Over the last couple of weeks I read these two books. Robert Reich’s book “Coming Up Short” and Naomi Klein’s book “Doppelganger.”
Reich’s title is a play on the fact that he is extraordinarily short (just under 5 feet tall) and the fact that our democracy has come up way short in recent years. I agree, and it was quite interesting to hear his fact-based analysis.
Klein’s book uses her study of doppelgangers (mirrors of herself, ourselves) to study issues as varied as conspiracy theories and the influence of US history on Hitler.
They are both clearly liberals, frustrated and/or disappointed with where we stand today, critical of how our society encouraged the rise of Donald Trump and insistent that he is the result, not the cause of our current clear abandonment of global leadership, integrity and respect for democracy.
Reich is a former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, professor at Harvard and Berkley and author of many books. I listened on Audible to this, his latest book, because he narrated it, so I got to hear it all in his voice. Reich is extraordinary – articulate, bright as a button and he must have been a wonderful teacher. He recounts how US political and economic issues have led us to where we are today, over the last 40 years. Democrats and Republicans both have ignored the important needs to most citizens, succumbing to the big money offered by our wealthiest. It could be seen as bribery, the way people like Musk, Thiel and others have spent millions on politicians, influencing their attention in extraordinary ways. Reich argues that people feeling ignored and left behind was a natural consequence, and he affixes blame to his own boss Clinton as well as Bush and Trump. His observations and analysis are absorbing and I highly recommend this book. Somehow we need to get back to paying attention to the full populace in this country. The separation and divisiveness of the wealthy has created a mess, is leading to fascism, and reactions to it are understandable.
In her book, Naomi Klein gets a little whiny about her doppelganger Naomi Wolf. Klein explains that many people have confused the two Naomis, which clearly (and understandably) bothers Klein immensely. You see, Naomi Wolf started as a voice for women, a liberal voice, but when she found influence via some crazy conspiracy theories during covid, she gravitated. Soon Wolf was a regular guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast show, a far right-wing group, seeking maximum attention, and encouraging a variety of silly conspiracy theories about vaccines and many other topics. Klein pays great attention to Bannon and Wolf, claiming that not paying attention is like “kids who think the world disappears when they close their eyes.” Point made.
Did Hitler actually copy his theories about eugenics, the superiority of the white population and the need to establish their superiority, from the Americans? The answer seems to me – from a variety of readings from history (not just Klein) is yes. The American treatment of blacks and native Americans provides a clear path that Hitler took even further. There is little call for a sense of superiority in the USA, even as we express appropriate disgust at the callousness of the Germans in the 1940s. Our attempts at genocide on the indigenous peoples and our advantage taken of black people are shameful parts of our past that we still struggle to deal with. We feel sympathy for the jews, which is well deserved…but none for the Palestinians, displaced by those very jews, and also treated quite badly. I learned about Bundism v Zionism. The Bunds believed that nationalism itself is the enemy, and the wellspring of race hatred.
What does this all have to do with doppelgangers? It’s a stretch, in my view, but she argues that it has led to distorted reality, a mirror society, and has led to the divisive politics of identity and of the climate crisis. It’s a lot, and I do little justice to Naomi Klein in this post – she is a brilliant, engaging and clear writer – worth reading.
mikesteinharter.com 