Hopewit

  Some days, I think life for us would be better if we could all cooperate with our neighbours, if we would be of one mind about the important stuff. On other days, I remember that when a nation can get a preponderance of its citizens to “be of one mind,” a Nazi fascism or a Maoist China can take hold … and gratifying as it may be to experience thousands and thousands of “my people” marching in unison, we know what mass indoctrination of the population leads to. At the very least, it leads to penalties for dissenters: the “kulaks” must be imprisoned or killed, the Jews and communists must be annihilated, the capitalists are fit only for slavery in work camps. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. We could learn much about how nations take their unique shapes from the history, for instance, of Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s fascism, Maoist reign of terror by being schooled well in our histories. But if we can’t work up a reasonable indignation over book banning in Florida,