When Adolph Hitler wanted to exert control over Germany, he began with the arts. He called it Degenerate Art and it was deemed inappropriate for the new Germanic kingdom. All modern art was in this category. The movement to control art was so successful, Hitler moved on to architecture, music, literature and of course managed to revise history. Some of the offending practitioners were simply Jewish and that would be, of course, enough to be categorized as “degenerate”. Others represented modern movements such as the Bauhaus architectural group. Or Picasso, Klee, Matisse, or Munch. Playwrights and authors were banned. That included Ayn Rand, Mark Twain, JRR Tolkien, Erich Maria Remarque, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and so many more.
In 1937, German museums were purged of modern art by the government, a total of some 15,500 works were removed. (Tate.org.uk) Some were sold. Some were burned along with piles of book confiscated from Jewish bookstores and families.
Hitler understood that to control people, mastering the political system is not enough. The culture must be subservient to the political whims of the leader. Now, Hitler wasn’t the only one to figure this out. Mao Zedong applied the same principles in his Cultural Revolution. It began in 1966 and lasted ten years. It was designed as a “revolution to touch people’s souls”. Mao was fearful that the youth would not understand the inherent “beauty “of the communist system as the culture was quickly becoming “elitist”. Film, opera, literature, and art had to conform to what the leader wanted expressed. Anyone who violated the “rules” was severely punished. Between 1 – 2 million people were slaughtered. Others were imprisoned. Only the death of Mao put an end to the chaos.
More currently, Viktor Orban has taken a page from the autocracy workbook. He is systematically suppressing arts and culture. A once thriving sector, Hungarian arts have taken a nosedive. “An era is determined by cultural trends, collective beliefs and social customs.” Orban stated. “We must embed the political system in a cultural era.”
Not to be left behind, Russia’s Putin demands “patriotism” in the arts. Any Russian opposing the war in Ukraine faces exile. But to be fair, being an artist in Russia formerly the Soviet Union has never been an easy job. Lenin pushed the proletariat to engage in the arts. He favored the avant-garde, something that would later irritate Hitler when it came to dealing with the Communists and their “Degenerate Art”. Lenin’s successor, Stalin, believed that “art should be used to project a positive image of life in the Soviet Union to its inhabitants.” (The Collector, September 2021). Socialist realism mandated that art was a methodology used to instill Communist values on the populace.
Oh, he’s not alone. Turkey’s Erdoğan, has taken to cracking the whip on Turkish arts. Now, he may have felt particularly vulnerable because of the failed coup against him. Artists who are Kurdish face particular scrutiny. Writes Erden Kosova in Field, Spring 2019, “after dismantling the basic structures of the republican democracy, secularism and the constitutional state, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, declared victory with his now infamous hubris. Erdoğan’s AKP party swiftly established its long-awaited political hegemony and the nouveau-riche entrepreneurs around him (including his relatives) gained the upper hand in the nation’s economy. The only thing that was still missing, Erdoğan said plainly enough, was obtaining cultural hegemony.” He’s making sure that’s achieved.
Not just Nazi’s and autocrats aim for the arts. Idi Amin’s rule led to the exodus of Ugandan artists and intellectuals.
They do this because it works. At least for a while. And here’s the scary part: they did it all within a few months. Each of these dictators managed to subvert whatever democracy, rule of law or freedom of expression had existed. Freedom of thought and expression is a threat to autocracies. The differences in culture and thought that most of us find stimulating are an anathema to the autocrat. He is not interested. Worse, he wants those who express differences silenced.
And that silence can be brutal.
Is this what we’re facing in the United States in 2025? Is this how our fragile Democracy fails? Is this the direction the Trump sycophants want to take us?
Just ask the foreign students who, today, face deportation for simply expressing their opposition to Israeli tactics in Gaza and the West Bank. Whew. I’m a Jewish US citizen. I guess I’m safe.
Just ask anyone who happens to be brown sporting a tattoo now serving a sentence in an El Salvador prison. Whew. I’m white. I guess I’m safe.
Just ask any artist who performs a drag show, supports gay rights. Whew. I’m straight. I guess I’m safe.
Just ask any black American to recount American history as it impacted them. Or, Native American. Or Hispanic. Whew. I’m white. I guess I’m safe.
Just ask any woman who doesn’t follow the new Christian ideology that women should be home tending the family, that contraceptives should not be made available, or that abortion should be illegal. Whew. I’m old. Don’t have to worry about those issues. I guess I’m safe.
Just ask the Social Security recipient whose local office has closed and cannot do business unless present at some random open office or has an online account. Whew. I have an online account. I guess I’m safe.
For now.
Air. 
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