In 1941, as Allied bombs fell on Italy and Benito Mussolini plunged his country deeper into war, young Italian filmmaker Alberto Lattuada explained how 20 years of fascist rule had led to catastrophe.
“The absence of love brought with it many tragedies that could have been avoided,” Lattuada wrote. “Instead of the golden shower of love, a black blanket of indifference fell upon the people. And so the people have lost The eyes of love and they can no longer see clearly… Here is the origin of the disintegration of all values and the destruction and sterilization of conscience: it is a long chain that is anchored to the feet of the devil.”
Today, love seems to be in short supply again, as autocracy spreads across the globe and our vision is clouded by the fog of misinformation and the heat of enmity. Authoritarian leaders seek to break the bonds of solidarity among those they rule, replacing them with intimidation and hostility. Former President Trump, who aspires to join their ranks, has pursued a similar strategy to make America’s emotional and social climate conducive to autocracy.
But love remains a potent anti-authoritarian force. In Turkey, Poland and elsewhere, democratic activists and politicians have pushed back against tyranny by making love a central part of their strategies. joy and optimismLove, a hallmark of Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign, can also sustain an American pro-democracy movement.
Love is an act and a feeling, as bell hooks says. observedIt motivates us to defend our rights and to advocate for a policy of equity, justice, transparency and solidarity. Love supports resistance to autocracy in places where freedom has been lost and can help endangered democracies like ours to turn their course.
Autocrats often use emotions for political purposes, evoking fear, contempt and disgust to define groups through exclusion. Trump has encouraged Americans to trade kindness and empathy for hostility and callousness. “Part of the problem,” Trump said. saying When security guards treated protesters at a 2016 demonstration too gently for him, “nobody wants to get hurt anymore.”
Trump's recent depictions of immigrants as blood contaminant invaders and their political opponents as “vermin“Continue cultivating cruelty among its base. The fury of the civilian army that instigated the storming of the Capitol, the rise in hate crimes and the escalation threats against public officials, including assassination attempts against Trump himself, suggest that millions of Americans now view violence as a legitimate Response to political differences. Fascist repression was based on similar beliefs.
But I believe the United States is ripe for a heart-centered mass movement. A national campaign that explicitly elevates solidarity, kindness, tolerance and empathy as core values of a multiracial democracy — and puts forward policies based on care and compassion — will likely resonate with many voters.
Love could act as a bonding agent, creating the unity that is key to the success of pro-democracy movements. It could unite religious leaders, civil rights activists, and patriots into a dynamic coalition. Slogans like “Let's Make America Love Again“could compete with the formidable propaganda machine of the far right. Love would attract people bored of dry political debates and help disenchanted voters Reconnecting with politics.
Those who resist authoritarianism know the power of love to bring about change. Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition candidate in Istanbul’s 2019 mayoral election, made “radical love” the centerpiece of his victory speech. Campaign against a candidate backed by Turkey's autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We had two simple rules,” saying Imamoglu's campaign manager Ates Ilyas Bassoy: “Ignore Erdogan and love those who love him.”
Imamoglu, an observant Muslim with liberal views, avoided mass demonstrations and negative messages, walking the streets and “engaging directly with people, no matter what their ideology,” he said. countedHugging voters in cafes, mosques and parks, he established connection and trust.
Three years later, Imamoglu was sentenced He was sentenced to more than two years in prison to prevent him from running as an opposition presidential candidate. He was allowed to run for re-election as mayor and won.
Love and optimism have also driven pro-democracy campaigns in Eastern Europe. “We love, we can, we will win” became the slogan slogan of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's challenge to Belarusian despot Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. Love led the Polish opposition's Civic Coalition to victory last year. The campaign attracted Young voters in particular were enthusiastic about the promise of liberalising abortion laws (which Poland almost completely banned in 2021), but Poles of all ages sported heart logos as they took part in record numbers in the March of a Million Hearts.
“When I see this sea of hearts, I can feel that a decisive moment in the history of our homeland is approaching,” said opposition leader Donald Tusk, now Poland’s prime minister. said The demonstration. The sentiment fueled the country's highest voter turnout since 1989, ending eight years of far-right rule.
Americans can find parallel examples in our own history. Civil rights leaders certainly knew that love can seem like a feeble weapon against brutal oppression: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that he once “lost hope in the power of love to solve social problems.” Then he heard Howard University president Mordecai Wyatt Johnson lecture about Mahatma Gandhi, whose conceptions of nonviolent protest as a “force of love,” along with Christian love, animated a transformative movement.
“In the course of life, someone must have enough common sense and morality to cut the chain of hatred,” King wrote, echoing the language Lattuada used to describe the ripple effects of enmity under Mussolini. “This can only be achieved by projecting the ethic of love into the center of our lives.”
Il Duce once told a journalist the secret of his success: “Keep your heart in the desert.” Today’s strongmen, including Trump, take the same gloomy view. It is our turn to prove them wrong by cutting the chain of hatred and reaching out to others with “eyes of love.”
The joy of Harris’s campaign has given Americans a much-needed positive boost, but love may be the transcendent, unifying concept that motivates mass participation. Love insists that we are valuable beings who deserve leaders who respect us and promote our well-being, not tyrants who cheat us, steal from us, imprison us, and kill us. We already know what hate can do; it’s time to harness the immense power of love.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and the author, most recently, of “Strong men: Mussolini to the present day.”
