Our personal grief refuses to be contained. We cannot effectively compartmentalize the process of grieving to a set time or number of symptoms.

Could “grief” be the right term for what we feel we’re going through as a nation/as a planet? Anyone who has lost a loved one can attest to the fact that “grief” isn’t just sadness, it is a visceral reaction that overwhelms mind, body, and if you believe in it soul. Jaffe has written effectively two books sandwiched within one another: her personal story of losing her father and reflecting on the pain that she has carried since is dotted along the way in her interviews and thoroughly researched pieces on everything from Immigration Policy to Worker’s Activism to Israel/Palestine. 

Maybe those of us who are witnessing and understanding the rise of fascism are grieving the loss of what we thought could be an easier or more secure life. Just as likely, the working class people advocating for fascism might be doing so as a response to their own grief, an inability to mourn the loss of their own expected future cut short by corporate greed, factory closures, and self-interested world leaders all of whom are quickly ready to lay the blame at the feet of immigrants, the marginalized, or whichever country they next want to start a conflict with.