Book Review: Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum

Published in 2020, Anne Applebaum's Twilight of Democracy provides an insider's view of the authoritarian shift in Western politics, blending personal memoir with historical analysis. Applebaum has lived a cosmopolitan life as a journalist and writer of popular histories usually focused on Central Europe. She remains a center-right conservative on most issues and has watched with dismay as many in her former conservative circle have embraced anti-democratic politics.

Some Goodreads reviews I skimmed were not fond of the book due to Applebaum's tendency to blame the left in a book that's supposed to critique the right. For example, she connects the anti-establishment ethos of Trumpism to the '60s New Left and cites Vladimir Lenin as providing the playbook for modern populists like Steve Bannon who want to "drain the swamp" of liberal government bureaucrats and install their own apparatchiks. Meanwhile, there's a notable silence on the long history of racism in the American conservative movement, nor the harmful of economic policies of the Reagan years.

These criticisms aside, the book provides insight on authoritarian politics as a global phenomenon. The number of book length studies attempting to explain the rise of Trumpism in America are legion, and many are deeply insightful, but not many are from a transatlantic perspective. 

Applebaum begins the book recounting a New Year's Eve Party she and her husband hosted in 1999 outside of Warsaw. Twenty years later and many are no longer on speaking terms over politics. The end of history of euphoria at the turning of the Millennium turned out to be a brief respite from the political tensions of the 20th Century, many factors would turn people away from conventional politics:

The people described here range from nativist ideologues to high-minded political essayists; some of them write sophisticated books, other launch viral conspiracy theories. Some are genuinely motivated by the same fears, the same anger, and the same deep desire for unity that motivates their readers and followers. Some have been radicalized by angry encounters with the cultural left, or repulsed by the weakness of the liberal center. Some are cynical and instrumental, adopting radical or authoritarian language because it will bring them power or fame. Some are apocalyptic, convinced that societies have failed and need to be reconstructed . . . Some are deeply religious. Some enjoy chaos, or seek to promote chaos, as a prelude to imposing a new kind of order.

Chapters examine the changing politics of Eastern Europe, specifically Poland and Hungary. Transitioning from communism to democracy brought with it frustration at the slowness of change. In response scapegoats are singled out, misinformation and conspiracy theories proliferate, and a longing for an imagined past that never existed. All the worse tendencies of society are inflamed, xenophobia is usually at the top of the list. Viktor Orban's brand of politics in Hungary has proved a model for the right in Europe and America.

The longest chapter is on the leadup to Brexit in 2016. Exiting from the EU was embraced by many British conservatives who felt the United Kingdom was losing it identity. Many were former Thatcherites who missed the old days of the Cold War yet embraced people like Putin and Orban in their old age, and brought political chaos to their country. While there's yet to be something like the Axis powers of the 1940s, many in the West look to Russia, Hungary, and China as models they would like to impose on their societies. 

With another election less than a fortnight away, Trump is once again on the ballot and has a chance at winning. It goes without saying the consequences of another Trump presidency would be catastrophic for America and the world. Whether societies will find ways to adapt democracy to rapid technological and social change, or whether they will pursue their vilest instincts remains an unknown. Even though authoritarians often appear to have the upper hand, they are not invincible.

Applebaum argues for choosing our allies and friends with like minds who still believe in democracy. The problem of totalitarianism occupied intellectuals through the 20th Century and continues to haunt the 21st Century. Democracy has always existed under existential threat from at home and abroad and the challenge of the 21st century will be fostering its survival. 

Book Review: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

Published during the first decade of the 20th Century, The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad reads like an eerie premonition of things to come. The novel follows a terrorist cell of anarchists in London as they plot and debate ideology, while a parallel storyline follows law enforcement investigating the bombing at the center of the story. Considered one of the first modern political thrillers, Conrad uses the plot as a mechanism to interrogate the psychology of a complex metropolis under the power of forces no one comprehends.

A real incident inspired the novel, in 1894 there was a botched bombing of the Greenwich Observatory in which the bomber was the only casualty. The novel speculates on what led to the event and the complex machinations behind it. 

The splintered perspective of the novel is best symbolized by the protagonist Adolf Verloc, a middle- aged shop owner who plots with anarchists by night, and also spies for an unnamed foreign government.  His younger wife is oblivious to Verloc's secret life but admires him for saving her from a life of ceaseless labor and poverty. Winnie's mother also lives with them, along with her emotionally unstable younger brother Steve. 

Conrad structured the novel in a non-linear fashion, adding to its disjointed tone. Questions about the various forces that hold society together and threaten to rip it apart always lurk in the background, as Verloc walks through an affluent neighborhood on the way to meet his handlers, he reflects:

He surveyed through the park railings the evidences of the towns opulence and luxury with an approving eye. All these people had to be protected. Protection is the first necessity of opulence and luxury. They had to be protected; and their horses, carriages, houses, servants had to be protected and the source of their wealth had to be protected in the heart of the city and the heart of the country; the whole social order favorable to their hygienic idleness had to be protected against the shallow enviousness of unhygienic labor. (15-16)

A high degree of opulence will inspire both awe and envy, and alienation everywhere Conrad is concerned with the psychological underpinnings of such a society. Curiously, the radical characters in the novel are mostly middle-aged men with their youths far behind them. Their youthful idealism has calcified into something harsh and uncompromising. At one late night meeting, an aging anarchist reflects:

I have always dreamed . . .of a band of men absolute in their resolve to discard all scruples in the choice of means, strong enough to give themselves frankly the name of destroyers, and free from the taint of that resigned pessimism which rots the world. No pity for anything on earth, including themselves - and death - enlisted for good and all in the service of humanity - that's what I would have liked to see. (38)

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Heat investigates the bombing while contending with his ambitious new superior, the Assistant Commissioner. While the investigation goes smoothly after discovering a few leads, it's the uncovering of the motives that presents the challenge. For it's not a Sherlock Holmes situation when the solution easily follows logical reasoning, but one with so many levels it's unclear who's working with who, and whether even those involved understand their own motivations.

The heart of the novel is the domestic drama with Verloc's family. Winnie is the main female character and provides the emotion core of the story. She wants the best for her family, her sacrifices are of a different sort, for the betterment of her loved ones, as opposed to the abstract ideals of the anarchists. As things begin to unravel, she's driven to desperate and ultimately tragic acts. 

The fin de siècle world was one of diverse ideas and rapid change. The Secret Agent examines the psychological undercurrents of modernity, not necessarily by focusing on ideas and institutions, but on the people making their way within these modern systems. The vaguely dystopian London depicted in the novel, somewhere between Charles Dickens and Phillip K. Dick, directly connects to the alienations of the 21st Century and all its anxieties. 

(There have been many film and TV adaptations of the novel, including Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 film Sabotage)