People, People particularly, imagine within the inevitability of order, even with all proof of the other. Nonetheless, society follows the second rule of thermodynamics, and it takes a variety of effort and intentionality to make the entropy inherent to any advanced society really feel uneventful.
In truth, two different 2025 Oscar nominated movies contact on some of the current moments in American historical past when political tyranny led to chaos that took the lives and livelihoods of Americans. A Full Unknown opens with acclaimed folks singer Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) addressing the media after being convicted for contempt of Congress after he refused to testify throughout a Home Un-American Actions Committee’s investigation (4). The fictional depiction represents an actual collection of occasions that remodeled Seeger from a member of the favored Weavers quartet group to a solo artist struggling to e-book summer season camps and union halls (5). Though Seeger by no means served any time in jail, he was blacklisted from American community tv and was rejected from most faculties and live performance halls for his perceived radical beliefs, which included help for the Civil Rights Motion (6).
Though the Home Un-American Actions Committee (HUAC) had been based in 1938 to research the actions of People suspected of getting ties to the Communist Social gathering, the committee didn’t kick into excessive gear till 1950 when zealous Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy heightened the stakes by ruthlessly pursuing prosecution below the unfounded allegation that tons of of Communists had infiltrated the State Division and different federal businesses (7).
McCarthy employed the crafty genius of younger lawyer Roy Cohn to guide investigations, which have been supposed to embarrass and snuff out anybody with any distant sympathies to the Communist ideology. (8) Simply probably the most controversial McCarthy incident is the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case, which led to the conviction and execution of the married couple. Whereas it’s established that Julius did conspire to spy on behalf of the Soviets, heavy skepticism stays about Ethel’s involvement. In 2015, the grand jury testimony of key witness David Greenglass (Ethel’s brother) was unsealed and revealed that testimony of Ethel typing atomic secrets and techniques was omitted, closely implying that Greenglass dedicated perjury that led to the execution of his sister. (9) It’s additional urged that the alleged false testimony was induced by the prosecution, which was desperate to make an instance of the Rosenbergs. And anybody acquainted with Roy Cohn wouldn’t be stunned on the surmise that he himself was concerned within the unlawful intimidation of Greenglass.
The Apprentice, follows a younger Donald Trump (Stan Sebastian) reworking below the tutelage of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Robust) from an formidable however insecure son of a Queens slumlord to the ruthless and charismatic particular person we all know as we speak. Our introduction to Roy Cohn includes him brashly bragging about sending the Rosenbergs to the “chair.” All through the movie, Cohn justifies participation within the McCarthy prosecutions as his want to “safeguard America.” Each Sebastian and Robust are nominated for his or her performing within the movie and rightly so. Whereas it’s simple to depict such outsized actual folks as caricatures, Sebastian and Robust handle to search out the logic and humanity that inspire folks like Trump and Cohn. The fact is that their dependency on energy for validation leaves no room for empathy and non-transactional kindness. And they’ll cease at nothing to amass what they imagine is their acceptable place in society.
As I left the theatre screening for I’m Still Right here, a worry rose in me. Does a Rubens Paiva even exist in our society as we speak? Certainly not ought to anybody should sacrifice their life to criticize or work in opposition to a tyrannical regime, but when it got here right down to it, is the spirit of resistance nonetheless alive? Are we prepared to stop the tragedy that befell the Paivas and the tons of of households affected by disappeared Brazilians? (10)
Individuals in nations world wide are at the moment dwelling at a essential juncture between an insistence on mundanity and correct resistance to escalating behaviors. We shouldn’t be flippant about information {that a} President’s administration is requesting loyalty assessments for presidency staff, insisting on the deportation of international college students who dare to train their freedom of speech, and bodily eradicating a long-time bureaucrat for refusing to implement unlawful company terminations. (11) It’s simple to think about how this speedy escalation can result in a world the place the best critique is interpreted as treason. If we’re unwilling to heed the warning of I’m Still Right here, we might very nicely lose the mundane routines we cling to for our sanity.
Notes
(1) See The Library of Congress, America and Brazil’s Navy Coup, https://guides.loc.gov/brazil-us-relations/brazil-coup-1964and The Library of Congress, The Navy Dictatorship (1964-1985), for extra data
(2) Tâmara Freire, AgênciaBrasil, Navy Regime: Notoriously repressive AI-5 decree turns 55, https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/direitos-humanos/noticia/2023-12/military-regime-notoriously-repressive-ai-5-decree-turns-55.
(3) The Library of Congress, The Kidnapping of Ambassador Charles Burke (1969), https://guides.loc.gov/brazil-us-relations/ambassador-charles-burke-elbrick-kidnapping.
(4) Paul S. Cowan, The Harvard Crimson, Courtroom Sentences Seeger for Yr on Contempt of Congress Fees (April 10, 1961), https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1961/4/10/court-sentences-seeger-for-year-on/.
(5) Peter Dreier, The American Prospect, Recalling Pete Seeger’s Controversial Efficiency on the Smothers Brothers Present 50 Years In the past(Feb. 28, 2018), https://prospect.org/culture/recalling-pete-seeger-s-controversial-performance-smothers-brothers-show-50-years-ago/.
(6) See observe 5
(7) Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, McCarthyism/ The “Purple Scare”,https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/mccarthyism-red-scare#:~:text=Senator%20Joseph%20R.,the%20U.S.%20Department%20of%20State..
(8) Jordana Rosenfeld, Britannica, Roy Cohn (Jan. 23, 2025), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roy-Cohn.
(9) Sam Roberts, The NYTimes, Secret Grand Jury Testimony from Ethel Rosenberg’s Brother is Launched (July 15, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/nyregion/david-greenglass-grand-jury-testimony-ethel-rosenberg.html.
(10) Pablo Uchoa, BBC Information, Remembering Brazil’s a long time of army army repression (March 31, 2014), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26713772.
(11) See Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, and Jill Colvin, AP Information, Loyalty assessments and MAGA checks: Contained in the Trump White Home’s intense screening of job-seekers (Jan. 25, 2025), https://apnews.com/article/trump-loyalty-white-house-maga-vetting-jobs-768fa5cbcf175652655c86203222f47c, Andrea Shalal, Reuters, Trump administration to cancel pupil visas of pro-Palestinian protestors (Jan. 29, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-cancel-student-visas-all-hamas-sympathizers-white-house-2025-01-29/, and Rachael Levy, Reuters, Unique: USDA inspector basic escorted out of her workplace after defying White Home(Jan. 29, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/world/us/usda-inspector-general-escorted-out-her-office-after-defying-white-house-2025-01-29/for extra data.
Biography
Martina Fouquet is a lawyer dwelling in New York Metropolis. She enjoys writing about media and its relationship to society, politics, and unconsidered artistic precedent.
