"Blessed are they who are not Patriots and Idealists, and who do not feel they must dash right in and Do Something About It, something so immediately important that all doubters must be liquidated - tortured - slaughtered! Good old murder, that since the slaying of Abel by Cain has always been the new device by which all oligarchies and dictators have, for all future ages to come, removed opposition!"
Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here, (1935), p114
6 comments:
i've heard of this book but haven't read it; it was bigger in the fifties...
@ Mudpuddle: I can imagine that it *was* popular during the McCarthy era! I picked this up when it came out in 2017 as 'prescient'. I'm over half way through and it's pretty good. I might be missing some of the 'pop culture' references from 30's America but I think I'm getting most of the allusions. The middle bit is getting quite depressing though. I'm hoping for a happier ending but who knows?
I read this but can't remember too much about it. I think Lewis missed a trick by not including something about the Klan...the 1920s clan was the closest the US ever had to that kind of fascism. (I say "that kind" because people are very sloppy in how they use the word fascism.)
@ Stephen: Lewis does mention the Klan a few times but only really in passing. From my admitted scant reading of American history there does seem to be a noticeable authoritarian thread going through it for quite some time - at least 100 years if not longer I think. Agreed that 'Fascism' is a much used and abused term.
Good and appropriate!
@ Judy: I finished the book yesterday. It seemed like an appropriate read and an appropriate quote considering what's going on in the US right now.
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