The Banality of Crazy

My dear friend, Lamar Hankins, regularly sends me news articles that he thinks might interest me, and he recently hit the nail on the head.  He sent me an article by Paul Furhi in the Washington Post:  "Trump’s violent rhetoric is getting muted coverage by the news media."  The point of the article is that, for various reasons, the increasing violence of former President Trump's public speech is receiving decreasing coverage, surprise, or outrage.  His speech is becoming banal--the banality of crazy, as Furhi reports that Brian Klaas (University College London) labels it.  

The article resonates with me at a time when I am trying to work out ways to get the rich legacy of Ethical Culture out of dusty boxes and obscure websites into places where ordinary members of the Movement have easy access and--just as importantly--have awareness of the writings and lectures that have shaped our Movement over time.  One such piece of our legacy I have never heard anyone cite, but I find it quite relevant to our present situation--and the degree to which incitement to violence has become not merely banal but increasingly normalized.

The speech to which I refer is a platform delivered by Algernon D. Black to the New York Society for Ethical Culture on October 1, 1944, entitled "The Meaning of Hitler's Defeat."  As you no doubt realize, Hitler had not yet been defeated at the time Black gave this platform.  He--and his audience--expected Hitler's defeat in a foreseeable future.  Black, however, gave his attention to the notion that simply defeating one man--or even his armies--or even his country--would not be enough.  The ideology being propagated by Hitler and his allies and his armies--fascism--would, even after Hitler's defeat, still have an insidious presence throughout the world and even on American soil.  

Just as it does today.  Black's concern is mirrored as some might seek the political defeat of Donald Trump and still miss the insidious presence of his beliefs that violence is an acceptable way to win, that othering is a desirable political strategy, that money is the primary good in society, and so on down the line to the whole package of fascistic actions, strategies, and outcomes that is part of Donald Trump's plan for the nation.  

Black's conclusion:

There are people in our country who have never voted. They are Americans but they have never bothered. It is too much trouble. They say they are individualists. They never want to join anything. They see no responsibility to give strength to anything. “I live my life, I let other people live. I do my job, make my money, have my pleasure, have my family, that's all.” I say that if America gets Fascism, we of all the countries, who have had freedom longer, who have education and political controls, who have had the chance through all these years to see what Fascism does,--if we fail, we shall deserve everything we get. And if it happens, may history write us down for what we are,--selfish and materialistic, a people without any vision, a people who fight, but do not know why.

Here then is the spiritual challenge of Hitler's defeat. Here, when the war is over, the real war will begin!

And so, let us not be fooled when the military defeat of Hitler comes. Let us make certain that it is the spiritual defeat of Hitler. Victory can only be won on the level of a new understanding and a new citizenship. It requires the reconstruction of democratic faith and the reconstruction of relationships between people, here in America and if we do not have this new life here in America, we shall never be able to help create it in Germany or anywhere else.

The "crazy" that Furhi refers to seems more likely to diminish rather than call out the very real danger posed by Trump's rhetoric--and that of those who support him.  Moreover, the "crazy" is not new. If this is not the moment when America becomes wholly Fascist in its orientation, if this tide of "crazy" recedes, if Trump is defeated, Algernon D. Black's warning of the dangers of the failure to defeat the "spirit of Fascism" will still continue to be relevant.  We grow as Ethicals by putting our values into action through our deeds.  We can only grow as Americans--living up to the ideals of democracy and freedom upon which this nation was founded--by putting our values into action through practicing the principles of democracy daily.  To me, it seems that Al Black is all but shouting that Fascism will only be defeated by Democracy, and it's time for Democracy to step up.  I concur.