The lights of London outside Parliament. (Photo: British Museum)
April 3, 2025 by David Silverberg
As dusk fell and the darkness gathered on August 3, 1914, Edward Grey, Britain’s foreign secretary, was standing at the window of his office with John Spender, editor of the Westminster Gazette. On the mall below them men with torches were lighting the gas-fueled street lamps.
Germany had just declared war on France. Austria-Hungary had already declared war on Serbia. Germany had declared war on Russia. The next day Britain would declare war on Germany.
Grey turned to his friend. “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime,” he said.
We know that conflict today as the First World War.
Today the lamps are going out in America. They’re deliberately being quenched. The resulting darkness is very strong and overwhelming.
At this moment, the great question is what each of us can do to keep the light alive.
Here in Southwest Florida there is one small gesture that can serve as a start. On Saturday, April 5, Americans around the country are going to demand that the regime of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk keep their hands off those things that Americans hold dear: the Constitution, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, a wide variety of other issues and simply a decent, normal, life and society.
In Naples, this protest will take place at the Collier County Courthouse, 3315 Tamiami Trail, Naples, at 2 pm. It was organized and publicized by HandsOff.com, a coalition of pro-democracy, progressive groups.
Places where Hands Off protests are planned. The entire interactive map, which provides specific locations, can be accessed here. (Map: Axios)
The protest was organized long before Trump’s tariff announcement on Wednesday, April 2 and the stock market crash that followed. But those events and the prospect of economic catastrophe have made the Hands Off event even more urgent.
It is clear that people are alarmed, distressed and deeply concerned by what is going on, especially now that Trump’s incompetence and recklessness is reaching deep into their pocketbooks, businesses and lives.
But it also helps to take a broader, historical look at what is being threatened.
A century and its lessons
The year 1914 inaugurated a century of upheaval and slaughter that included World War I, the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression, the rise of Fascism, the surge of Communism, World War II, and the Cold War. With it came the industrialized death of millions of people on battlefields, in gas chambers and in civil upheavals, revolutions and conflicts of all sorts. It saw the birth and use of the atomic bomb and creation of the terms “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.”
But at least when the century came to an end some lessons had been learned: hyper-nationalism was dangerous and destructive; totalitarian authoritarianism was evil; borders couldn’t be changed by brute force; ethnic hatred and scapegoating was unacceptable; rational discussion and negotiation was better than shooting and bloodshed; all people are created equal and have inalienable rights; democracy for all its flaws was the highest form of government.
There were particular lessons for the United States: isolationism didn’t work; free trade made everyone more prosperous; America was not only the beacon of human freedom, it was the leader of the free world; common concerns addressed through government action could make people safer, healthier, wealthier and benefit all.
May 8, 2025 will mark exactly 80 years since the fall of Nazi Germany.
It is hideously ironic that as we approach that anniversary, the United States is in the grip of an authoritarian president who knows absolutely nothing of the history that brought this country to this moment—and if he knows it, he’s ignoring it or worse, deliberately defiling it.
As this is written, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 1,600 points. This is happening because the previous day, April 2, Trump imposed tariffs on virtually all the other trading nations of the world, disrupting America’s business bonds with all its trading partners.
It’s an eerie echo of 1930’s Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which disrupted global trade and imposed US tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods. Those tariffs are widely blamed for turning the Stock Market Crash of 1929 into the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It was already apparent that Trump knew nothing of America’s past experience with tariffs. He is now deliberately ignoring—or desecrating—every lesson learned from the Great Depression.
Added to this ignorance and irresponsibility are his violations of all the other lessons of the 20th century; his threats to expand American borders by force; his ethnic hatred and racial prejudice and his mass roundups and deportations of people without due process; his tolerance of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attempt to conquer the sovereign, independent, democratic state of Ukraine; and his bullying, domineering approach to all international relations.
On top of that is his domestic war against the federal government, his domination of the legislative branch of government, his threats against the media and private law firms, his indifference to law and due process, his attempt to control the judicial branch, and his weaponization of every coercive power of government that was previously restrained by law.
What is being attacked and in danger of being overturned is every single lesson of diplomacy, good governance and international peace and prosperity that was learned with blood and suffering over the previous century.
During the 20th century American presidents made great contributions to the peace of the world based on the American experience. Woodrow Wilson proposed the 14 points that offered some basis for negotiating a post-World War I peace and helped lead a war-weary world beyond old imperialistic empires. Instead of the old secret horse trading and backroom deals among great powers he called for “open covenants openly arrived at” and brought sunlight into international relations. Franklin Roosevelt led the fight against Fascism and built the foundation for the United Nations and a lasting peace where discussion, negotiation and mediation settled disputes. Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhour helped rebuild Europe, sent humanitarian aid around the world and kept Stalinist Communism at bay.
All of these positive, humanitarian and democratic achievements are now being attacked by Trump and Musk. Their indifference to the greater good of the United States and their ignorance of the past and its lessons is simply staggering.
In their wanton destruction they’re seeking to return America to a time of racism, isolationism and insularity, with the added disgraces of authoritarianism, lawlessness and deep corruption. They’re on a path to set back the world as a whole to an era of imperialism, conspiracy and aggression.
Gradually, people are waking up to the depth of the danger they represent. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has just spent 25 hours and 5 minutes on the floor of the United States Senate to warn of these dangers.
Perhaps the protests scheduled for this Saturday will be a small step toward expressing dissent and resistance.
There’s no doubt that Trump and Musk and their minions are spreading a darkness that’s dangerous, diabolical, and destructive. But no matter how many lamps they darken, they should never be permitted to extinguish the greatest lamp of all because, as this platform has always maintained, while democracy dies in darkness…
Liberty lives in light
© 2025 by David Silverberg