Fear itself – after 80 years
By Saul Landau
My parents, like many millions more who voted for Franklin Roosevelt and ousted Republican Herbert Hoover, sat glued to their radios to hear FDR’s first Inaugural Address (March 3, 1933) hoping to understand how this witty and affable member of the elite was going to help them get over their depression, a product of the country’s economic depression. FDR had not said much of substance during the campaign, but that changed dramatically when he told the radio public “that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
No conscious person needed to be told about the millions unemployed. “More important,” FDR said, was that “a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.”
He did not underplay nor overplay the seriousness of the U.S.’ condition. He talked about how “Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.”
FDR made sure hope resonated and that blame was properly placed on those who deserved to bear the onus. “The rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous moneychangers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
“We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils, which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.”
Would anyone expect such language from President Obama should he ever address the causes of our last economic downturn?
He would do well to study FDR in order to both learn how to do battle and inspire the public with good values.
FDR recognized “the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success” and the need for “restoration”, not for changes in ethics alone. “This Nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.”
Eighty years ago our President understood that the vast mass of poor people needed security, which meant “safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.”
FDR would urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for help for the poor, which necessitated “putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo.” The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery.
Roosevelt included these broad strokes in his foreign policy guidelines with his “policy of the good neighbor – the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others – the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.”
He announced that he would assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.
FDR affirmed his faith in “the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.”
What could Obama’s speechwriters do with a new version of Fear Itself? Lay out a modified version of FDR’s promise to help the poor? Could we expect such a commitment from President Deeply Disappointing? It would be nice, but don’t hold your breath.
Saul Landau’s FIDEL and WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP are on DVD through cinemalibrestudio.com
