The Chemistry of Charlottesville

During the years 1966-1967, I studied in Freiburg, Germany, in a program sponsored by the University of Wisconsin. One evening, I was walking through a little village in the Black Forest.  Everyone was heading toward the main street, so I followed them.  There I witnessed a procession that made me feel uneasy.  A torch parade, a Fackelzug, marched through the village.  The nature of the event was innocent—I don’t remember the occasion; perhaps it took place in honor of a saint.  As an American, my sole knowledge of Fackelzüge came from old newsreels depicting Nazi marches during the Third Reich. 

I still remember the feeling that came over me so long ago: a catch in the throat, a brief touch of nausea; for a moment it was as if I had been transported to 1930s Nuremberg, witnessing one of those infamous Nazi rallies.  I couldn’t watch it; I left rapidly.   

Torch parades have existed since medieval times in the German-speaking world, often with a connection to university life.  Hitler, however, gave them evil connotations, as he did to so many aspects of life in Germany.  The torch parade I witnessed occurred only about twenty years after the war—Some of the older people marching could well have marched in Nazi parades as well, I thought with a shudder.  As an American and philo-Semite, I imagine I felt much like an African American  does, when passing a statue of Robert E. Lee in a town square.

Two years later, I was living in Yorkville, a New York City neighborhood which at the time still had a very distinct German flavor. For instance, I remember having lunch many times at the Berlin Bar on the corner of 85^th Street and 3^rd Avenue; I also remember buying cookies with a friend, who was visiting me from Germany, at the Kleine Konditorei, a block away.  When the young lady at the counter asked what we wanted, my friend, pointing to some cookies on display, asked me, Wie heissen sie?--What are they called—Kooookies?? The young lady at the counter thereupon switched to German.  There was a lot of German spoken in Yorkville in those days.)

My apartment was between 2^nd and 3^rd aveneues on 85^th street.  One day, when I was about to turn the corner, onto 2^nd avenue, I noticed a few men waving flags that had fascist insignia on them. They were right-wing radicals, trying to start a new movement.  The inhabitants, however,  had had enough with the Nazis.  Nobody followed them—I remember it well—nobody followed them; we, in fact, booed them along.  There were only about three of them, which as far as neo-Nazis are concerned, were three more than enough. They quickly gave up, got in their truck and drove off.

Fifty years later, I was confronted by this image, all over the news, of a neo-Nazi march and demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia:

In case you are unfamiliar with the details, I will provide a brief summary.  The city of Charlottesville decided to remove, for obvious reasons, a statue of Robert E. Lee from a city park.  The organizer of “Unite the Right”—I refuse to mention his name—got a permit for a protest march.  On the evening of August 10, 2017, approximately 500 hundred neo-Nazis had crawled out of the nation’s woodwork and descended on Charlottesville.  As they approached the park the next day, waving flags emblazoned with swastikas, they were met by counter-protesters.  Violence broke out.  The nadir of the rally was the death of a young counter-protester, Heather Heyer, when a neo-Nazi terrorist deliberately rammed his car into the antifascist  crowd, killing her and wounding nineteen others.

The is a the face of an American terrorist, James Alex Fields, Jr.:

My intention is not to write about the riot; I wasn’t there and many fine journalists have given vivid accounts.  My intention is to help explain why this riot occurred.  What I see as a very significant cause of the rise of the right-wing has been, in my opinion, virtually ignored by everyone.  I felt obliged to bring this to the nation's attention.

The Chemistry of Charlottesville

A well-known chemical reaction is as follows:

AgNO3 + KCL → AgCl + KNO3

This equation indicates that when liquid silver nitrate is added to a potassium chloride solution, silver choride will precipitate out of the solution as a sold white mass.  This is a phenomenon of nature that can be replicated anywhere. Societal equations are less exact, but they are phenomena of human nature nevertheless and can be replicated (inexactly) anywhere as well.  In the societal version of the above equation, KCL is replaced by current economic  conditions, while AgNo3 is replaced by income inequality. Add income inequality to the status quo and a precipitate will result, each one representing a number of citizens who feel disenfranchised.  In the chemical reaction, a white mass results, which responds to the result of the human equation as applied to the United States quite nicely, indicating an increasing number of angry whites.  Just as when a lot of silver nitrate is added to the solution, lots of silver nitrate will arise, the amount of radicalized citizens is directly proportional to the increase of income inequality.  There will always be income inequality, a historically normal amount will produce unnoticeable results.  But when it reaches a critical amount,  radicals will appear in all cities and towns.  (I’m not only talking about neo-Nazis and white supremacists here; the bulk of the precipitate is composed of voters who let their anger trump their ability to make a rational choice.)

