Frankenstein or Fake News

 You could call her Frankenstein's grandmother. But you'd have to be clear: Frankenstein has become fake news in our society.

Most people think of him as the green-faced monster, but in fact, Dr. Frankenstein is the fictional scientist who created the creature...which eventually became his undoing.

You could call her Dr. Frankenstein's grandmother--and since he created the monster, I guess you could call her the green-faced villain's great-grandmother. Mary Wollstonecraft was all of that. She was Mary Shelley's mother, and she was an author and scholar in her own right.

She also coined the phrase "fake news".

The context is important here. Wollstonecraft was a philosopher and an outspoken feminist back in the 18th century. She travelled to France in the middle of the French Revolution. There, she knew that she was in danger. New friends of hers had been sent to the guillotine. As an intellectual and an advocate, she decided to research and archive the horrors of this Reign of Terror.

While poring over government documents, she saw how threats and fear were being used to promote the revolutionary government's actions. The Jacobin government decreed that their opponents would be given anathema status, the national equivalent of excommunication. Think: denaturalization. Think: 1984 style un-person status.

Mary Wollstonecraft soon saw how foreigners-- especially the British-- were seen as a specific threat. They were being targeted as "ennemis de la patrie": enemies of the country. Sound familiar?

In particular, she spoke up about how foreigners in the French Revolution were accused of circulating fake money and treasonous ideas. In her text, "An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution", Wollstonecraft uses the phrase "les fausses nouvelles". Fake news.

Let's put this more simply:

Way back when, an intellectual and feminist from England saw that the French government was corrupt. She called them out for their fake news about foreigners, accusing foreigners of being untrustworthy.

Who is the current US administration maligning above all? Intellectuals (think the universities). Gender minorities (yes, women, but also the whole LGBTQIA community, and especially our trans friends). And foreigners.

One could argue that it's human nature to lie, and that leaders have a long history of doing so. Wasn't the theme of the Jim Carrey movie "Liar Liar" about how lawyers can't help but deceive?

What happened in the French Revolution and what is happening now, though, is something out of the ordinary. Something dangerous. Liars are accusing the truth-tellers of lying and in the chaos, any authority becomes discredited. Even the facts become questionable. Then, the very liars can make the ultimate power grab...by deceit.

Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter is famous for the novel "Frankenstein". I think sometimes about the scientist, Dr. Frankenstein, who was eventually killed by his own creation.

Is our nation being destroyed by its own amazing innovation: freedom of speech? I pray not.

I also think about the poor monster. He knew he was miserable and begged the scientist to create a woman friend for him. (Remember, both the author and her mother were staunch feminists. Perhaps women can solve the problems!)

The solution backfires, however, as Dr. Frankenstein worries about the implications of such monsters giving birth. Before the woman friend is completed, he destroys the female experiment. This leads to a string of deaths and murders, the creature's own Reign of Terror if you will.

Most people don't look beyond the media portrayal of Frankenstein. Most people don't look even to the scientist, let alone the author or her mother.

Most people don't look beyond the headline (if they're even reading/ watching that) to the article.

Most people don't look beyond the hype to the facts, or beyond the facts to the implications.

This creates an environment ripe for fake news. Terrifyingly, however, the fake news can spawn monsters such as we currently find making and enacting executive orders.