Updated with Questions for Discussion: A Parable of our time: “Our democratic house is on fire!”
With Questions for classroom discussion and other conversations
First published in The Trenchant Observer, September 23, 2021, reprinted in James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024).
A Parable of our Time
BACKGROUND
See,
Robert Kagan, “Our constitutional crisis is already here,” Washington Post, September 23, 2021 (3:32 p.m. EDT).
There is a man running up and down the street, with his hair all frazzled and his eyes filled with terror, shouting, “The house is on fire! Our house is on fire! Our whole democratic city is on fire!”
Outside a cafe, on a bright sunny morning, a number of people sit calmly drinking their coffee. A few, but not as many as in the past, are reading their newspapers.
“Help! Help!” the screaming man implores. “Don’t you know, the whole city is on fire!”
The seated individuals proceed calmly to drink their coffee and chat among themselves.
“Don’t you know?” the wild man implores again, “The whole city is on fire!”
Different individuals respond variously.
“You exaggerate,” one says. “We don’t see any flames.”
“The houses in the next street are on fire,” the wild man rejoins.
“Don’t worry,” another replies. “Someone will take care of it.”
“Fake news!” another shouts out, aggressively.
“What about you newspaper readers?” the wild man screams, in exasperation.
“We know,” one of them replies. “But what do you expect us to do about it? Someone will take care oi it.”
Another newspaper reader says, “I haven’t read anything about it in my newspaper, or heard anything about it on television.”
“Of course not, John,” another cajoles. “Look at the newspapers you read and the television stations you watch.”
Another man, a thoughtful-looking gentleman, declaims, “You’re right. Something is going on. We ought to launch an investigation to see who started the fire.”
A teenager, sitting with her parents at the cafe, leaps to her feet and shouts out, “We know who started the fire, and who the arsonists are who have been pouring gasoline on it!”
“In this town,” the wild man screams, “we have a volunteer fire department. You are all members of our volunteer fire department.”
“Don’t get so excited,”a senior member of the group rejoins. Someone will take care of it.”
“The alarm bell at the fire department hasn’t even rung,” says another.
“Who disarmed the bell?” the teenager shouts out, as she is ignored.
“The wild man, with growing terror in his eyes, screams, “Our democratic town will be destroyed if we don’t act to save it!”
“Go on, get out of here. You are disturbing our morning coffee,” one man yells back, as other coffee drinkers join in. “Yes, go on, get out of here. You’re disturbing out morning coffee.”
The screaming man yells, “The whole town is on fire, and half of its citizens are pouring gasoline on the fire!”
***
One might ask, “Does this parable have anything to do with current politics or democracy in America?”
One thinks of Katherine Anne Porter’s brilliant novel, Ship of Fools (1962)–made into a movie of the same name in 1965. In the final scene of the movie, the protagonist, a dwarf, is watching the other passengers get off the ship, including those who had argued vociferously in the movie in defense of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Looking directly into the camera, he says, “Oh, I can just hear you saying.,’What does this all have to do with us?’ He then says, “Nothing” Puffing on his cigar, chuckling, he turns and walks out of the station.
The movie ends.
***
Questions for Classroom Discussion and Other Conversations
Question 1 Are Democrats like the local residents drinking their morning coffee? Are Republicans? Are Independents and other citizens?
Question 2 Do you think those warning about the dangers of a second Trump presidency are exaggerating as does the resident drinking coffee who said, ”We don’t see any flames”?
Question 3 Are you and others around you like the residents who remarked, “Don’t worry. Someone will take care of it.”?
Question 4 Are reports of the dangers of Trump’s second presidency “fake news”?
Question 5 Do you feel powerless like the newspaper reader who responded to the wild man saying, “We know.. But what do you expect us to do about it? Someone will take care of it”?
Question 6 Are you like the thoughtful-looking gentlemen who says, “You’re right. Something is going on. We ought to launch an investigation to see who started the fire?
Question 7 Or are you like the teenager who declares, “We know who started the fire and who the arsonists are who have been pouring gasoline on it”?
Question 8 As a member of America’s volunteer fire department, do you feel a need to put out the political fire in the U.S.? Or are you confident that “Someone will take care of it”?
Question 9 Do you feel that the alarm bell at the volunteer fire department has been rung, or has been rung too late? Do you think, like the teenager, that the alarm bell has been disarmed? If so, who do you think disarmed it?
Question 10 The wild man screams, “Our democratic town will be destroyed if we don’t act to save it.” Do you feel a need to personally act to save our democracy?
Question 11 Or are you someone like the residents drinking their morning coffee, who want the wild man warning of the fire threatening the town to just go away?
Question 12 Do you agree with the wild man when he yells,”The whole town is on fire, and half of its citizens are pouring gasoline on the fire”?
If you would like to add a question or to take issue with any of the questions posed, please write me at jrowles93@gmail.com and I will add your question or comment to the list above.
***
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books by the Author
The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021(September, 18, 2024). Available on Amazon and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (November 11, 2024). Available on Amazon and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
***
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