Radicalism: from Babel to Sodom

While Americans have much in common, that raises the question, why have they become so hostile to each other? A general sense of victimization lies at the heart of America’s divisions. European history before World War II has much to say about the dangers of victimization. According to the philosopher Hannah Arendt, a spiritual disease began to spread in the late nineteenth century ending with the rise of Nazism. Worship of the individual, the gentlemen, and the statesmen was failing as ideals. Religion had lost its voice. Tribalism emerged as a national ideal with roots in a fantastical past. Although Peter Drucker, an economist, was skeptical that an upsurge in primitivism led to the rise of Nazism, he also believed that the rise of communism, fascism, and Nazism were the result of widespread loss of confidence in capitalism and democracy. Europe’s idealized image of America began to shatter when the Great Depression hit. His warning was that loss of confidence in ideologies that honor America’s core values can lead to totalitarianism. By contrast, the King-led nonviolent civil rights crusade created internal discord but ultimately sought to reinforce America’s core values of freedom and equality.