On a same-day visit to both the Holocaust Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), my world view shifted dramatically. The urgency of history, coupled with the current political climate and social unrest, compelled me to write. The time for complacency is over; it's time to engage, learn, and act.
It's not every day that we confront the banality of evil—the sheer ordinariness of it, lurking in the corners of human history. Yet, here we are, staring at the face of complacency while history's dark echoes resound in our ears. Are we listening?
When you start your morning, perhaps with a cup of coffee and a skim through the headlines, let's add another habit to that routine. Before or after your daily news intake, spend just five minutes reading a historical piece. It could be an article, a passage from a book, or a podcast episode. This simple habit serves as a daily reminder that history isn't just the past; it's a mirror reflecting our potential futures.
The surge of emotion you feel during those five minutes—be it awe at the resilience of the human spirit or shock at the horrors we've perpetrated—creates a high-arousal state that makes you more likely to share, discuss, and engage with the world around you.
The tale of Hannah Arendt's "Banality of Evil" isn't just a philosophical musing; it's an urgent call to recognize the potential for ordinary individuals to perpetrate extraordinary harm under specific conditions. We find ourselves at a critical juncture in American history, where polarization is rampant, and the erosion of democratic norms is palpable. These are the very conditions that history warns us about. The same ordinary folks who go to work, pay taxes, and cheer for their favorite sports teams can also support policies that dehumanize others.
We've been here before, and not just in Nazi Germany. America's own history, from the dehumanization that enabled slavery to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, offers us lessons in the risks of complacency. When we stop seeing others as fully human, when we allow ourselves to be swept away by rhetoric that sows division and hate, we edge dangerously close to the precipice of collective moral failure.
This isn't a drill; it's a call to action. Engage with your democracy, protect your rights and the rights of others. Vote, protest, debate, educate. Do it with the urgency of someone who understands that history isn't just a cautionary tale; it's a playbook that can be used for both good and evil.
In the grand tapestry of world history, America's story is relatively young. But it's a story written by us all, every day, with the ink of our choices and actions. We have the power to steer this nation away from the darker chapters of human history and towards a future that, while imperfect, is at least just, inclusive, and humane.