In 1941, as Allied bombs fell on Italy and Benito Mussolini plunged his country deeper into war, young Italian director Alberto Lattuada explained how 20 years of Nazi rule led to disaster.
“Lack of love has led to many tragedies that could have been avoided,” Lattuada wrote. “Instead of the golden shower of love, a black blanket of indifference fell on people’s heads. And then people lost their lives. eyes of love and I can no longer see clearly. … This is the source of the dissolution of all values and the destruction and neutralization of conscience: this is a long chain that is anchored to the feet of the devil.”
Love is in short supply again today, as autocracy spreads across the globe and our vision is clouded by a false fog and the heat of enmity. Authoritarian leaders seek to destroy the bonds of solidarity among those they rule and replace them with fear and hostility. Former President Trump, who aspires to join their ranks, followed the same playbook to make America’s emotional and social climate suitable for autocracy.
But love remains a powerful anti-authoritarian force. In Turkey, Poland and elsewhere, democratic activists and politicians have made the love of tyranny a key part of their strategy. Along with joy and optimismA notable feature of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is that love can also sustain a pro-democracy movement in the United States.
Love is both an action and a feeling that calls. was observedIt compels us to stand up for our rights and to advocate for policies of equality, justice, transparency and solidarity. Love supports resistance to autocracy in places where freedom has been lost and can help endangered democracies like ours get back on track.
Autocrats often use emotions for political purposes, inciting fear, hatred and hate to define groups by exclusion. Trump encouraged Americans to trade kindness and compassion for hostility and rudeness. “Part of the problem” is Trump saying When security guards were too lenient with protesters at a 2016 demonstration, “nobody wants to get hurt anymore?”
Trump’s recent descriptions of immigrants as blood contaminant invaders and their political opponents as “insect“continue cultivating brutality among its base. The anger of the civilian army that provoked the attack on the Capitol, the increase in hate crimes and the increase in threats against government officials, including an attempted assassination of Trump himself, suggest that millions of Americans are now considered violent legal response to political differences. Fascist repression was based on this belief.
However, I believe that America is ready for a heart-centered mass movement. A national campaign that clearly promotes solidarity, kindness, tolerance and compassion as core values of a multiracial democracy and presents policies based on care and compassion is likely to resonate with many voters.
Love can act as a bonding agent, creating the unity that is key to the success of pro-democracy movements. It can draw religious leaders, civil rights activists, and patriots into a dynamic coalition. Slogans like “Loving America Againcould compete with the powerful right-wing propaganda machine. Love attracts and helps people who are bored with dry political debates. the voters were invalidated to reconnect with politics.
Those who resist authoritarianism know the transformative power of love. Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition candidate in Istanbul’s 2019 mayoral election, made “radical love” a central element of his victory. Campaign against the candidate supported by Turkey’s autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We had two simple rules” saying Ates Ilyas Bassoi, Imamoglu’s campaign director. “Ignore Erdogan and amen to those who love Erdogan.”
Imamoglu, a practicing Muslim with liberal views, avoided public demonstrations and negative messages, instead walking the streets and “engaging directly with people, regardless of their ideology.” said. Hugging voters in cafes, mosques and parks, generating sympathy and trust.
Three years later, it was Imamoglu has been condemned He was sentenced to more than two years in prison so that he could not run for president as an opposition candidate. He was allowed to run for mayor and won.
Love and optimism in Eastern Europe also fueled pro-democracy campaigns. “We love, we can, we will win” became a slogan Sviatlana Tsykhanuskaya’s invitation to Belarusian despot Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. Love led the Polish opposition Civil Alliance to victory last year. Campaign attracted Young voters, in particular, promised to liberalise abortion laws, which are banned in Poland by 2021, but Poles of all ages sported the heart logo as they turned out in record numbers for the Million Hearts March.
“When I see this sea of hearts, I feel that a decisive moment in the history of our country is approaching,” says Donald Tusk, the Polish opposition leader and prime minister. saying This sentiment sparked the largest turnout in the country since 1989 and brought an end to eight years of right-wing rule.
Americans can find parallels in our own history. Civil rights leaders certainly knew that love could seem like a feeble weapon against brutal oppression: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that he was once “disappointed in the power of love to solve social problems.” Then he heard a lecture by Howard University president Mordecai Wyatt Johnson about Mahatma Gandhi, whose concepts of nonviolent protest like “the power of love” and, together with Christian love, created a transformative movement.
“In the path of life, one must have enough common sense and enough morality to break the chain of hatred,” King wrote in the language Lattuada used to describe the effect of the wave of hostility under Mussolini. “This can only be achieved by projecting the spirit of love into the center of our lives.”
Il Duce once told a journalist the secret of his success: “Keep your heart in the desert.” Powerful people today, including Trump, take the same black perspective. It is our turn to prove them wrong by breaking the chain of hate and reaching out to others with “eyes of love.”
The joy of Harris’s campaign gave Americans a much-needed positive boost, but love can be a transcendent, unifying concept that drives mass participation. Love insists that we are precious beings who deserve leaders who respect us and support our well-being, not tyrants who cheat, steal, imprison, and kill us. We already know what hate can do; it’s time to harness the great power of love.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian at New York University and author of the recent “Strong men: Mussolini to the present day“.
