowded Republican field, which would give him
a few weeks of national attention he pathologically craves.
But then a strange thing happened. He became a medium,
channeling the thoughts and aspirations of his voters – clearly without even
being consciously aware of that.
This is why his statements or acts are irrelevant and why he
can do no wrong in the eyes of his followers: he is a projection of the crowd,
not a flesh and blood candidate. Putin, incidentally, is the same way: his
thievery, thuggery, small-mindedness and vindictiveness are irrelevant to his
hero-worshippers. His 86% of admirers see in him what they want to see.
In general, this may explain why most dictators ardently
beloved by their countrymen are such complete nonentities: it’s easier to
project on a blank screen. It is also the reason why, when the movie is over –
I.e., when mass hysteria ends – yesterday’s admirers are so often shocked by
the fact that they had allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by such nincompoops.
There is an aura of inevitability around Trump. The media is
obsessed with every move he makes – not just the right-wing Fox News channel,
but all cable and conventional networks likewise don’t seem to get enough of
him. While Hillary Clinton is still predicted to win the election in November-
by a steadily narrowing margin – the Democrats are actually more divided than
the Republicans and are on the back heel. They don’t seem to be able to respond
to Trump adequately, and all their attacks fall flat.
Perhaps President Trump will be constrained by Congress, the
courts, state and local governments, precedents and a system of checks and
balances that is the bedrock of the U.S. political system. Nor is he a new
incarnations of Hitler or Stalin. Unlike them, he didn’t actually set out to
rule and he lacks any program or coherent ideology. But those two had also been
raised to the pinnacle of power by accident. When they were 40, no one on earth
could have conceived that within a few short years those two obscure men on the
margin of society would divide all of Europe between them.
More importantly, Trump is no longer an independent actor – no
pun intended – but a medium channeling the anger of the crowd. As such, there
is no telling where this tide will wash him up. What can be said for certain,
as the Vilnius mural so cleverly suggests, is that Trump and Putin are likely
to be twined and between them they’ll crush the relatively benign world order
that has prevailed over the past 70 years. We obviously don’t know what will
replace it, but it’s going to be a meaner, poorer and bloodier world than the
one in which we grew up.
