Thank you for your interest in my music. My music is informed by an awareness of history and a desire for justice, so I’m going to share with you some of what I have been teaching in my Global History classes.
Before the holiday break, I introduced the topic of how fascism rose in Europe in the aftermath of World War 1, mass unemployment and hyperinflation. Students considered characteristics of fascism and how they might be evident in today’s world, including
"Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism"
"Disdain for the importance of human rights"
"Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause"
"The supremacy of the military/avid militarism"
"Rampant sexism"
"A controlled mass media"
"Religion and ruling elite tied together"
"Power of corporations protected"
"Power of labor suppressed or eliminated"
"Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts"
"Obsession with crime and punishment"
"Rampant cronyism and corruption"
"Fraudulent elections"
"Obsession with national security"
On January 6th, the chronology of my curriculum landed us on Kristallnacht, the event in November of 1938 when the Nazi party went from focusing on propaganda and laws discriminating against Jews, to terrorism and deportations. For inspiration and instruction, Hitler had been studying our Manifest Destiny tradition of occupying new territory and killing or removing its people, as well as our eugenics and Jim Crow policies. Since it was January 6th, I also shared Arnold Schwartzenegger’s video posted shortly after the 2021 event, where he compared the Capitol insurrection to Kristallnacht based on their similar mobilizations with lies spread by power. As we do with a variety of sources throughout the year, I asked students to consider the strengths and weaknesses of Scwartzenegger’s argument.
In another recent lesson we looked at perpetrators, bystanders and upstanders during the Holocaust, and I shared with students Dr. Martin Luther King’s quotes: “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it”, and “in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Among the stories studied that day was one of a German college professor:
One doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow.. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty..And one day, too late, your principles all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying “Jewish swine,” collapses it all at once, and you see that everything has changed and changed completely under your nose.. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed.
Like many of you, I am devastated by this day, and the ways in which it represents a failure of basic reason, truth, rule of law, accountability, optimism and decency in our country. Above all, I am terrified by this massive setback for our climate. That this shameful moment is taking place on the holiday celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offers both horror and hope. DJT and MLK share some notable overlaps – both children of relative privilege who followed in the footsteps of prominent fathers, both connected to Germany (DJT by ancestry, MLK by his namesake the 16th century Protestant reformer), both compromised by large egos and sexual appetites. Yet Trump benefits from America at its most small-minded, enabling and permissive – the mythology of masculine posturing, the delicate reliance on trust and good faith that undergirds our institutions and can be so carelessly exploited, the ready availability of litigation as to distract from accountability. Meanwhile King experienced – and at times, strategically provoked – America at its most brutal and hypocritical, but used the promise of our founding ideals to hold a mirror to what we were and what we could be. I encourage you to dig into King’s extensive writings, which reward readers with their moral clarity and erudition. Trump invites us to be worse. King inspires us to be better.
As I took a break from writing this message I saw these affirmations in my inbox. These are really good! What can we do? My favorites:
Be Brave
Cultivate Empathy
Stay Focused
Foster Real Connections
Avoid Brain Rot and Lies
Share a Positive Message Where Possible
Engage Young People
Learn From History
Support Artists and the Arts..
I for one am going to Stay Focused on climate justice, which intersects so powerfully with the mission of WhyHunger and the issues of fighting hunger and poverty that have framed my existence. I will work this year to activate all these principles as an educator and as a songwriter and performer. I hope you will join me.
There are so many excellent resources for truth and hope out there, but for today I will recommend
Climate Action Now for quick updates and actions https://www.climateactionnow.com/
Zeteo https://zeteo.com/
Letters From an American https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
The Bulwark https://www.thebulwark.com/
Chop Wood, Carry Water https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
PS. Next weekend the Jen Chapin Trio performs with the Chapin Family in Union NJ and Wilmington DE, and the J. Chapes Jazz Band has Brooklyn and Manhattan shows in February. Information and links for these and other upcoming events through October are available at https://www.jenchapin.com/tour
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