Russian autocracy and American democracy

Bret Stephens, "When Fiction Most Becomes Trump: A character to challenge the best writers," The New York Times, Dec. 28, 2018; see also (1)

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Excerpt:

Just as Trump’s presidency is a saga of epic political disruption, Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” tells a story of what happens when the devil and his retinue arrive in a capital city that is so full of its own moral certitudes that it thinks it can deny the possibility of his existence.

Even a resurrected Bulgakov, however, would have trouble recasting his professorial Satan as a cheap and heedless reality-show star. As an alternative, Nina Khrushcheva of The New School suggests I take a close look at Nikolai Gogol, particularly his 1836 play “The Government Inspector.”

It’s the story of an out-of-towner named Ivan Khlestakov — a civil servant of no great means or talent but with spendthrift habits and unlimited chutzpah — who is mistakenly taken by the corrupt local mayor as a secret government inspector. Khlestakov takes advantage of the mistake to extract big loans from the locals, bully the mayor, and run off with his daughter. His imposture is revealed only after he’s left town.

“There is no direct comparison” between Russian autocracy and American democracy, Khrushcheva acknowledges. “And yet there is some resemblance to the Russian reality — the idiot is sitting on top of you, spouting orders and tweets, and you have to tolerate his presence and even call the moron your president.”

Can nothing be done? The cliché about Russian literature is that it has a tendency toward fatalism, whereas what we really need is literature that supplies remedies. That’s especially so when it comes to Trump’s codependent relationship with the news media. The more he drives us nuts, the more attention we give him. The more we give him, the more he’s inclined to drive us nuts — a classic vicious cycle. ...