If we’re serious about understanding what makes a society flourish - or disintegrate - history offers plenty of lessons. The idea that hatred, exclusion, and authoritarian nationalism could lead to “greatness” is not only unsupported by the historical record - it is consistently disproven by it.
Every society that has pursued its identity through ethnic purity, militarism, or scapegoating of the marginalized has spiraled into repression, violence, or collapse. These are not anomalies. They are predictable outcomes of systems organized around fear and concentrated power.
When political leaders - or their media surrogates - suggest that immigrants, queer people, Muslims, leftists or the poor are threats to national identity, they are not describing a real crisis. They are manufacturing one. This is standard practice in systems of power. Divert public anger away from the ruling class and onto a vulnerable out-group. Create an internal enemy. Call it “defense.” The consequences are as familiar as they are devastating.
This is how fascism operates - not as a historical relic with a capital F, but as a set of tactics:
Fabricate a glorious past.
Claim that “outsiders” are threatening it.
Redefine patriotism as obedience.
Redefine violence as virtue.
In the United States, the rhetoric of “making America great again” fits this model with disturbing precision. It appeals to a mythic past that never existed - one where the economy served working people, where communities were strong, and where identity was stable. In reality, the so-called “golden age” relied on violent exclusion: of Black people, women, immigrants, Indigenous nations, and all those who didn’t conform to the norms of the dominant culture.
If there is greatness to be found in the American experiment, it is in the people who have consistently resisted that exclusion: the abolitionists, the labor organizers, the civil rights activists, the mutual aid networks, the educators, the whistleblowers, and ordinary people who, at great cost, told the truth.
The real crisis we face is not immigrants or “wokeness” or “gender ideology.” The crisis is a society subordinated to profit and power, hollowed out by decades of neoliberal policy, surveillance, militarism, and mass disinformation. The institutions that might once have protected democracy - media, education, labor - have been systematically dismantled or captured by corporate interests. In this context, hate becomes a convenient release valve. It gives people a target, while the real looters walk free.
It is worth stating the obvious: hate will not feed the hungry. It will not rebuild the commons. It will not address ecological collapse, economic inequality, or the erosion of democracy. What it will do is fragment society to the point where collective resistance becomes impossible - and that, too, is part of the design.
The antidote is not romantic idealism. It is organizing - rooted in solidarity, mutual recognition, and an honest accounting of history. If we want a society that is truly “great,” it must be one in which power is accountable, people fight systems and ideas rather than their neighbors, and dignity is not reserved for the few.
Tim Hjersted is the director and co-founder of Films For Action, a library dedicated to the people and movements creating a more free, regenerative and democratic society.
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