Be Careful Out There

(photo: Jeff Widener, Associated Press, June 5, 1989)

Thirty-five years ago today, Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square and literally crushed everyone present (mostly students) that had been causing internal static and protests against the authoritarian communist regime over some several weeks. They did this at night, true, but the entire world witnessed it. Global media was there. We were up. It was the middle of the day for us Americans, anyway. And we had cable. The Chinese government has worked extremely hard to erase that memory in subsequent decades. You can just imagine what happens to those who try to bring up that event. The violent murders were committed after actually months of unrest, mainly by Chinese students and other young people demanding basic human rights and freedoms.

An estimated 180,000 troops and armed police rolled in with tanks and armored vehicles and fired into crowds as they pushed toward Tiananmen Square.

The death toll remains unknown to this day. Hundreds, if not thousands are believed to have been killed in an operation that started the night before and ended on the morning of June 4, 1989. To this day, today, the Chinese government has not acknowledged even one name of the victims that were shot or crushed by tanks that night June 4, 1989. Those people simply vanished.

One day later, on June 5, Tank Man suddenly came out of nowhere and managed to (in a largely symbolic way) temporarily halt a column of menacing murder machines leaving the square; enough time for people to shoot film and snap photos. What we see now documented had to be smuggled out of China at tremendous risks. Tank Man came and just as quickly Tank Man was hustled away by . . . no one truly knows who. Friend or foe?

Likely it was foe. The “organs” of communism reach deep within the entire population via enforcers like secret police and ordinary citizen informers. When you see Tank Man being hustled out of there, you’re inclined to believe a few people have come to his rescue, smartly removing him from a situation that easily would have gotten you 25 years, if not shot or hanged. We see that because we hope that. We hope for happy endings and the triumph of all that’s fair and good. It’s very likely what you see, however, are the “organs” of the State at work. No one has ever figured out who Tank Man was. Nothing has ever been heard of the situation since he disappeared at the hands of . . . ?

Lately I have become increasingly worried about the general pendulum swinging toward the authoritarian Right all across the globe. In the United States, I am seeing the accelerated and well-organized efforts of conservative politicians as well as media (mainstream and otherwise) in pushing false narratives, denying reality and practicing indoctrination by repetition, and most importantly: denunciation. Denunciation of our justice system, political system, and denunciation of individuals. This last one is super worrying to me, particularly as it’s weaved in with the previous two.

We call this “doxing” in the parlance of 2024 but what it is, is good-old fashioned Stalinist denunciation. He did it. She did it. Yes, I saw her at that protest. I’m positive, it was him. I heard him tell a joke about the president. DO IT TO JULIA! That’s denunciation. It comes from everywhere, and always it blindsides you, especially when the informer is part of your family or circle of intimates: your 15-year-old son, your good buddy whom you’ve trusted since you both met in kindergarten, the fishmonger you’ve bought trout from for 20 years.

The harassment and doxing of jurors after their guilty verdict last week, making Trump the first ever convicted felon ex-president (and in 2024 the Republican candidate for presidency), is but a quick journey leading to a new political reality soon to be similar to the purge era of Uncle Joe Stalin of the 1930s-1950s. We’re not quite there yet, but almost. You’ll see. For now, before the State even gets a chance to grind you down into bits and discard you into an organized “archipelago” like in the USSR back then (Russia/China/N. Korea, etc. now), it will be the lunatics, the imbeciles, the ill-educated (as well as the well-educated and well-off) populace who will seek out personal revenge on the “vermin,” the “enemy of the People,” the “traitors,” or anyone defending themselves from a denunciation. Remember Pizza Gate. Or . . . January 6, 2021. Remember those, because already people are melancholic for the Trump years. It wasn’t so bad, was it? Just a few people wanting to visit the Capitol.

