For many people, their only revolution is limited to waiting.

They just passively wait for something to happen, hoping that changes will come miraculously.

However, as the saying goes, "I tell you, no one has as many friends as the revolutionary. Nor as many enemies!"

A true revolutionary is not one who simply waits.

Instead, he or she takes action, challenges the status quo, and is willing to face all kinds of difficulties and obstacles.

The revolutionary has the courage to pursue his or her ideals and is not afraid of the opposition and criticism from others.

In fact, it is precisely because of the existence of revolutionaries that society can progress and develop.

They are the driving force behind social change and the ones who bring hope and light to the world.

So, let us not just be those who wait for revolution.

Instead, let us become revolutionaries ourselves and take the initiative to create a better future.

201015:

It has a good premise and plot, but the prose is rather ordinary. Perhaps the mundane, folksy, mainstream American prose has a way of lulling the reader into a false sense of comfort and familiarity.

That is, once the politics come into play, it becomes sharp, scary, and all too "common American," magnified several magnitudes. It is easy to read, but it's not my favorite political writing.

Although I might think very much like the "liberal" journalist, I hope I would be more alert and take action sooner than he does. However, this is a situation I have never faced, fortunately.

Maybe it's because I haven't been exposed to such extreme political scenarios in my own life.

Nonetheless, it's important to be aware of the power of words and the potential impact they can have on our perceptions and actions.

As readers, we should always approach political writing with a critical eye and not be too easily swayed by the prose or the author's perspective.

We need to think for ourselves and make our own judgments based on the facts and our own values.

** Part of my 2023 reading challenge to read the books I bought in 2022 and never read **

** A Used Book Monthly book selection **

This book is a part of my 2023 reading challenge. In 2022, I bought quite a few books, but unfortunately, some of them remained unread. So, this year, I have decided to take on the challenge of reading those books. This particular book is also a selection from the Used Book Monthly. After reading it, I would rate it 3.5 stars. It has its strengths and weaknesses. The story is engaging enough to keep me interested throughout, but there are also some parts that could have been developed better. However, overall, it was a worthwhile read and I'm glad I finally got around to it as part of this challenge.

** Part of my 2023 reading challenge to read the books I bought in 2022 and never read **

** A Used Book Monthly book selection **

3.5 stars

Our times are filled with a complex web of challenges and uncertainties.

We live in an era where information is abundant, yet misinformation spreads like wildfire. Technology has advanced at an unprecedented pace, bringing both convenience and new forms of control.

The blurring of boundaries between the public and private spheres, along with the constant surveillance, eerily resembles the dystopian world描绘 in "1984".

There is a terrifying possibility that we could gradually lose our freedoms and individuality, becoming mere cogs in a machine.

Our thoughts and actions could be monitored and manipulated, leaving us with no true autonomy.

As we move forward, it is crucial that we remain vigilant and fight to protect the values and rights that are so dear to us.

Otherwise, we may find ourselves living in a world that is all too similar to the nightmare Orwell envisioned.

It Can't Happen Here (1935) is a highly prescient commentary on American society in the mid-1930s by Sinclair Lewis, a Nobel Prize for Literature laureate. The story is about a fictional fascist government's rise in the USA during that time, in a society that was deep in socio-economic turmoil and insecure. This novel is very rich and requires the reader to be attentive. It is highly recommended, especially for politically-minded readers. However, if you are just looking for a light read to enjoy at night, another book might be more suitable.

In Europe, the Great War had a profound impact, sweeping away empires and creating new countries. In the two decades after the war, various political movements emerged, including socialist, Communist, fascist, and Nazi. In Russia and Italy, Stalin and Mussolini gained control, while in Germany, Hitler and Nazism rose to power. The specter of totalitarianism and unsettled socio-economics led many intellectuals, scientists, and ordinary people to emigrate from Europe, especially Germany. My parents arrived in the US in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, and all my extended European family died during the war.
The events in Europe were closely watched in the US, as the same forces were also at work there. The prosperity of the 1920s gave way to the stock market crash and economic collapse in 1929, which had a significant impact on the country. Companies collapsed, and many people lost their jobs. Unions and socialist and Communist movements competed for the hearts and minds of the masses, while right-wing movements promised solutions through strong leaders. In this tumultuous environment, some people wondered about the political future of the US, while others were quick to assert that "it can't happen here." The McCarthy Era in the 1950s, with its Communist witch hunts, showed that Sinclair Lewis had been right to presage the possibility of a fascist government in the US.
It Can't Happen Here occurs mainly in rural Vermont, where we meet the protagonist, Doremus Jessup, a principled but innocuous editor-owner of the local newspaper. We also meet his family and friends, as well as some real-life personalities like President Franklin Roosevelt and Upton Sinclair. Social and economic dissatisfaction and unrest are also present in Fort Beulah, Vermont. In 1936, the fictitious Berzilius "Buzz" Windrip wins the presidency with an unrealistic platform and uses his power to introduce a new corporatist system. Doremus, who adheres to his democratic-liberal principles, becomes an underground anti-corpo publicist and faces many hardships.
This book was published in 1935, which means that Sinclair Lewis had been thinking about these issues for a long time. He understood the currents in America and constructed a plausible scenario for the rise of a fascist government. The lessons we can draw from this book are that we must be vigilant and nurture the institutions, values, and democratic processes on which our country is based. We must resist those who would distort our democracy for their own ends and insist that our leaders tell us the truth and refrain from manipulating power.

