History repeats itself, we are told. It would
be wise to heed those words. Perhaps we believed that, the war won, peace would
reign eternally. But time rolls on, and each new generation needs to learn the
lessons of the past or pay the consequences.
The world is slipping back into familiarly
dangerous habits. Nationalism has once more raised its shaven head and is
gaining ground. Trump and his America First, the Mexican Wall, his trade wars
and isolationism. Putin, trying to revive the expansionist glory of the Soviet
Union, to make Russians proud to be Russians by intimidation and shows of
strength. Xi Jinnping in China, the new emperor with dreams of world
domination. Tory Britain and its infamous Brexit campaign, voluntarily cutting
itself off from Europe and wrapping itself up in the by now very faded Union
Jack.
Even within Europe itself, the great
defender of internationalism, there are governments and movements stoking the
nationalist fire. In Italy, France, Austria, Holland, Poland. The list is
growing. Extreme right wing members are regularly voted into local, national
and European parliaments.
Such is democracy, you may well argue. But
beware the propaganda of the nationalist parties. Their arguments are spurious
and full of venom. The foreigner, the outsider, will always be to blame. Their
will be ethnical and genetic discrimination, their will be the iron fist of the
law, there will be only black or white, with us or against us.
We have seen all of this before. We have
seen to what kind of society it leads. We have seen the injustice, the abuse of
power, the slow descent towards war. And it is in our hands to stop this morbid
fascination with neo fascism. If we look the other way History will not forgive
us. We have the power, we have the vote, let us decide not to repeat the errors
of the pass at the polls.
Such is democracy.
