(Still) Fighting the Nazis at Age 40

I just turned 40 this past week. Not for the first time, my birthday gave me pause to reflect on the direction the world is heading, and to wonder how I might be able to help. From all this soul searching has come a burning realization: I want nothing more than to fight the Nazis. Not the old-school kind, but a resurgence of Nazi ideology in America, which threatens to destroy human civilization and plunge us into a new Dark Age. As a goal it's nothing new, but I have renewed and bolstered my commitment... so watch out, world.

 

For many years now, I have been putting the word out that there is a growing force of malevolence infesting humanity's collective unconscious like an aggressive virus. This disease has one overriding objective: to upend moral codes in every nation and culture until there are no more ironclad laws or notions of good and evil anywhere on Earth. From waging peace to overcoming prejudice, everything that we have associated with the idea of "goodness" is, in some circles, being re-envisioned as a weakness. The sales pitch is that while ethical codes like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were once the mortar and glue holding civilization together, we can no longer afford to be so naive. 

 

Some have called me an alarmist over the past two decades when I have declared that America would soon emerge as a fascist Fourth Reich that puts Hitler to shame. I see it more as an “informed opinion,” because I have been right so far. My predictions from the late 1990s were that America would fall victim to the following sociopolitical "plagues:"

 

[1] A steady erosion of civil liberties, especially privacy; 

 

[2] A return to relativistic arguments over torture; 

 

[3] Citizenship stripped of blanket legal protections (habeas corpus, "innocent until proven guilty," etc.); 

 

[4] An increasingly militarized domestic police force, which discourages dissent by brutalizing peaceful protesters and performs regular summary executions of non-Caucasian people; 

 

[5] In foreign policy, an imperialistic rejection of national borders; 

 

[6] A slow merger of state and corporate power that leads the deregulation of financial markets while transforming citizens into lab rats for Monsanto mad scientists; and 

 

[7] The rise of a bigoted New Right whose members proudly foment hatred and oppression for certain social groups... all tied together with: 

 

[8] Constant nationalistic fear-mongering and saber-rattling, a symphony of dog whistles meant to hypnotize us into accepting xenophobia as a positive force that can bring people together in a spirit of camaraderie ("Hating Together is the New Love." Gosh, nothing Orwellian about that). 

 

So yeah, some scoffed, called me paranoid, mentioned tinfoil hats, said America is a light unto the world and could never sink so low (they said I was mad!!!!)... and then along came Candidate Trump. How does that crow taste, doubters? 

 

Whatever twisted vision our erstwhile Overlords are pushing on the world, evidence suggests that their victory would lead to humanity's descent into a nightmarish dystopia. Those who pull the strings (purse-strings, mostly) have been actively fighting for LESS peace, love, and freedom wherever they have influence. They insist that the best thing for humanity is to get rid of the human rights standards which reflect the best in all of us, a ludicrous notion that only makes sense to the tragically brainwashed. They have, in short, chosen to be willfully evil. I know that thwarting evil overlords who are trying to take over the world is so 20th century, but call me old-fashioned. Plus, it's kind of epic. Like, literally. ;)

 

So in conclusion, from 40 on out, my top priority will be to thwart the torturers, warmongers, and other cells in this highly aggressive, civilization-killing virus. There is a lot to recommend modern-day civilization, most of all its steady evolution from war, bigotry and oppression toward cooperation, universal compassion, and freedom and justice for *all.* I'm not going to stand by while some people who totally reject the notion of ethical standards turn back the clock on all the major wins of the modern day. I encourage everyone with a heart to join me in defending the bedrock of human civilization against those who seek to destroy it.