It Can. It is.

This book, "It Can't Happen Here", is truly the Nostradamus of our political past, present, and potential future.

Check out GoodReads' stats for this remarkable work: https://www.goodreads.com/book/stats?...

If you happen to view those stats in the future, when the graph no longer reaches back to 11/8/2016, you will have missed the enormous spike in activity on this site for this book. Before the truly momentous, astounding, and absolutely fucking unbelievable election of 11/9/2016, interest in this book was rather pedestrian. It was being shelved as to-be-read around 8 to 12 times a day on average. However, the day Trump was elected, it skyrocketed to 174 and has remained in the dozens, if not hundreds, ever since.

Why is this the case? Because "It Can't Happen Here", written way back in 1935, parallels almost precisely what is happening right now. At times, it's eerily similar. The political tactics, attitudes, slogans, and so much more mirror what is being said and done here and now, on both sides of the left/right divide.

You might think you already know all about it, so why bother reading the book? After all, you're living through it. Well, perhaps your eyes aren't as open as you believe. In fact, that's a significant part of the problem. So, open your eyes wide and read this book...before it gets burned.

It can't happen here. Not in America. Surely, we believe that our country is built on strong democratic principles and values that would prevent any such catastrophe from occurring.

But unfortunately, it can and it does. Senator Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip emerges as a candidate for president, campaigning on a platform to restore American prosperity and its stature in the world. His charisma and promises quickly capture the hearts and minds of the people, and he gains popularity at an alarming rate.

Within days of his election, Windrip and his cohorts begin to take drastic measures. They shut down the legislative and judicial branches of government, claiming it is for the greater good of the country. Newspapers are silenced and then reestablished under their control, ensuring that only their version of the truth is heard. A citizen's military, the Minute Men, is formed, and soon, thugs are running amok, terrorizing the nation. The unemployed are herded into labor camps, and dissidents are thrown into concentration camps. The common people, fearing for their lives and the lives of their families, either keep their mouths shut or face the harsh consequences of prison or death.

"It Can't Happen Here" presents a shocking and disturbing picture of a world that is rapidly turned upside down by those hungry for power. It is a tragic story that reveals the dark side of America, where lies and falsehoods prevail, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish what is true. It serves as a frightening reminder of how easily people can be swayed by an agenda that sounds appealing but ultimately leads to destruction. This cautionary tale should serve as a wake-up call for us all, urging us to remain vigilant and protect the democratic ideals that we hold dear.

“There is no solution! There will never be a state of society anything like perfect!”

\\n  Michael Meyer’s forward to the edition I happened to read suggested that Sinclair Lewis “found a ready-made plot in the nervous undercurrent that accompanied the volatile politics of the period. With the rise of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Europe and the alarming popularity of a variety of demagogues from both the left and right in the United States, there was widespread concern that the country could be taken over by a fascist dictatorship. Lewis placed these fears at the center of IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE”\\n


Modern democracy is a frail entity that requires constant vigilance, nourishment, and active renewal. This novel, although not a thrilling page-turner in the traditional sense, is deeply disturbing and nauseating due to the accuracy of its prescience, its timelessness, its realism and credibility, and its universal application in a 21st-century world flirting with far-right neo-fascism.
It is hard to believe that this was written nearly a century ago and that Sinclair Lewis did not have a crystal ball to see over Trump’s shoulder and witness the USA flirting with self-destruction and the creation of a Fourth Reich – an authoritarian, neo-Nazi theocracy that will inevitably shred the Constitution, democracy, and the rule of law if he is given the keys to the White House.
Consider Sinclair’s musings on Windrip, the eponymous demagogue who would be king: “Yes. Nasty enough. But what I’ve got to keep remembering is that Windrip is only the lightest cork on the whirlpool. He didn’t plot all this thing. With all the justified discontent there is against the smart politicians and the Plush Horses of Plutocracy – oh, if it hadn’t been one Windrip, it’d been another … we had it coming.” Intelligent and thoughtful readers should apply this comment to today’s American culture and its misguided worship of wealth and capitalism and note that defeating Trump is only a necessary condition, not a panacea, for solving the problems currently plaguing the USA.
On the nature of right-wing politics to decrease tolerance, sew divisiveness, and breed xenophobia, Sinclair writes, “Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.” And a reprise of the earlier observation, “We had it coming.” It becomes clear that the installation of a fascist government will not be a revolution or coup d’état; rather, the groundwork for fascism has already been laid in the ideological worldviews of the majority of Americans. The response to the claim “It can’t happen here” is “It already has.”
I wholeheartedly agree with the opinions that this is “a vigorous antifascist tract” and the New York Times Book Review comment that it is “exciting reading, even if it does nothing to advance Mr Lewis’s art as a novelist.” IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE must be considered mandatory reading for every American alive today. And it would certainly not hurt the world’s future if it had a wider readership in modern Europe as well. Definitely recommended.

Paul Weiss