NO ASSURANCES: When traveling in the car, I often listen to the Sirius satellite radio service. It’s a wonderful idea and I don’t know how I ever got along without it. Although to be honest, out of the hundreds (?) of channel choices, I only listen to a very few. One of those few is 40’s Junction. For those unfamiliar, this is a channel which, without commercials (except for an occasional ad saying you should listen to 40’s Junction which, I don’t know, seems a little unnecessary and redundant—since I’m already listening) plays a constant stream of hits and not-quite-hits from the 1940’s.
I like to listen to it because I am old-fashioned. And, I like listening to music my parents and grandparents listened to. And I listen because I am fond of history. And because, well, it’s a lot of good music. Sometimes even great music. So, I listen to 40’s Junction.
But perhaps another reason I listen is nostalgia—although, since I wasn’t alive in the 1940’s, does that really qualify? I shall have to look up the official definition of nostalgia, and whether one needs to have been alive during a time to be nostalgic for it. But I digress. Again. In any case, whether or not this attraction qualifies as nostalgia, there is certainly a feeling of… safety. Certainty. Away from the chaos, anxiety and uncertainty of our day. Which is odd, because the 1940’s—at least 1940-1945—were among the most chaotic, uncertain, unsafe, and anxiety-riddled years in human history.
But they are gone now. They are done. And we know how things turned out. We know who won World War 2. Us. The ‘good guys,’ The world did not, in fact, come under the domination of tyrants, Fascists, and Nazis. That time is now safely contained within the pages of history books. (As I said, I am fond of history.) Although one can read various books on alternate histories, and ‘What if.. Hitler had won the war?’ In this universe, at least, we don’t have to worry about that. Much.
But the thing is, the Nazis are back. In our very own country, the country that ‘won’ the Great War against them. In the 1940’s. They are back with their long coats (thank you, Gregory Bovino) their one-armed salutes, their Big Lies, (who really KNOWS who won the 2020 election, after all?) their failed putsches and rebellions (see January 6, 2021) their storm-troopers, their campaigns of terror and retribution, their rounding up of citizens and ‘enemies,’ their tireless scapegoating of vulnerable and easily targeted ‘out’ groups, their cleansing and purging efforts to make a more homogeneous and compliant society, and even the construction of concentration camps. (I mean, really, what are we supposed to call them?)
It is all too real. Too reminiscent. Actually, too identical. And too frightening.
So, I sometimes listen to music from the 1940’s. Because we know how that decade turned out. We know what happened to the Fascists and the Nazis. We can be assured of it. But now there are no assurances. We don’t know how things will turn out. We really don’t know if our institutions, our ideals, our democratic traditions, our will, is going to be sufficient, strong enough to withstand and turn back this latest iteration of authoritarianism and fanaticism. We know that there is in this nation a will to resist. We know that that will is growing. We still await the finding or the growing of spines and will among legislators and elected representatives, among business leaders and university presidents and law firms and media empires. We watch and we call and we write and we wait.
But in Minneapolis and Minnesota, the People are not waiting. For anyone. They are standing up for themselves. Against tyranny. Against state violence. Against the return of Fascism. Minnesotans aren’t backing down. They are not mistaking cosmetic changes in department heads or ICE leaders as real change. They are not buying a change in words as a change in policy. Minnesotans want to see ICE out. They want a full return of their rights and freedoms, including recognition of their 1st and 4th amendment rights. They want to know that their voter rolls will not be confiscated and corrupted by the regime. They want to know that the midterm elections will be free and fair, and that they will, indeed, happen.
It really does not seem like a lot to ask. In the United States of America. In the country that won the war. And guided the world through 80 years of relative peace and the international expansion of democratic ideals and government. Maybe, eventually, in the long run… things will turn out OK. Maybe we’ll be alright. But… there are no assurances. And Minnesotans are not standing down.
It is good to listen to music from the past. To smile. To honor the sacrifices and successes of our parents and grandparents. One wonders, what music will our grandchildren listen to when they think of this time in history? And who will write the history books? We are living the history now. The questions are open. And there are no assurances.
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