The infiltration of ultra-conservative cultism into politics, science, recorded history, public and private education systems, as well as the justice system—reaching the uppermost echelon: the Supreme Court of the United States—is raising alarming warning flags for the likes of yours truly. I’ve seen this before. Part of it can be attributed to the inequality of income and other resources that exists not just in this country. Another part can be credited to re-education—or rather no education—followed by heavy doses of propaganda (re-education). Over and over. And over and over. It must be true, because I hear it all the time. Every day. It must be true. And the more I hear it, the truer it is.

There is that famous scene in Orwell’s 1984 when O’Brien holds up four fingers and asks Winston how many he sees. “Four,” says Winston. “If the Party says there are five,” says O’Brien, “how many are there?” Winston says there are four. O’Brien tortures Winston, again and again, then provides drugs that ease the pain. Winston comes to love and depend on O’Brien, because O’Brien alone can ease the pain. O’Brien informs Winston that his goal is not to extract a confession or punish him, but to cure him—to convert his thinking to that of the Party. Sounds kinda familiar.

We are not seeing the applied component of torture in our current equation because there is no need to. Contemporary society is much more sensitive to discomfort than its forefathers and mothers. All is really needed for general control and supplicancy is for suspension of Internet service for a few weeks (or the cessation of any type of utility that provides comfort: heat, air-conditioning, waste [mis]management, cloud computing, postal service or delivery in general). After a couple of weeks of going without, people will miraculously begin to see those five fingers that O’Brien is holding up in 1984. Or however many fingers he says. In fact, after a few weeks of going without, people will sign anything, say anything, denounce anyone (“dox”), just bring back their comfortable lives. Bring back the way things used to be. And then: “we love O’Brien.”

And so no brutality is needed. No organized system, no “archipelago” has to be put in place. The organs don’t have to reach too far or work too hard; they benefit from a culture of smart phones (read: surveillance) and constant flow of information (read: propaganda bubbles). They don’t have to lift a finger in 2024. Because there aren’t enough (any?) Tank Men to stop the convoy. We saw how they hustled off the Tank Man. We saw how they hustled off Alexei Navalny. Who cares about being a Tank Man; it’s much easier to watch your favorite shows, read your favorite news in your favorite bubbles on your favorite couch.

The European Union is holding elections between June 6 and June 9. This isn’t sexy news to anyone, including EU citizens themselves traditionally (although it seems Europe has awoken this time), but the proliferation of Far-Right parties in EU countries has the likes of yours truly yelling: DANGER, ALL YOU WILL ROBINSONS WHO VOTE! DANGER! Austria, Hungary, Holland, and Germany are infested with rising numbers of populist hate mongers stoking feelings of racism, sexism, anti-anything that’s not homogenous, and nostalgia for the times Uncle Joe disposed of more than 20 million people over a particularly couple of brutal decades. These populist parties are tracking in the 20 to sometimes 30% in various polls in various countries. These parties would have to be included in coalition governments. In some countries like Italy (Meloni) and France (Le Pen), the tracks have been laid. The only thing left is for the train to roll on through. And it will; it just needs a little more time.

But don’t take it from a schlemiel like me. Here’s a much clearer explanation, using some of Hannah Arendt’s writings, of what authoritarianism is. If we should learn anything from the not-so-distant-past, we should understand that countries went from full-on democracies to authoritarianism very quickly. The slope was slippery. Germany went from democracy to concentration camps in fewer than 10 years.

This November we all get to check off our respective boxes and feel good that we participated in a (kind of?) democratic process. Let’s use our common sense, logic, and independent human spirit, which—once upon a time—refused to be told what to do by unfamiliar entities, by opinions, by repetition. Once upon a time, that spirit went looking for information. For the truth. It’s out there, ya know. At least in the United States, we used to be rebels. My generation (X) was the original Slackers. We despised The Man. And then we got old. We got investments. We got big houses.

Let’s think about the clouds gathering. They are gathering. We are in the pot, boiling. We are boiling, to be sure. But just very slowly.

Be careful out there this November. It’s fragile.