From Ukraine to the USA
Echoes of the 1930s and the Danger of Denial
A President Who Stood His Ground
Zelensky is a brave man. He told Biden he didn’t need a taxi, he needed weapons, after Putin invaded Ukraine by land, sea and air three years ago. He stayed with his people, risking death, as his fellow countrymen, women and children faced death and suffering at the hands of Russia, who, as any eejit knows, started the war by invading the sovereign State of Ukraine.
The Danger of Forgetting History
If we do not learn from history, we perish from it. Because of the ogre-like reputation of Hitler since World War II, it is difficult for many people to appreciate the parallels between what is happening today and what happened in 1930s Germany.
The Illusion of Permanent Peace
While an undergraduate of history, I remember a lecturer say that people believed after the Enlightenment that there would be no more war. And yet the unimaginable horrors of the first and second World Wars awaited humanity in the 20th century.
I suspect something similar happened to human consciousness in the 80 years since the end of World War II. Just as the Great War turned out not, after all, to be the war to end all wars, likewise the cataclysm that followed some twenty years later showed humankind’s perennial ability to realize, too late, the chaos that lies beneath.
Denial: A Shield Against Uncomfortable Truths
We protect ourselves by denial. Everyone must die but forgetfulness of our mortality helps us to live our lives. Likewise, we deny the chaos beneath when it comes to war and peace. One day, three years ago, all seemed well in Ukraine. People lived their ordinary lives. Until they didn’t. Putin invaded. Tens of thousands died, more were injured, millions were displaced from their homes and homeland. All caused by Putin seated in the far-distant safety of Moscow.
The Silencing of Dissent in the Land of the Free
It is extraordinary to me that in the USA, the land of the free and the brave, free speech seems to be silenced. People are tip-toeing around Trump lest they incur his wrath or lest Musk say nasty things about them on Twitter/X.
In what kind of a country are people afraid to openly criticize their leader? What kind of a world is it where only the sycophants speak up? Mr President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the legitimate President of Ukraine. Mr President, Putin started the war. Mr President, appeasing Putin will not bring peace.
Lessons from the Munich Agreement
At the Munich Agreement of 1938, European powers betrayed Czechoslovakia, which had to surrender its border regions to Nazi Germany, like Trump’s seeming current position that Ukraine will have to surrender parts of its territory to Russia.
Ukraine has been excluded from negotiations between the USA and Russia. So too Czechoslovakia was excluded from negotiations about its borders. Trump says he wants to prevent a new World War. That’s what Chamberlain intended too, coming back from his negotiations with Hitler with his worthless piece of paper proclaiming ‘peace in our time’.
Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and World War II had begun.
History Casts a Long Shadow
Finally, I would urge you to listen to ‘X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story’ available on BBC Sounds. In the first episode, The Dark Knight, pay particular attention to the segment (from about 8 to 13 minutes into the program) about two events held at Madison Square Garden, one in 1939, close to the start of World War II, when American Nazis held a rally, and the second, in 2024, nine days before the US Presidential election.
At the 1939 event, at that famous venue, an American Nazi demonizes the press and immigrants, campaigns to cut Government spending, and fights indoctrination.
At the 2024 event, Trump mocks journalists, talks about fake news, and promises to launch the largest deportation program in American history, adding: ‘I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.’ He also vows to get ‘critical race theory and trans gender insanity the Hell out of our schools’.
The BBC presenter of the podcast states: ‘I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis here.’ But, as a historian, she continues: ‘There is history here. Fascism has a history; and it casts a very long shadow.’
With Musk supporting Far Right parties in Europe and Trump denying factually-verifiable reality in the Oval Office, I fear the world is rushing headlong into a new cataclysm.
Time to wake up.
Joe
Joe’s acclaimed first memoir In My Gut, I Don’t Believe is available on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, Hardback and Audible editions. His second memoir Saved by a Woman is available on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardback editions.
