On the Edge

The current world, increasingly sliding into chaos and unpredictability, finds parallels in historical epochs: the fall of empires, years-long wars, the dominance of dictatorships, and obscurantism. However, it is unique in terms of the possibilities for global catastrophes and the threat of the annihilation of all humanity.

Where the threats come from

Climate change, nuclear wars, population and migration issues, clashes of civilizations, and out-of-control innovations are all not the result of natural processes or the intervention of supernatural forces but the product of irresponsible human activity. This gives hope that the course of events can be changed by rational human will and actions. The point of no return has not yet been passed. But the current organization of the global community does little to solve problems, on the contrary, it stimulates a slide towards irreversible consequences. 

Who and what determines the world’s picture? For the believer, it’s God’s will, according to Adam Smith, private interests and the market, according to Marx, class struggle, and for the common man, corrupted rulers and behind-the-scenes intrigues. Democracy promised to create a social system where everyone would be well off based on rational decisions, a social contract, and cooperation. But today, the world is in a position where it is bad and unprofitable for everyone, and disputes about who is responsible convince no one.

Defeating an opponent with logic and goodwill is impossible, this is not a revelation, it has always been so. Socrates, the genius of all times and peoples, was for his wife a blabber and a loafer, for the commoners a destroyer of their spiritual comfort, and for rulers and the court a dangerous troublemaker, a corrupter of youth. Eloquence did not save him from a death sentence. 

Everyone fights for peace, rights and freedoms, for justice, and a fascist is anyone who disagrees with my opinion. Politics has replaced religion, belief above logic and fact. Everything has become politicized – legislation, judicial decisions, economy, education, healthcare, culture, family relations… 

Since Plato’s time, there have been many educated, intellectually developed opponents of democracy. There are no less today, but few publicly deny democracy, although more talk about its decline, crisis, and suicidal tendencies than its advantages. Recently, the ideas of Francis Fukuyama, Thomas Friedman, Fareed Zakaria, and their like-minded thinkers about the worldwide triumph of liberal democracy were catechism, canon, admitting no doubt. Today they are perceived with the same trust as the works of apologists for the complete and final victory of communism worldwide. 

The main reason for the crisis is that the institutions of democracy and the results of their activities are increasingly less satisfying to those whom democracy is supposed to serve first and foremost. On the one hand, it degenerates into oligarchy, plutocracy, kleptocracy, on the other hand, it slides into chaos and the dictatorship of the mob. “The best remedy and protection for democracy is more democracy,” a popular answer to critics of the system. 

What is little and what is much is a dead-end question, but Albert Camus’s prophecy causes no disputes: “Fighters against the plague more and more often neglected the rules of hygiene… And became its carriers.” Democracies have developed their effective forms of suppressing opponents. Vaclav Havel, the first president of Czechoslovakia freed from party dictatorship, a rare case when an intellectual came to power, warned: “For those who take it seriously, democracy poses almost insurmountable problems, and for those who hate it, it opens up unlimited possibilities.”

Trouble from the right and left

America paid a high price for affirming democracy as the highest value of being. In the fundamental work “The Making of American Democracy,” Sean Wilentz showed the deep connection of the American model of democracy with national history and psychology. Despite all the harsh disagreements, Americans do not allow the possibility of living under another social order. 

As with any social order, the main threat to democracy is internal. In America, there were powerful socialist movements of the Marxist variety with ideas of party dictatorship and the breakdown of the political and economic system. But now there are neither economic nor ideological foundations for socialist transformation in America, even basic social guarantees common in Europe meet resistance. Nevertheless, the possibility of authoritarian, totalitarian, fascist transformation is perceived in today’s society as a real threat. This is discussed in big politics, media, academic circles, and broad public discourse. 

Already in the 1940s, Lewis Sinclair in the novel “It Can’t Happen Here” showed that there are no guarantees of freedom. In our time, Philip Roth’s novel “The Plot Against America” about the possibility of fascist transformation caused a big public resonance. Literary dystopias often reflect reality more accurately than academic forecasts. 

According to dictionaries and academic consensus, fascism is a totalitarian, ultranationalist, militaristic dictatorship, repressively suppressing oppositional activity and controlling all aspects of public and personal life. Democracy is not immune to such transformation. Hitler and the fascists came to power in countries of high culture through the democratic electoral system. Antoine de Rivarol, a French thinker of the times of European revolutions, wrote that “The most educated peoples are also as close to barbarism as the best polished iron is close to corrosion.” 

