There are times when delusion becomes the organizing principle of entire countries. The Nazis borrowed a Russian conspiracy theory around Jews taking over the world and used it to polarize their country before plunging into a disastrous war. Mao Tze Dong, ruler of China, rolled out an industrial policy in the 1950s based on nonsensical dogma, and starved 40-50 million Chinese to death. Delusional countries usually end in repression, misery, impoverishment and war.
Americans are currently being asked to believe in a great number of fantastic ideas. Here is a selection:
• Hindering new technologies will help us compete with technological rivals.
• Firing anti-corruption officials will reduce corruption.
• Restricting voting rights is protecting voting rights.
• Competence isn’t needed to lead government, because government is incompetent.
• Ignoring the constitution is upholding the constitution
• Ending democracy is serving democracy, because “he’s doing what he was elected to do.”
• Finally, the most dangerous delusion, and one disproven just last summer in Juneau: If we ignore climate change, it won’t affect us.
In heavily propagandized countries, the response to the failures of delusion is usually more delusion. That’s why Rep. Nick Begich applauds Elon Musk as the oligarch destroys Alaskan jobs wholesale, and former defense hawk Sen. Dan Sullivan enthusiastically votes to appoint a man with a history of drunken mismanagement as head of the Pentagon. But they’re politicians: we expect a degree of craven self-interest from them. What’s more astonishing is seeing some Americans cheer as oligarchs and extremists dismantle their government while openly promising to funnel any “savings” back to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts. Why would anyone in the bottom 99% support that?
Some are not aware of it, others seem to view politics as a grand comic book involving superheroes and supervillains. Tens of millions have been convinced by decades of propaganda that these are not their institutions that are being attacked, that they somehow serve only “elites,” or “migrants” or “liberals” or racial others. But it’s deeper than that.
There is a certain exhilaration in breaking free from common sense, just as there is a certain joy in hatred. Search the internet and look at the giddy expressions in the faces of the Nazi book burners, the sense of deep purpose and satisfaction in the mobs of Chinese youths during the Cultural Revolution, or Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Destruction becomes a form of liberation. It clears the decks for a brief carnival from our better impulses, where the simpleton becomes superior to the thoughtful, and the selfish become superior to the compassionate.
Those who are deep into delusion will not be affected by these words. They will think, “He’s the brainwashed one,” or “I don’t like Trump and Musk, but we’ve got to secure the border,” or “stop abortion,” or “get rid of those freeloaders,” or whatever goals they feel will be accomplished. Not all these concerns are groundless. But if the tradeoff is “securing the border” but losing your democracy, or “getting rid of freeloaders,” but having your government riddled with corruption, or “stopping abortion,” but letting billions of future lives, and that of your own children, be deeply diminished due to global warming, how good a bargain is that?
The problem with governments like this is that you don’t get to pick and choose what you get from them. It’s a complete package, and corruption, incompetence and brutality are part of the deal. Nobody gets to say, “I’d like a helping of fascism, but hold the death squads, please,” or “Go ahead and let those people get ruined by global warming, just don’t let it happen to me.”
The half-life of delusion is extremely long. Eighty years after Hitler reduced his country to rubble, neo-Nazis all over the world still salute him. Mao is often portrayed in China as a kindly grandfather. Sooner or later, though, most people come to their senses. In the United States we still have enough democracy left that this administration can be brought to heel with non-violent political and social pressure on our politicians and institutions. But it’s going to take most of us. And if we don’t? Remember that jökulhlaup that flooded 300 homes last summer? Multiply that by everything.
• Stuart Archer Cohen is the author of “The Army of the Republic” and three other novels. His current novel is about Juneau.
