Beyond "Us & Them"

 

Yale professors Timothy Snyder, Marci Shore, Jason Stanley

Yale University in the United States is one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world -- what academic wouldn't want to teach there? It turns out that three professors are fleeing to the hinterlands of Toronto. Okay, the U of T isn't exactly a backwater. In fact, it is also a highly rated university but these three profs will be leaving their country and higher paying jobs in order to teach in a democracy. 

If that sounds extreme, Dr. Jason Stanley,  a professor of philosophy is convinced that the Trump regime is in the process of an autocratic takeover and creating a far-right regime. He sees that universities, including Columbia, have been threatened with the withdrawal of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding if they don't capitulate to the Trump administration's demands. In Columbia's case this is supposedly over allowing anti-Semitic behaviour on campus when, chillingly, a number of Trump's minions are anti-Jewish. 

This is more than uninformed alarmism on Stanley's part. He is the author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. He and his colleagues will be joining the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy with a goal of making it "a world centre of democracy in these emergency times.", as Stanley puts it. 

What comes to mind listening to Stanley's chilling rationale? First of all, the "double-speak" of George Orwell's novel 1984 (written in 1949). Then there is the picture of Canada as a haven from a fascist, misogynistic theocracy in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (published 40 years ago.) 

I've also been thinking alot about The Plot Against America,  a novel by Philip Roth.It is an alternative history in which Franklin Roosevelt is defeated by Charles Lindbergh in the presidential election of 1940. Lindbergh was openly anti-Jewish and in this story he quickly moves to first marginalize, then persecute Jews, with help from the wealthy, including Henry Ford. 

There is an excellent HBO television series with the same title and earlier this year we watched if for a second time. The promises of making the country great again, isolationism, and upholding supposedly white Christian values are all there, from a novel written 20 years ago.

We can hope for more of a "brain drain" heading northward by Americans who understand that freedom of expression and upholding democratic values are worth cherishing. We can also pray that a day will come when they feel safe in returning.