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Bookchat: Dickens Understood MAGA as if He Could Read Chromosomes [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-22
Welcome to bookchat! Where you can talk about anything; books, plays, essays, and audio books. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
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My Sister lent to me The Mystery of Charles Dickens, a biography by A.N. Wilson. I could provide a review, but, no, I hated it. It’s bloody awful. In a text message back to her, I wrote:
Despite all of this pain and boredom you have caused me, I love you very much. Signed, Your Cool Brother
I will run the book back to you tomorrow before I do something libracidal to it.
I read something short of half the book, skipping around, until I realized that the only redeeming insights it had to offer, unless quarrelsome gossip is your tea, were the quotations OF DICKENS. So, I realized, why don’t I just reread one of his novels? I guess that is the second gift you gave to me.
When I read a good book, I am compelled to research the subject. When I read a bad book, I am compelled to research the writer. I found myself on his Wikipedia page:
That tracks.
By a happy coincidence, I chose to reread Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens. It is a fictionalized historical novel based around the 1780 Gordon Riots in London. You see, the English Parliament was about to finalize the Papist Act, which would return some basic rights to Catholics.
The Protestant Association, led by Lord George Gordon, sought to present a petition to Parliament advocating against the Papist Act. Lord Gordon traveled about the island (and especially Scotland) to drum up support for his actions.
His speeches were said to be unbalanced and borderline insane.
And yet, on June 2, 1780, he stood on a field surrounded by at least 40,000 angry men ready to march into London across the Thames via the London, Blackfriars and Westminster bridges and present his petition to the House of Commons.
Instead, a seven-day riot broke out.
COMPARISONS TO TRUMP AND JANUARY 6
It was almost immediately resolved in my mind that Charles Dickens was basically describing the J6 Insurrection. Dickens understood MAGA and its malignant leader as if he could read chromosomes.
There were the bigoted speeches mentioned above, and there were pamphlets and handbills (the social media of the time). There was an inflammatory topic sure to rile up the less educated. There was fear.
Fear of the other. Catholics. A new Inquisition. The Pope and his “Popery.”
In his January 6 speech, Trump offered a pig slop trough of others. “Big Tech,” the Fake Media, “radical left Democrats,” the “Chiner virus,” and always underlying everything were “the caravans,” the folks who would cross the border and supplant white people (“Democrats ... threw open our borders.”). A bigot or idler could poke their snout into that trough and find at least one hateful and rancid morsel to their taste.
After riling up his “King Mob” in the morning, Lord Gordon marched with them through London and to government buildings and watched as they began to dismantle them.
The orange traitor told his mob,
“And after this, we're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you, we're going to walk down, we're going to walk down…. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing…. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building….”
The English government buildings were carefully scouted in the days before the riot/insurrection. Republican members of Congress provided tours for their constituents and interested others before the Insurrection.
Note the “No Popery” banner amid the conflagration.
Dickens wrote about the initial motivation behind the Protestant mob’s action: “[W]hen they marched down there in grand array, their roars and shouts would be heard by the members inside.” This show of power would cause Parliament to afford grave consideration to their petition.
This was the least reprehensible of MAGA’s goals on January 6.
The Associated Press reported: “As danger neared, and as the rioters were trying to break down the doors, they called their families. They scrambled for makeshift weapons and mentally prepared themselves to fight. Many thought they might die.”
From Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge:
”[H]is friend asked him … whether he was prepared for a good hot piece of work if it should come to that. ‘The hotter the better,’ said Hugh, ‘I’m prepared for anything.’—‘So am I,’ said his friend, ‘and so are many of us….’”
One of the January 6th criminals wrote this prior to his crimes: “You better be ready chaos is coming and I will be in DC on 1/6/2021.” On a forum monitored by DHS, they found multiple threats to “set fire to the Capitol building” and other “violent actions” in the 48 hours preceding the Insurrection.
The one-word description employed by the National Portrait Gallery to describe the life and work of Lord George Gordon: “Agitator.”
Lord Gordon’s rioters wore a blue cockade on their hats or jackets. Something akin to the red MAGA hat.
His rioters followed behind “No Popery” banners held up like their ancestors would later wave their Swastikas, Stars and Bars, “Trump” and “Stop the Steal” flags.
Lord Gordon sought to persuade—and infect—“the mass of people out of doors.” He described his power over these “plaguy ill-looking characters” as follows:
“They may cough and jeer, and groan in Parliament, and call me fool and madman, but which of them can raise this human sea and make it swell and roar at pleasure? Not one.”
There were deaths in both calamities, and in both instances, the local constabularies, for some reason, failed to act for much too long, leading to the destruction in London of Newgate prison, cathedrals, the homes of prominent Catholic citizens and the Bank of England; in America, there was the defacement of Congress and the postponement of the election of the United States President.
Although the Capitol Police, in vast majority, risked their lives to defend Members of Congress and the premises, there were questions about the loyalties of higher-ups, and thirty-five of the officers on the ground were investigated for their actions on that day. Six would eventually be disciplined. In Barnaby Rudge, it was as if Charles Dickens wrote about many modern police jurisdictions and Black Lives Matter, as well as a few of the Capitol Police on January 6th:
The feeling that the military were No-Popery men, and were ripe for disobeying orders and joining the mob, soon became very prevalent in consequence. Rumours of their disaffection, and of their leaning towards the popular cause, spread from mouth to mouth with astonishing rapidity; and whenever they were drawn up idly in the streets or squares, there was sure to be a crowd about them, cheering and shaking hands, and treating them with a great show of confidence and affection.
There are other similarities, and, I’m sure, many others that I’ve missed, but for now, I will simply proffer a link to the free Gutenberg version of the book here. My short review of it is as follows: Exceptional! Let me know if you find similarities, whether you liked the book, and what you think of the punishment meted out to Lord George Gordon. I’d love to discuss it!
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