Allan:
Absolutely, and it's something that sociologists, social science theorists, and writers have been predicting for generations. In fact, you could define the current political crisis by citing a handful of works and quotes from the past century.
H.L. Mencken, the noted journalist, critic, and acerbic satirist, had many thoughts on the state of American politics, which he was not shy about sharing. Among his more cited quotes are:
"No one in this world, so far as I know ... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."
"As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
Basically, Mencken feared that democracy was doomed because of how common people have the tendency to fall for charismatic (or demagogic) tyrants. This is an apt description of American politics, where the most successful candidate is the one who can is best at appealing to the fear, ignorance, and bigotry of the general public.
In 1931, noted satirist Aldous Huxley released his best known satirical work Brave New World which offers a strange, dystopian view of the future where people are numbed and distracted by pleasure. As a critique of American culture, he foresaw a future where assembly-line eugenics, sleep-conditioning, medication, psychological manipulation, and pleasure are used to create a "perfect society."
In the World State, as it's called, people worship Henry Ford and believe that the highest purpose of all citizens is to consume and play. Production, consumption, leisure, and sexual release are all they live for, and any notions of dissent or independent thought are filtered out with conditioning and help from an entirely legal and distributed drug called Soma. As Huxley described it:
"A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude."
This was a biting critique of American culture during the 1920s and 1930s, where industrialists like Ford and like-minded politicians believed that the way to dissuade unions, labor reform, and prevent real change from happening was to offer "better pay & shorter hours," encourage consumption and rely on mass advertising that appealed to fear, patriotism, and the desire to advance socially.
All of this was beautifully captured by history/sociology/media studies professor Stewart Ewen in his 1976 book Captains of Consciousness. As he showed, the goal was not just to ensure a docile workforce but to ensure the expansion of mass production:
"Before mass production, industry had produced for a limited, largely middle-
and upper-class market. With a burgeoning productive capacity, industry now required an equivalent increase in potential consumers of its goods… As Capitalism became characterized by mass production and the subsequent need for mass distribution, traditional expedients for the real or attempted manipulation of labor were transformed. While the nineteenth-century industrialist coerced labor (both on and off the job) to serve as the "wheelhorse" of industry, modernizing Capitalism sought to change "wheelhorse" to "worker" and "worker" to "consumer."
Huxley's take on the future is often compared to 1984 by George Orwell since both are considered classic dystopian tales. While Orwell's book is generally viewed as the better novel, Huxley's novel is the one that arguably came true. Media critic Neil Postman argued this in his famous 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death:
We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
There's a really good comic that illustrates Postman's comparison of the two dystopian visions. I keep a gif of it on my computer:
In 1935, Sinclair Lewis released a novel that has become more and more relevant with time. It Can't Happen Here tells the story of a populist dictator named Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, who rose to power in the U.S. by appealing to fear and patriotism while promising economic and social reforms and a return to "traditional" values - i.e., similar to how Hitler rose to power in Germany.
Once in power, Buzz assumes total control with the help of his paramilitary thugs (like Hitler's Brownshirts or Mussolini's Blackshirts). Here's a description of the "Buzz" from the text. Not only does it echo what Mencken said, it predicted Donald Trump with near-prescient ability:
"The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his 'ideas' almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store. Certainly, there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a windmill."
Sinclair Lewis is often (perhaps mistakenly) attributed with the famous words: "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." While no one has been able to determine exactly where this quote came from, most critics agree that this sounds like something Lewis would say. In It Can't Happen Here and Gideon Planish, Sinclair wrote something similar:
"But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word 'Fascism' and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty."
"I just wish people wouldn't quote Lincoln or the Bible, or hang out the flag or the cross, to cover up something that belongs more to the bank-book and the three golden balls."
Regardless, the bottom line is clear. Lewis and other critics noted almost a century ago that totalitarianism would always attempt to disguise itself as patriotism and religious piety when campaigning in the U.S. One look at the careers of such persons as Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and others shows that they were absolutely correct.
In his famous book, Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury predicted a future in which literature and reading are banned. Book burning has become a profession, where firemen no longer attempt to fight fires but trigger them. The reason for this has to do with keeping people "happy" in the sense that they are ignorant:
"'Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.'"
However, it is eventually revealed that removing literature from society was something that the public instigated. Politicians didn't institute a ban on books to enforce ignorance or silence dissent but to capitalize politically from what was already happening:
"'Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.'"
This echoes what Huxley predicted with BNW and what Mencken and Lewis feared. People wouldn't need to have their freedoms taken away by force. They would surrender them willingly for creature comforts and pleasure, assuming they even noticed that their freedoms were being taken away at all.
To recap, these and other critics predicted that American democracy would fail due to a combination of factors. They included:
- Appeal of populist demagogues
- Appeal to fear and bigotry
- Appeal to nationalism and religion
- Glorification of capitalism and consumption
- Distraction by irrelevance and entertainment
Does this sound like anything you’re witnessing today? Or is it something you’re witnessing far too much of and wish others around you would notice?
Matt Williams
