To the Editor:
“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. . . . Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. . . . [Leaders] could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” That quote is from Hannah Arendt’s explanation for the rise of Hitler and Stalin (Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951.) In the 1960s and 1970s, her work was required reading for graduate students in the social sciences. When Donald Trump rose to power, I felt compelled to return to it to help me understand how his blatant lies could be deemed acceptable discourse by almost half of the American population. Sad to say, I found Arendt even more interesting now than she was 50 years ago.
I couldn’t get her words out of my head listening to the recent presidential debate, especially when Donald Trump asserted that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets. My first response was, “Who could possibly believe that?” Arendt’s explanation seems the only plausible answer—everything is possible and nothing is true. Truth no longer matters because the lie serves Trump’s purpose, and believing him becomes a loyalty test for his followers.
I’m not suggesting that Trump is another Hitler or Stalin, just that he uses the same tactics to manipulate and control people. I do, however, believe there is real danger in what he is doing, as Haitians in Springfield already are experiencing. If he rounds up millions of immigrants for his deportation camps, as he has promised, his nasty lies may prove so dehumanizing that the consequences become tragic. His followers may be easily convinced that those who rape, rob, murder, and eat beloved pets don’t deserve to live. He trades in fear, and fear drives out reason and begats violence.
