Be Awake and Be Aware: A warning for our times
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I was shaken awake from my comfortable slumber when I was introduced to the following list of markers depicting the rise of fascism. Do you see any parallels to our present landscape?
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Private enforcers at political rallies.
Discrediting of the free press. Co-opting religion as source of authority,
Hyper-militarism. Promises of future greatness via magical impact of the great leader.
Xenophobia. Heightened misogyny.
Tolerance for attacks on the marginalized.
Appeals to a glorious mythic past. Insistence on allegiance to symbols of patriotism,
Strong-arm rhetoric.
Threats to crush purported enemies.
Thinly veiled racism. Open contempt for immigrants
Discrediting of elected officials and bodies. Attempts to circumvent legislative process. Threats to undermine the judiciary.
Relentless blaming of foreign powers for domestic woes. Demands for unwavering loyalty to the leader
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This list was representing the warning signs of fascism present in the mid-1940s yet could easily speak to our present reality. Dr. Rob Fennell from Atlantic School of Theology in 2016 warns that it seems history is repeating itself.
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Fennell recently preformed a one-man production entitled Bonhoeffer meets Trump. He imagined a conversation between a 1940s German Protestant pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer and USA President elect Donald Trump. Bonhoeffer appears as a ghost in Trump's dream, much like Scrooge's old friends appear to him in A Christmas Carol. The play is set in the present time and the conversation highlights who Bonhoeffer was and parallels to our present reality.
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Bonhoeffer was a Protestant theologian during the Second World War. He warned people about the dangers of fascism. He called people to be awake and aware of coming ruin. Because of his outspoken manner, he was arrested, deemed to be a political prisoner, sent to a German concentration camp and executed in 1945.
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Fennell's presentation emphasizes the startling similarities between the present-day American political climate and the ideologies of 1940s Germany.
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Upon viewing Fennell's supposed conversation, many question began to form in my head: How can we possibly live faithfully in times of chaos, confusion, and uncertainty? Are we aware of the impending dangers? Are we awake and prepared to resist and speak truth to power? Are we going to allow history to repeat itself?
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Fennell attempts to broadly answer these questions by stating, 'So often people deny or avoid the reality of the present moment and in doing so, are lulled into perilous and dangerous times.'
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Fennell did offer suggestions on how to respond to our political reality. First, be rigorously aware of what is happening. Second, be awake and willing to speak out and up against harmful measures. Fennell warned us that all too often people assume someone else will speak up against an atrocity until they discover that there is no one left to speak. He read a powerful poem called First They Came by Pastor Martin Niemoller, a contemporary of Bonhoeffer's:
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