Death and Politics

[fabrisse]

My philosophy of death comes from John Donne, specifically from the poem beginning No Man is an Island, and the line:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind...

I cannot mourn Mr. Kirk for what he said; his rhetoric was abhorrent to me. I hate that I have a minor amount of schadenfreude because he said that the second amendment was worth all the gun deaths we have in this country every year. But I can say that his death diminishes me -- diminishes us as a country -- because he never had a chance to grow or learn and because he leaves young children behind.

I also have to say that ever since I learned about his roll recruiting the young to the more extreme sides of nationalism, I have had dread, the dread of recognition, tickle my historian brain.

Basically, I am worried that we may have collectively witnessed the origin of MAGA's Horst Wessel. (I really don't want a link to his wikipedia page in my blog, so feel free to look him up yourself.)

The myth of a young man, one who could reach out to other young people and draw them to 'the cause,' dying by violence was one that the Germans would recognize. The second that I heard of states and school boards putting Turning Point USA groups in all their high schools -- though whether they can if the students don't want them is anyone's guess -- the name Horst Wessel started knocking at my brain.

I worry. I think this is one where we should, collectively, be more worried. Every man's death may diminish me, but not everyone should be considered a martyr.

Comments

[dewline]

I will not mourn for Charlie Kirk.

I will not praise his murderer either.

[fabrisse]

That sums it up.