After May 9, 1945, when representatives of the victorious countries signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany, after the Nuremberg Trials, the world was convinced that Nazism was done with forever. 

But today, Western democracy is again facing the revival of radicalism, extremism, aggressive nationalism, pro-Nazi sentiments, anti-Semitism. In the first post-war decades, Nazism was revived in small covert groups. Myths about the internal betrayal of socialists and foreigners, worldwide conspiracies, the great mission of the Aryan Reich, denial of the Holocaust were cultivated. The weakening of democratic parties and institutions, uncontrolled multimillion migration changing the traditional face of society, terrorism, and rising crime created the ground for the emergence and strengthening of nationalist parties and right-wing radical movements and their promotion to governments and all spheres of public life. 

Another factor in the strengthening of pro-Nazi sentiments is changes under the influence of liberal ideology of moral traditions and values: perceptions of gender identity and relations between the sexes and in the family, deeply affecting education, everyday life, literature, and art. What for some is progress and humanism, for others is satanic delusion. Today, most European countries have Nazi groups, they are represented in government bodies, the press, education, their numbers, and influence are growing. 

In America, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism also have historical roots. Ultranationalism is growing as a reaction to the advancement of minorities, strengthening their influence. The political elite’s attention, mainstream media, education are primarily focused on the threat from the right. Al Franken in the bestseller “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them” included not only populist demagogues appealing to the social lower classes but primarily the Republican political elite, President George W. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, neoconservatives, and their ilk. There are many such works. 

Not diminishing the problems from the right, it is obvious that today ultra-left movements are developing more intensively. They are better organized, involve more youth, dominate in media, education, culture. Their slogans are more attractive for general consumption: egalitarianism – equality of rights and opportunities in the economic, political, cultural sphere, social protection, criticism of the system of national wealth distribution, fighting racism and discrimination. 

The left sees Trump as the main obstacle on their path. But in reality, it is not Trump, and not even Biden’s age, but public opinion polls. The last “Times/Siena” poll shows that three-quarters of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction, the economy, contrary to the authorities’ declarations, is in bad shape. They see that the national debt has reached 34 trillion, inflation, degradation of big cities where Democrats rule, hopelessness of American backwoods life. They see the fall of America’s international authority. 

Until recently, Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders represented the systemic left flank of the Democratic Party, now progressives have come to the forefront, their ideology openly expressed by the young generation of Democrats in Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley. The time is not far when progressives will oust the old guard and take the lead in the Democratic Party. They are at the political forefront of fighters against Zionism and the “Jewish lobby,” which has become a synonym for anti-Semitism. 

Nazi ideology and its propaganda always rely on anti-Semitism. America, a multinational country of immigrants, is by its nature less prone to this evil than many other countries. But tragic episodes of World War II, when ships with Jewish refugees had to return to fascist-occupied Europe to certain death, are a fact of American history. 

And here is the story of today. October 7 was the most tragic day for Jews after the Holocaust, but judging by street protests, media coverage, atmosphere in educational institutions, Palestinians are victims of colonial Israeli policy and world Zionism. Jews, whose appearance reveals their religious and national affiliation, no longer feel safe, afraid to express their views at work and study. 

“Tablet” published an article by Justin El-Hazen “My Mother’s Secret,” not long ago it would have been hard to believe. The author’s mother worked as a top CIA analyst on the Middle East, advised the president, senior government officials. The author is of mixed blood and beliefs, in a mixed marriage. The family did not observe religious traditions. But the mother, dying, bequeathed that the children not be raised as Jews, it would be dangerous for their lives. 

After the war, the Holocaust, such sentiments were not uncommon. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, born in Prague in 1934 in a Jewish family, accidentally learned about her national affiliation only undergoing a security service check when appointed to a high position. Parents wanted to protect their daughter from anti-Semitism. 

Camus warned: “The microbe of the plague never dies.”

The Unsubdued

Tragic trials reveal not only villains but also heroes capable of opposing them in the most difficult conditions. History knew no more powerful and cruel system of destruction of opponents than fascist Germany. The regime relied not only on the repressive state apparatus but also on the enthusiasm of ordinary citizens. 

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who remained neutral during great moral trials,” wrote Dante. But most did not stand aside but actively participated in crimes against humanity. In the occupied countries, the fascists found voluntary helpers. But there was also organized resistance. 

