Totalitarianism and Tolerance

I see that sales of Orwell’s 1984 are up and that college profs are adding texts on totalitarianism and authoritarianism to their syllabi. (NRR, Jan. 25; USA Today, Jan. 25)  This since the inauguration.  I assume that this is because people fear some sort of totalitarian governmental control from the Trump administration.  While I don’t object to students being exposed to more and diverse ideas, I do find it somewhat amusing and ironic that these books only become popular now.  Many have felt that for at least the last 8 years they were more and more being told what to say and what to think and more importantly what they could not say and could not think.  People have felt that they could not express viewpoints contrary to those of the progressive left without being called names or worse.  Racist for saying “all lives matter” or “blue lives matter.”  Anti-LGBT for holding a religious belief that homosexual marriage is not appropriate even while willing to tolerate alternate views and accept gay marriages.  Anti-woman’s rights for holding a belief in the right to life.  Anti-immigrant for opposing illegal immigration while being willing to open their arms to legal immigrants.  College campuses have banned some speech because it creates “micro-aggressions” or worse and permitted students to skip classes or exams when they are too upset by the day’s political news. Some have dictated what Halloween costumes students can and cannot wear. Entire history has been eliminated from textbooks and elsewhere and historical statues have been torn down.   It is not only the limitations and control imposed by the demand for “political correctness” or a distaste for some of this country’s history.   The governmental control has reached into such things as what size soda you can drink, what food your children can eat for lunch, etc. 

           

Fear of totalitarianism or authoritarianism may or may not be appropriate.  But it is not just suddenly appropriate.  It seems that over the past several years it has been the fear du jour for whichever party is out of control.  That really is sad that we have come to so overblow the fear and distaste of policies contrary to our own.  We like to believe that this country is about tolerance:  tolerance of people and ideas that are different from our own.  If we could all just stop the overblown hysterics perhaps we could instead have a dialog leading to understanding and the tolerance that I still believe is one of the most important ideals of our democracy.  That is, perhaps we could use a bit of tolerance to defeat the fear (and the actuality) of totalitarianism.