It's so easy to forget that authoritarianism is often not brought on against a people, but through their very support. The book burnings of the past were not th

It's so easy to forget that authoritarianism is often not brought on against a people, but through their very support. The book burnings of the past were not the product of an unpopular government forcibly purging 'inconveniences'. Burnings were joyous events where people celebrated 'purifying' themselves and their culture by removal of newly unacceptable influences. "No to decadence and moral corruption! Yes to decency and morality in family and state! I consign [these books] to the flames..." That was spoken by Joseph Goebbels to raucous applause in a crowd of tens of thousands as they celebrated the new and improved morality of the German State, in 1933. In America we've started down the exact same path, but people accept it because think they believe that banning and burning flags, destroying statues, banning books (see: e.g. Mark Twain), and now destroying art are part of some grand effort to bring about a new morality and new vision for the nation. Instead we just continue down paths that have been tread many a time before yet ever refusing to consider the parallels because, after all, this time it will be different.