History warns us. Will we listen?

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking… We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more — we had no awareness of the real situation…. We submitted with pleasure!… We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

Those are bone chilling words. To put the above excerpt into context, that is a reflection of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn after having spent years in the Gulag. After suffering years of torture and barbaric living conditions, he still found fault in himself and in his countrymen. He concluded that the silence and inaction of the people facilitated Stalin’s brutal regime.

Imagine being jailed and tortured for nearly a decade, then exiled from your home country. Mixed in the prison system are thieves and murderers who are outnumbered by the political prisoners who opposed the existed regime. Eventually, millions were imprisoned in the Gulag system for a multitude of actions deemed reprehensible by a dictatorial government. Campaigned for a political party other than the one currently elected? That sounds like distributing illegal and anti-party propaganda. Perhaps it’s even counter-revolutionary activity, or as we’d call it stateside, treason. You didn’t report your colleagues crime of distributing this propaganda? That’s a criminal failure to denounce. Reading banned books? You must be a terrorist sympathizer. Or worse, you are a terrorist. Been accused of or suspected of a criminal act? Sounds like intent to commit such a crime. You’re practicing a foreign religion? That’s counter to the political system. Anti-party activity is unacceptable. It didn’t take much to get swallowed up by the organs of Gulag Archipelago.

Think that all sounds far fetched? We’re not that far off. Every day we inch closer to our own version of that. Did you vote for a presidential candidate other than Donald Trump? Do you think DEI is a good thing? Are you against deporting terrorists to foreign prisons? If you say yes, then you’re obviously a radical leftist. Perhaps you’re even a terrorist sympathizer. What about a federal judge applying centuries of jurisprudence to a question of whether an action by the president is constitutional? He was obviously a radical left activist judge. Protesting Israeli genocide of Palestinians because they bombed densely packed and unprotected populations? That’s antisemitic activity. Not a citizen who did that? You’re a terrorist and must imprisoned and deported at once. Exercised free speech in a manner counter to the president’s objectives and whims? That’s not free speech. That’s terroristic activity. Have tattoos? You’re probably a member of a gang, which are now labeled terrorist organizations. Wearing Chicago Bulls merch? Maybe you’re a fan. Maybe you’re a terrorist. Better be on the safe side and lock you up.

This isn’t far fetched. We are living in it right now. It keeps happening every single day. The current administration isn’t even sneaky about it. They are doing in broad daylight with the equivalent of a fake mustache as a disguise. Federal agencies are being weaponized. The FBI and ICE are being used to round up immigrants and citizens alike. The judicial system is holding up for now. Trump keeps losing in court, but the courts weren’t intended to handle a blitzkrieg. They are slow to respond and require lawsuits to seek reprieve. Everyday more and more legal residents and even citizens are facing action by the Trump administration. As far as Trump administration is concerned, it’s only the first quarter of this game. They are just getting started.

Stalin was a cult-like leader who demanded loyalty and punished dissent. Notice anything about the MAGA leader and current elected GOP legislators? Trump demands loyalty. He wants his ego stroked. Step out of line, vote against his policy agenda, or even merely criticize him and he’ll turn the party and his MAGA fans against you. Stalin wanted statues and pictures everywhere, alongside his national symbols the sickle and hammer or the soviet star. Trump loves photos. The MAGA crowd is pushing for his face on Mount Rushmore and $250 bill with his face on it. He’s even putting two 100-foot-tall flag poles on the White House grounds to fly American flags over Washington D.C.

The Communist Party had a binary worldview. You were either with them or against them. There was no neutral and no in-between. Anything less than absolute loyalty was the equivalent of betrayal. Today, you’re either a patriot or an enemy. Anyone not inline with MAGA is the “radical left, the deep state, fake news” or some Trumpian term that signifies you’re an outsider and an enemy.

Speaking of “fake news” the Soviets controlled the media. All news was written and published by the government. They censored everything before it’s publication. They told the people what the truth was. Anything that went counter to the regime’s objectives was obviously false. Trump is actively seeking to remove legacy media agencies from the White House who don’t paint him a pretty picture. That Associated Press has been fighting in court to keep their White House access after refusing to call it the “Gulf of America.” Trump also keeps suing the major TV networks and is attempting to revoke their broadcast licenses because they won’t spin the news the way he wants them to. Google CBS right now to see what I’m talking about.

What did the Soviets do with those who committed these awful crimes? They threw them in the Gulag, usually to never be seen again. That’s exactly what Trump is attempted to build between Guantanamo Bay and his prison contract with El Salvador. Trump is building a Gulag where political opposition can be sent and disposed of. As we are seeing in the courts right now, Trump is attempting to build a system the subverts due process. By sending people to a foreign sovereign nation, the courts may lose jurisdiction and power over any reprieve. That’s exactly what he wants. Unfettered power.

Solzhenitsyn identified the people’s silence and inaction as the facilitator of authoritarianism. Every time someone failed to speak up, speak out, and stand in the way of the regime, they perpetuated the authoritarians. In her memoir of life growing up in the Soviet Union, Elena Gorokhova wrote, “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.”

Authoritarians build a house of cards on lies. Refusing to perpetuate the lies, by telling the truth, makes the whole system collapse. Solzhenitsyn warned us. History warns us. Will we listen?