This cartoon is from The New Yorker (free sub to their humor).

I’ve Never Been Happier.

What struck me about this cartoon and why I am posting it here is this.  As I see it, denial of the ongoing effects of climate change, denial of the need to have followed basic anti-plague measures, denial of the need to do something about gun control, denial of the need for women  to choose, and denial of the very real problems with nuclear energy etc., etc., etc. looks like this to me.

What I see are justices who should be following the law make the law follow them.  The same for legislators and governors.  They all argue there is nothing to worry about; nothing to see here; nothing to be done without consequences we cannot accept.  In other words.  Hear no evil, see no evil,speak no evil,   

I was introduced to the Holocaust as a child (several of my friends growing up were children of survivors and my rabbi was a survivor).  I have been involved in human rights work all my life – happening in right and left autocracies and in this country and other democracies.

Today I see folly all across the political spectrum and a lack of recognition of the reality of the dangers of ideological thinking and the irresponsible pursuit of power and money by political parties.  

Fascism and Communism took over most of Europe because most people just could not be bothered or because they feared being punished for not going along.  It was and is always a minority involved in what is done violating human rights and a minority standing up against that.  The difference is in how most of the public responds.  In Chicago this was put in terms of seeing the wind as coming from the garden or the outhouse.  What is needed is a blend of idealism and practicality.  Too much of either, especially without the other, is where societies and nations succumb.