Fear of the Monster You Created

Vladimir Putin and friends, in a still from Netflix’s
Turning Point: the Bomb and the Cold War

Readers who know me, will already know my longstanding interest in Haitian history and politics, dating back to the 1991 coup. The unique and remarkable circumstances which brought Haiti into existence make it distinct from other countries born of European colonialism. Among the many rare qualities, Haiti, unlike most former European colonies, doesn’t have a native-born White population. No French colonists generated a persistent minority population in free Haiti.

This happened because Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the general who pushed the Haitian slave rebellion to victory, refused to accept victory. Flush with triumph, Dessalines declared a purge of French-speaking Whites in 1804, under the battle cry: “Cut off heads, burn down houses.” Anyone descended from French colonists and plantation owners had to flee Haiti, leaving everything they owned, or face the wrath of their former slaves, now Haiti’s unquestioned masters.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. Such reprisals aren’t inevitable. Mexico, Nigeria, and Brazil have native-born White minorities, descended from former colonists who willingly accepted the Empire’s end. The fact that South Africa still reckons with economic inequity stemming from Apartheid proves that ethnic cleansing needn’t necessarily happen in post-colonial states. But especially in the heady early days of independence, violent reprisals can, and often do, happen.

Timothy Snyder, in the conclusion to Bloodlands, writes that Israel, Russia, and Ukraine all intensely remember the injustices inflicted upon them during World War II. Ukraine asserts its independence, in large part, for fear that Stalin’s Great Terror might repeat itself. Russia zealously recalls the privations and violence of Germany’s invasion, in almost the same terms Americans recall Pearl Harbor, making that violence part of Russian national mythology.

Snyder wrote before the current wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Just as Putin and Zelenskyy each justify their military actions with collective memory of nationalist agendas during the 1930s and 1940s, Israel uses fears of the Holocaust to justify overwhelming military force. Whenever international critics of the Israeli state (including international Jews and Holocaust survivors) condemn Israel’s apparent targeting of schools and hospitals, they get accused of National Socialist apologia.

Benjamin Netanyahu, acolyte
of his country's secular Priesthood

Thus we see past injustice mold the legal and moral justification of current, ongoing injustice. Your evil makes my evil acceptable. Again, such reprisals aren’t inevitable; France and Germany, historic enemies for over a thousand years, now form the political and economic backbone of the European Union. But especially for strongman leaders who rule by force of personality, like Putin and Netanyahu, old grievances support new nationalist sentiment and violence.

Such conditions especially prevail in nations willed into existence by retreating European empires. The de-Ba’athification process instituted in Iraq following America’s 2003 invasion often had an ethnic component, especially in the Shi’ite-majority south, where the toppled Sunni-led government was especially unpopular. Many Arab Spring countries suffered ethnic cleansing when minority-led governments fell. The Syrian Civil War drags on thirteen years later, partly, because Assad’s Alawite government fears reprisals.

This brings us to America. In most circles, it’s become unacceptable to espouse bigotry, at least publicly; even the race-baiting Former President calls himself “the least racist person” in the face of evidence. Yet a powerful voting bloc remains terrified of structural changes which will reverse systemic racism, sexism, and ableism. Countless interviews at TFG campaign rallies show majority populations, including Whites, Christians, and heterosexuals, consider themselves embattled minorities.

However, as Tim Alberta writes, America is on-track to see both White people and Christians become minority populations within two generations. This assumes current demographic trends continue, which will certainly never happen. But those current majority populations see demographic change happening rapidly, and their power base disintegrating. They fear becoming a minority in their own country—and being treated like America has always treated minorities.

Again, history proves that reprisals following power reversals aren’t inevitable. But they are possible, and certainly precedented. State power always involves the possibility of violence to control dissidents, minority powers, and nonconformists; as those who flourished under unjust laws find themselves suddenly thrust into minority status, they aren’t unjustified in fearing receiving the treatment they formerly dispensed onto others. Unjust people are rightly attuned to further injustice.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes that authoritarian governments let by strongman personalities generally end two ways: the strongman leaves the halls of power in chains, or in a hearse. TFG is witnessing that happening right now: he needs to be reelected President, or face dying in prison. He weaponized the justice system against protestors, refugees, and other dissidents; now he fears his own justice system. His adherents fear the exact same consequences.