Alice entered Wonderland by falling down a rabbit hole that led to a strange and metaphorical adventure. Whether the United States has collectively fallen down a rabbit hole or whether politics have always been bizarre isn’t clear (at least to me), but we currently seem to have entered a time when the Mad Hatter is in charge. I am regularly reminded of the saying, “We have met the enemy, and he is us,” from Walt Kelly’s comic strip character, Pogo. Alice knew that she had entered an alternative reality after she fell down the rabbit hole, and Pogo recognized that he was responsible for the situation he found himself in. Too many people in the States, however, have failed to recognize how bizarre our situation has become.
Perhaps a more fitting literary reference for our current times would be The Rhinoceros, by Eugene Ionesco. (If you don’t know the play, it’s worth checking the link.) In the play, people living in a provincial French village begin turning into rhinoceroses. A common interpretation of the play is that it describes what happened in Germany in the years leading up to the Second World War, when the citizens began turning into Nazis. People who had been your friends and neighbors became your enemies and wanted you incarcerated or dead. Even those who disagreed with what the Nazis were doing, could not resist openly for fear of imprisonment and death. Another writer who has addressed issues we are facing to day is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose novel, The Gulag Archipelago paints a grim picture of life under totalitarian rule.
A long time ago I knew a woman whose family came from Latvia. Although the rest of the family was safely in the States, her father was still there living under communist rule. She elected to go visit him and quickly learned that if she and her father were to have an open and honest conversation, they had to go walking on the streets because virtually everywhere indoors, including her father’s apartment, was “bugged” with listening devices. Whatever they were saying was being recorded, collected, and analyzed to see whether any anti-Soviet sentiments were being expressed. And, yes, it can happen here. Many of us in the States like to think that our democracy will prevent our freedoms from being eroded by those who seek to control the rest of us. That isn’t necessarily true. “Darkness” has a certain appeal:
Much old literature tends to focus on heroes doing battle and being victorious. Beowulf saves his people from a dragon. Kings lead their troops into battle. Miracles happen. At some point, however, dystopian literature replaced the tales of heroes slaying dragons and defeating enemies. Dystopian literature has, of course, been around a long time. In the past, I was typically able to think that the stories were about somewhere else. That’s no longer the case. I am increasingly aware of how the current world situation, including what’s happening in the U.S., fits the general description of “dystopian.” The country is increasingly militaristic, and laws and political actions increasingly support the wealthy and privileged.
World populations have always competed—and fought over—resources. The Romans didn’t send all those troops everywhere just for the fun of it. They wanted to control the land, the wealth, and the people. Medieval kings taxed everyone and everything they could. In general, royalty (whether by birth or circumstance) collects whatever it can. Politics is always a case of follow the money: where does the money start, and where does it end up?
Governments need money to operate, of course. National defense needs money to pay for the resources required to fund the personnel and equipment required in case of war. The safety and security of the United States depend on our having a “well-regulated militia.” The question is not “whether” so much as it is “how much.”
The movie, Starship Troopers, based on a novel by Robert Heinlein, is one of many films focused on the devolution of our government into a militaristic, totalitarian state. What stands between us (where we are now) and the kind of dystopian future anticipated in literature and film? If you haven’t yet read George Orwell’s 1984, give it a quick read, and ask yourself whether we are heading in that direction, or whether our future is more likely to look like the one depicted in Brave New World.
The real question is how much time do we have to ensure a better future for ourselves. With people we have thought of as our friends and compatriots turning into “rhinoceroses” on a daily basis, we may well pass the point of no return in the near future. Perhaps we can make a difference during the next election. If not us, who? If not now, when?
