Comparatively Seeing

Anyone still insisting that no one today can be compared to Hitler needs to see an optometrist. Or a dictionary to tell them that a comparison is not an equation.

So, too, anyone who uses the phrase “apples and oranges” to dismiss comparisons.

Before we get to the mugshot seen round the world, let’s consider these two absurdities that have long passed for conventional wisdom.

Apples and oranges both grow on trees and bear fruit with seeds and peels. Both are nutritious, often the same size, always the same shape (save for the strain of apple called “Delicious” which has a slight taper), and can be turned into juice. The way we use the term “apples and oranges,” you’d think that they were meat loaf and modern drama. Why?

Only reason I can think of is to dismiss comparisons out of hand. Comparisons do require thought, and thought can be taxing. Worst of all, many among us would rather not think at all, resent the very thought of thinking. How else could “woke,” slang for “aware,” become a dirty word?

Reminds me of the English parliament considering a ban on religious satire after a magazine’s Paris offices were bombed due to cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Among those who argued against any ban was Salman Rushdie who carefully but pointedly noted that laughter is a form of thought. Limit laughter and you restrict your ability to think.

Comparisons–whether as metaphors and analogies, or as simple measurements–are likewise a form of thought offering a way to understand a subject. My neighbors who have never been to Annapolis, Maryland, will gain an idea of it when described as “Newburyport on steroids,” as I’ve heard a Newburyport city councilor call it. And if we want to describe home to a friend in New Mexico, we might call our town “Santa Fe with boats,” as did a Chamber of Commerce brochure some years ago.

If I tell you that a tanker on the Great Lakes is 1,000 feet long, you’ll need a moment to conjure up a vague idea. If I say it’s three football fields, including end-zones, it will immediately lengthen right before your mind’s eye.

Of course, this is oversimplified, as these are but hints. Such are comparisons not pretending to be equations. They open doors to understanding and leave us to stand or sit or walk through the room on our own.

The impulse to put Hitler off limits for comparison is understandable. No one has come close to inflicting the horror he brought about. But what of the way he came to power? What of his appeal to so many who followed him no matter what he did? Believed him no matter what he said, no matter how hateful and paranoid his rant and rave?

Would it help to know that, according to his several biographers, he rehearsed his facial expressions and gestures in front of mirrors? Would knowing that have lessened the shock of seeing Donald Trump’s practiced mugshot last week?

Yes or no, it would have prepared us for it.

Just as we might have been prepared for, resisted, and avoided the national nightmare that he has inflicted on us since 2016 had we observed history’s lesson rather than ruling it out of the bounds of polite company. Consider this list:

Not elected by a majority.
Used a direct communication channel to supporters.
Constant blame of others, dividing on racial lines.
Relentless demonization of opponents.
Unceasing attacks on objective truth.
Demonization and ridicule of the press.
Attacks on and distortions of science.
Lies that blur reality–and satisfy bigots who then spread them.
Orchestrations of mass rallies to show status
Extreme nationalism.
Boasting of closing borders.
Embracing mass detentions and deportations.
Using closed borders to protect selected industries.
Cementing rule by enriching elite allies.
Rejecting international norms.
Attacks on democratic processes.
Attacks on the judiciary and rule of law.
Glorify the military and demand loyalty oaths.
Proclaim unchecked power.
Relegate women to subordinate roles.

Now tell me just whom writer Burt Neuborne had in mind when he compiled that list in his book, When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic: Hitler, Trump, or all of the above?

That’s way more in common than apples have with oranges, and still we might add another formidable, tell-tale list:

Alliances with dictators and contempt for elected leaders of free countries.
Suggested threats of violence against opponents at home.
A constant show of machismo rage.
Constant repetition.
Campaigning with a promise of retribution (vergeltung as one kept saying).
Rehearsing poses, expressions, and gestures in front of mirrors…

Just how much more does anyone want? Most unnerving about Neuborne’s book is that it was published four years ago, and yet we were still under this thrall that allowed for no comparison. Perhaps we still are.

So easy to make jokes about the mugshot. Especially now that it is being sold on shirts and coffee mugs with the boast of “Never Surrender!” when we know that it was taken when he literally surrendered to law enforcement at Georgia’s Fulton County Jail.

And just why did they allow him to state his own height and weight as well as posing for what is now a fund-raising PR prop?

Someone on social media likened it to “The Kubrick Stare,” showing it with similar poses of deranged, violent charcters in his films, Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, and The Shining. Yes, that’s good for a harrowing laugh–and laughter serves a purpose–but there’s a more helpful comparison to be made.

Within three years of Hitler’s demise, George Orwell wrote 1984. Clearly a cautionary tale against the rise of another Hitler or Mussolini, it described a nation where a stern image of its leader, Big Brother, was posted everywhere the public might look. The expression conveyed almighty power, strength, and control–not just of action, but of thought.

It also conveyed the claim, “I alone can do it,” yet another boast common to both Hitler and Trump.

A cautionary tale? Hate to say it, but 1984 has been taken as a blueprint. Joke about the mugshot all you want, but realize that it already serves them as propaganda. “Never Surrender”? Forget the obvious lie, forget the 215 lbs., and forget the elevator shoes that make 6’3″ possible.

It’s not what the MAGA crowd actually believes, it’s about what they want to believe. Until we lift all bans on comparisons, as well as on laughter, we will have to endure it.

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