The Mythic Past

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

Most Fayette County residents and Texans, and Americans believe in our Constitution and democratic form of government. But many may not know what to look and listen for as indicators of fascist tactics in today’s Texas and America.

First, what is fascism? It is a political ideology that promotes the interests of one state or people above all others. As an extreme form of nationalism, fascism attempts to exert political influence, control, or supremacy over all others through domestic violence and sometimes even over other countries through war. Among domestic targets of control or supremacy may be religious, ethnic, or gender “others.” There is always the “other.”

A key characteristic of and tactic used by authoritarians and fascists is strong advocacy of a mythic American past.

There is a structure to the myth that involves men having all or most of the power and influence, a perceived glorious national past, a nation that militarily dominated all of its foreign and domestic enemies, while the women of the nation were at home bearing and raising the next generation of warriors. The intentionally used mythic past is but a steppingstone to the realization today and in the future of the imagined values underlying the mythic past.

For example, when you hear “Make America Great Again” (Trumpism) or invoking a glorious past (DeSantis), you hear someone harnessing the emotion of the values of a mythic past: authoritarianism, hierarchy (a great national male leader), purity, and struggle.

The mythic past also erases and does not acknowledge the nation’s past sins, for example, the enslavement of Blacks by whites. To fascists, talk of enslavement is an attempt to victimize whites. For fascists, history must be taught specially. Balanced history— telling the truth about history—tears at the myth’s fabric and the possibilities for its use as the springboard for the future in pursuit of restoring fascist-defined mythical values.

We, though, must tell the truth about history to serve the common good through prudent public policies. Speak out against talk of history offered to you for base political reasons. Ask questions and learn about a full accounting of American and Texas history.

What you don’t know about the past and what is offered as a distorted mythical past denies you the opportunity to deal with reality today and make rational decisions about your freedom, family, and future.