Never Forget This, and Never Get Used to It
Government Violence against Its Citizens is a Hallmark of Authoritarianism
I Remember
“Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin'
Four dead in Ohio”
The lyrics from Neil Young’s Vietnam War era protest song ring in my ears. I remember the Kent State University massacre like it was yesterday. On May 4, 1970 twenty-eight Ohio National Guard soldiers fired about 67 rounds over 13 seconds at a student Vietnam War protest on the campus of Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded, one of whom sustained permanent paralysis. Take a look at the photos above of this killing event that snuffed out college students about to enter their prime of life. Think about their families and what they must think and feel from it, especially every year on May 4th.
From Flashback to Fast Forward
I flashback to this time in history. Although I was a soon-to-graduate high school senior, I was following these protests closely. In short time, by law I was going to be required to register for the draft which was used to conscript American males to fight the Vietnam War. Tensions were high in May 1970 as students in universities like Kent State reacted to President Nixon’s decision to expand the war into Vietnam’s neighbor Cambodia. This move by Nixon reinforced many Americans’ opposition to this war and to the draft needed to fight it.
I remember the killing and wounding of these college students by the Ohio National Guard members very, very, very well. And if you were alive then, living in the 2025 United States of Donald Trump should make it very clear to you why you must remember it too. More than that, it’s morally incumbent on you, given the militarization of American cities now underway, to tell everyone you can what you remember happened when the Ohio National Guard were deployed at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, turning it into a killing field.
Springing Forward- the War on America
This flashback for me is caused by something I’m seeing today. Like you, I’m seeing the posting of our National Guard and military on the streets of our most diverse (and politically Democratic) cities, allegedly to deal with so-called raging crime. This is in direct contradiction to the Department of Justice’s and FBI’s crime statistics that clearly show crime in cities like Los Angeles and now Washington, D.C. has actually decreased. And crime is down in other large cities like Chicago which President Donald Trump, citing rampant crime, has given every indication that he plans to next invade by assigning National Guard and our military to those cities soon.
It should go without saying, but still must be said given the situation our nation is now in, that this domestic use of the National Guard and military directly contradicts what our Founding Fathers intended when they wrote our Constitution. Further, such domestic military deployments fly in the face of the Posse Comitatus Act and is, in the least, questionable under the vague Insurrection Act of 1807.
We Can Never Allow This to Happen to Us
Much has been written lately, when commenting on the second Trump presidency, that “this isn’t normal.” That’s true. I wrote about it here last year. Since then, the abnormality has intensified. Today’s America is not anything close to normal. But the heightened level of abnormality now underway is exactly what poses such a great threat to this democracy’s citizens.
Tools of the Abnormal
This is because authoritarians rely, and Donald Trump is no exception, on a few simple but highly effective psychological tools to get their subjugated citizens to comply with their directives and need to hold power.
Making the abnormal seem normal requires us to become “desensitized” which is accomplished through constant repetition and exposure. According to Bryan Bruno, MD and medical director for Mid-City TMS, “…Desensitization is the process or treatment by which repeated exposure lessens emotional responsiveness to a negative, aversive or positive stimulus. Desensitization can occur with anything, including death.” Exposed to anything frequently and long enough, we can become “dulled to it.” One can be desensitized to events such as death, to violence, and yes, even abnormal events in the public square swirling around one’s government.
The Short Journey from Desensitization to Habituation
According to Amanda Ruggeri, writing for the BBC, it’s a “short walk” from being desensitized to being habituated which she maintains is “…less conscious, more pernicious- and can be harmful.”
As Ruggeri points out, this “habituation” can happen with shocking major events such as violent conflict or wars that suddenly break out. At first those events draw our attention, but as time passes and media coverage continues, our attention is less focused on it. Habituation has set in.
The same thing happens for Americans’ daily life. It can be with continued exposure to violence as with teens living in inner city neighborhoods who begin to accept that violence is normal. With social issues or issues related to politics, desensitization begins to happen with normalization setting in soon after. As we see and hear or witness things that we had known to be wrong, the less uncomfortable we become with it. As Ruggeri puts it:
“…Be exposed to anything enough…and that thing winds up being normalized. Even if it’s bad.” (emphasis mine)
The Role of “Slow Violence”
Certainly normalizing the abnormal requires desensitization and habituation. And, it can take hold quickly through drastic events like an attempted coup (remember January 6th) or as with the exchange of gun fire during the 2020 Kenosha, Wisconsin civil unrest and demonstrations over the police shooting of Jacob Blair.
But, it often takes place so slowly it’s almost not perceptible. Called “slow violence,” it was first identified by Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung in 1969. Galtung argued this type of violence happens “…when a society causes harm to its citizens and their property, often invisibly, through social or health inequalities, racism, sexism, or other systemic means (emphasis mine).”
One of those “systemic means” of slow violence can be government itself. A government that has decided, for example, to station National Guardsmen in your nation’s capital or the nation’s largest cities. At first it seems odd to see machine gun equipped armored vehicles and armed soldiers walking your community’s streets. At first it seems odd to have a curfew for teens. At first it seems odd to have check points to go through to take your child to school.
But after it goes on long enough, it begins to seem normal to us. We’ve become desensitized, habituated and affected by “slow violence.”
Going Back to Kent State
The protests, violence, and National Guard presence at Kent State University took place over four days, culminating in the shooting on May 4, 1970. Yes, tensions were high for reasons already mentioned, but something happened on that Monday that normalized violence and killing of unarmed college students by National Guardsmen. Remember Neil Young’s words from Kent State:
“Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin'
Four dead in Ohio”
Questions We Must Ask Ourselves
So look at the photos above and ask yourself some questions. Could the latest posting of National Guard in Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles, or Chicago, or Baltimore, or wherever for an extended period of time create the same kind of results that happened at Kent State in 1970? Do we even want to find out the answer to that question? In fact, aren’t the odds that it could be worse today because now we are dealing with an entire city patrolled by armed soldiers policing thousands of residents and visitors as opposed to a single college campus?
Are we going to allow ourselves to become desensitized, habituated and accustomed to this type of authoritarian “slow violence” behavior? Is this really who we are as Americans in 2025?
I hope not, and I think not. We may be as Neil Young wrote, “on our own,” but we are not alone as long as the love of freedom and democracy is alive in a majority of Americans at a level where we not only don’t accept what is going on as normal, but we reject it. I pray for our nation’s sake and all our sakes that is the case.
Notes:
lyrics to ohio by neil young - Google Search
Kent State shootings - Wikipedia
The Posse Comitatus Act Explained | Brennan Center for Justice
The Insurrection Act Explained | Brennan Center for Justice
What’s Going on Isn’t “Normal” - by Thomas E. Brymer
Can You Become Desensitized to Death? (verywellmind.com)
How the abnormal gets normalized – and what to do about it (bbc.com)