In Germany, these were only individual scattered groups. Their activity was limited not only by punitive organs but also by mass voluntary denunciation. The most active force of resistance to the fascists before their rise to power were communists. Their rallies and demonstrations gathered thousands of people. After communists lost the possibility of party struggle, those who escaped terror went underground. One of the anti-fascist groups led by Herbert and Marianne Baum consisted mainly of Jews. Almost all its members perished. In Munich, a group of intellectuals was created under the leadership of Professor Kurt Huber. The most famous was the group of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944. Few religious figures publicly condemned fascism, among them was Bishop Clemens August von Galen. The activity of the anti-fascist underground usually included the distribution of leaflets with information about the real situation at the front, making documents allowing avoiding arrest or emigrate, helping those hiding from the Nazis, attempts to contact the allies of the anti-fascist coalition. 

I learned a lot about the legendary participant of the anti-fascist underground Ralph Burstein from his widow, colleagues, and acquaintances, from the press and museum archives. Ralph’s father was the famous film director and producer Rudolf Meinert. His most famous film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is considered one of the most important works at the dawn of cinema. It is a story about a mad hypnotist who uses a partner drugged by suggestion as a tool for murdering innocent people. Like the works of Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Thomas Mann, the film reflects a premonition of the impending catastrophe. When the fascists came to power, the name of the Jewish producer Meinert was removed from all his films. He fled to France but was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished. 

The mother was German, her relatives served in Hitler’s army. Her fashion salon was visited by the highest fascist elite. Ralph was mobilized into the army, but intentionally mutilated his leg with phosphorus, got the opportunity to avoid military service. Over time, he found a job delivering Bibles by truck to different areas of Germany. This gave the opportunity to find resistance participants, collect and pass information to comrades and British intelligence. 

His comrades in the fight were communists who managed to hide from reprisals. Methods of struggle were sabotage, diversions on transport, installation of explosive devices, leaflets spreading information received from BBC broadcasts. America was for Ralph the ideal country. When American troops entered Germany, he immediately came to meet, told about his activity, underwent thorough verification, and expressed readiness to cooperate in searching for fascists. Besides the arrested heads of the regime, there were many thousands of servants of fascism, still loyal to the Führer. 

But after the war, the American intelligence had other plans. It became obvious the upcoming confrontation with the Soviet Union, and German communists were considered as pro-Soviet agents. Ralph refused to participate in this activity but offered another form of help: he had pre-war experience organizing cultural events, he knew many musicians, ballet artists, painters. Americans settled in Germany for a long time, and the proposal to organize cultural centers for the American army was accepted. 

After 5 years Ralph received gratitude from the American command and a visa, a green card, and a subsidy for two years. In the new country, he continued artistic activity. Ralph married and became a partner of the young ballerina, a student of Balanchine’s school, Marcella Ravell. Over time, they became one of the most famous and in-demand dance pairs in America. The press wrote about them enthusiastically, their ballet duet “Exodus” to the music from the film about the revival of Israel became a national sensation. Ralph had many students in different stage genres. He especially helped young African Americans. 

The spouses often performed in charity concerts for the benefit of Israel. But Ralph believed that many American Jews lost the sense of national solidarity, are far from Jewish history and culture, did not realize the lessons of the Holocaust. 

When with age the ballet career ended, Ralph engaged in designing and building housing, hotels, theatrical and concert stages, and Marcella became a famous interior designer. 

Ralph died in 2000. In the Pocono Mountains stands a large spruce, under which was scattered ash after his cremation. Ralph considered America, its values, and culture the highest achievement of civilization and was happy with the opportunity to live and work in this country. 

But he always told friends and acquaintances that Nazism did not die, it would revive and need to be always ready for a new fight against it. In America, he saw the only force capable of resisting totalitarianism and defending freedom. I do not dare to judge what he would say today. But he gave an answer to the main question – resistance is possible even in the most cruel conditions. 

In the great novel by Charles de Coster “The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel” there is a dramatic episode: Thyl collects ash from the place of burning his father Claas at the stake by the Inquisition. The phrase “Claas’s ash knocks in my heart” runs through the entire novel and gives the son strength to fight against the enemies for the freedom of Flanders. He repeats it in moments of difficult trials and decisive actions. The phrase became winged, a slogan of resistance to evil and the fight for freedom. 

The ash of Holocaust victims, perished and burned in its flames, knocks in the hearts of all who have not lost reason, honor, and dignity.