      This graph shows the exponential increase of inequality in the U.S.since 1979

Germany is well aware of the havoc economic instability can cause.  They know that the severe depression and inflation of the 1920s and 1930s helped elect a madman.  The German government was recently so afraid of inflation that they refused aid to Greece until the budget of that country became more balanced.  We don’t seem to see the connection between economic misery and the rise of the alt-right.  In most of the recent newspaper articles about the Charlottesvile debacle I’ve read, the cause is simply a matter of whites refusing to accept diversity and wanting unlimited white privilege.  They are demonized and thus dismissed.  Yes, white supremacists are indeed guilty of demonic behavior, but failure to pay attention to the societal equation we have discussed is not wise.

The white supremacists chanted, "You will not replace us, Jews will not replace us," as they marched through Charlottesville, indicating their economic anxiety as well as their vile hate.

That increasing income inequality tends to cause increasing radicalization is well known. In an article by Seyward Darby in the September 2017 issue of Harper's, this phenomenon is addressed:

...Societal science research sheds some light on the (alt-right) movement's appeal to individuals who profess to be seeking truth of purpose.  The work of the political scientists Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent suggests that people who experience anxiety and loss of control over their personal circumstances are more likely to adopt fringe beliefs.  This March, psychologists at Princeton published a study showing that ostracism also enhances the belief in conspiracy theories.
                                     --page 27

When I practiced pediatrics, I was confronted over the years by many cases of child abuse.  Child abuse of young children is usually inflicted by mothers, since they usually have the burden of child care at this age.  Once I ordered a bone scan of a child suspected of abuse.  It revealed multiple fractures, in various stages of healing, which just about clinches the diagnosis.  It is normal to be angry with the mother who inflicted these injuries--but anger doesn’t help to resolve the problem.  Although one might be reluctant to do so, the best results are obtained when the well-being of the mother is of primary concern, once the safety and recovery of the child has been assured.  Social workers might see to it that the abuser gets more social support; they will think of such things as helping her get a job, helping her get day-care for the child, helping her to further her education, etc.  Once the abuser’s stress is decreased and her sense of self-worth is increased, she is likely to become a much better parent.  White supremacists are no different. Those who have meaningful work at a living wage tend to be happier and happier people tend to be more tolerant. We, therefore, don’t need further reductions in taxes for the very wealthy; we need such things as more funds for education, a New-Deal type program to repair our failing infrastructure, etc, etc.

It’s time to introduce another white terrorist:

Paul Ryan, the current Speaker of the House, is representative of just about all Republicans; he and they are doing their best to increase the income inequality in this county.  Decreasing taxation on the very rich and shrinking the safety net at a time like this is nothing short of violence against those at the lower end of the income scale. 

A good example is the recent  Republican attempt to rescind the Affordable Care Act, a bill which narrowly missed being passed.  Ryan, of course, voted in favor of repealing Obamacare.  The New England Journal of Medicine estimated that for every 455 people who lose health care, one death per year would result.  If passed, the Republican bill would, by conservative estimates, cause twenty million people to lose their health insurance.  The result would be the deaths of over 43,000 people a year!

James Alex Fields, Jr. killed one person; Ryan, if he had his way, would be responsible for the deaths of thousands!  Which is more dangerous, lone wolves or a pack of wolves in business suits?

Sure, Ryan’s terrorism is of a different kind; he is articulate, dresses well, and is quite affable.  He appears to be a model citizen.  But he isn’t. 

The proper response to his gentleman’s terrorism should, of course, be quite different from the response to the terrorism of the misfit who murdered Heather Hyer.  The latter deserves to be thrown in jail, while Ryan and his ilk deserve to be thrown—that is voted—out of office. If we want fewer James Alex Fields in our midst, that’s what we must do.