Monday, February 20, 2017

The New Wizard of Oz

To paraphrase a great American work on the subject of American Politics:  "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore."  

In my opinion, the most appropriate guide to what is going on today, south of the border is The Wizard of Oz.  Toto, Dorothy's little dog, had the right impulse - to pull back the curtain on this spectacle.  We are getting so distracted by a train of spectacle, but all along the important stuff is happening behind the curtain.  

Rwanda isn't the U.S., but for weeks before the Rwandan Genocide, the radio in Rwanda broadcast a message in code over and over again.  The message amounted to the de-humanisation of one ethnic group,  calling them"cockroaches" and calling for their elimination.  In the United States we are seeing a dangerous polarization between Trump supporters and everyone else.  Trump, "The Great and Powerful Oz”  is creating spectacle after spectacle;  His followers are listening to him, not to the real press who are now "enemies of the state".

Trump started his campaign with the Birther Lie, then Mexicans, then Muslims.  He's building a "Wall" , but it is like the Wizard’s curtain, one that hides one reality from another.   The more this wall is internalized the more effective the de-humanization becomes.

Meanwhile, behind the curtain, America is being deconstructed - democracy, the social safety net, education, and scientific knowledge are being jackhammered out of existence by extremist Republicans.