The Hate Merchant
by Niven Busch
1953
Two chapters, nineteen pages in and author Niven Busch has clearly exposed the deficiency in the protagonist Splane. He is not a kind-hearted man but one who is in desperate need of getting revenge for slights, real or imagined. So perhaps this story will slowly reveal all that has led up to Splane becoming Splane.
Was it a broken childhood home, a failed business venture, a spurned love interest, or just a warped, egotistical outlook on life and the world. The horror would be if he, or any human being, is born with such a need to feel right and superior at the detriment of others.
The Hate Merchant looks to be a story about a man who plots and plans chaos, fear and destruction due mostly to his own deficiencies and lack of empathy. Its apparent his main issue is he hates himself. He is the hate that hate gives. And he is clever enough to find a public platform for spurning out his hate on fearfully frustrated others.
Yep, Splane fits the manipulative and self-centered narcissistic who would rather tear down society than admit his shortcomings.
So, only after reading nineteen pages I come up with this. Well, let's see just how THIS plays out shall we...
chapter 22
page 145.
"Why, lots of promotion is based on fear."
"Simple. You make people afraid of a minority. That minority is poison, like halitosis or armpit odor. But the minority is worse than that. It controls, it's a secret force; it's threatening, it's powerful. Nobody's going to hate a weak minority or a beneficent minority. You only hate a strong minority, one that could destroy you. Hitler knew that. He didn't score by telling people Jews were unpleasant. He told them Jews had seized the power of Germany - secretly. That secrecy is a keynote in any hate campaign. Your best friend won't tell you." pg145
Chapter 26
page 167.
"I was seven years old. I don't want to sell my country out. I don't want want to have it stolen out from under me. I don't want to give it to the Jews -"
page 168.
We're not supposed to say "niggers" either. We're supposed to say colored people and not mention their color.
And the hate-arousing dye has been cast fully on this evangelical audience gathered for the gospel. Splane tells them who to hate and why. Mixing with the hate the fearful consequences if they do nothing to expose and stop these evil, jesus hating, un-American minorities.
On Jan. 6, 2021, while speaking in Washington, D.C., Pres. Trump said, "We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," shortly before a crowd of his supporters marched to the U.S. Capitol.
The comparison of events in this book with those that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is striking.
At pages 187/88, and again with the mention of negroes being targets for hate, the writing has me in its clutches. The author has put his readers inside the auditorium of a hate rally.
"Flailing at minorities he found new targets. His first anti-Negro speech was a sensation; in it he followed the general technique of his attacks on the Jews but with more violence and even more gratifying results. Pros was quite excited after the meeting: he saw a brand-new market opening up."
The problem was to sell the merchandise. A new kind of merchandise demanded new sales channels, and with Pro's help the Reverend had found them; sifting the complicated social structures of war he located people to whom hate, as a commodity, fulfilled a need.
(Splain went on to obtain a Nazi Sympathizers list. Names of wealthy, WWII isolationists and reactionary opinioned businessmen and women who would be ready buyers and notable future contributors to their Americanism hate cause.) to root out Jewish control and minority anti-American values.
Yes sir, this story is a powder keg with a fuse placed, ignited and sizzling toward catastrophic destruction if not extinguished soon. Meanwhile, the profits produced by the message of hate are steadily growing.
"He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goes because the darkness hath blinded his eyes. . . .' We must never see each other again. . . ."
- Ma to Splane after they'd sinned together. page 194.
I'd rather have Hitler and Hirohito win this war than work beside a nigger on the production line. page 259.
(Splane at his rally at Belle Isle Detroit)
From chapter 37 came Splane's culmination of hatred toward negroes in his rally speech. He was at his pinnacle best during his time in front of thousands, and they drank the kool-aide. Negroes were present, hissing and booing (which seems unbelievable) but they were beaten, arrested or both.
The story at this point is kind of hanging in the balance. Now that we have all that makes Splane hate and love, which way will it go. Is Lara the answer? We will see how it all pans out in the remaining 75 pages.
Forgot to mention a highlight in Gaspar Splane's story. His mother's undying love and forgiveness of him. In what sounded like a mother's last words to her loved son, she lifted a burden off his shoulders. And yet he went out and made that hateful, riot-inciting speech afterward.
Splane has been angry and fearful of women from the start. Did Ma change that and will Lara change him.
"You ain't going no place, Shouter," he said, and hit Splane in the face. The blow was a hard one, delivered with the open hand, and it rang like a shot in the street. The sound of it released the pent-up anger in the people around Splane; their breathing changed, their faces changed; they hated him with the hate he had created.
They hated him with the hate he had created. And he, too, felt the power of hate. page 296.
(the negroes caught Splane)
"Well, why in hell not?" Splane boomed, sitting up straight in bed. "What better argument would you want? When niggers take over a country, that's the end. Hell, that's the basis of my whole doctrine . . . why, I can put on a campaign for you that will bust this situation wide open."
"My dear Reverend Splane," the General interrupted, "in my country everybody is a Negro. That is, by your definition that all people with ascertainable Negro blood are Negroes. Feral is one-eighth Negro. I am one-thirty-second. Captain Ochoa is one -quarter."
"Two-quarters, my General," captain Ochoa corrected in his light voice from his place against the wall.
"You see?" the General shrugged. "This racial situation is the same in many Spanish-speaking countries where slaves were imported. No the people I speak of are not Jews or Negroes but really a poisonous breed, snakes you might say in human form. They are Colombians."
"Colombians?"
"Immigrants - who have come over the mountains to us from the state of Colombia. They are interlopers - very attractive and aggressive traders who shove in everywhere and are wanted nowhere.
In our Country we have a saying, give a Colombian an inch and he will take a mile.
Colombians have infiltrated our Legislature, where they sit and defy Feral. I tell you it is a serious situation. . . ." page 331.
Now, sitting in his hospital room, after realizing he is stuck in a position of having to serve those he hated, Splane comes to his end. "He'd taken the gas." He wasn't insane but locked up inside himself with no hope of rehabilitation. The hate merchant had become victim of the hate he sold. An old lesson of "don't get high on your own supply."
So, Splane will not be escaping to that South American tour.
He'll stay immobilized, staring into space with vacant eyes, pitied by a catholic priest who views him as a false clergyman while questioning his fitness and desire to receive the Last Sacrament. Such is fate!
I have enjoyed the style of this novel. Its characters, motives and actions were clearly stated. The results of choices made by individuals felt tragically real. And the noirish-ness of it all was genuine. From today's viewpoint readers might find it somewhat corny and far-fetched. But to travel along with those living in 1953, the era in which it was written, is to take in the corruption and horror of it all. Splane was evil to the core. And evil is what evil does.
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Spoiler:
The shocker was when Marsh, after shooting Splane, said goodbye to all those he loved, put the revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Wow!
Of note: Marsh's mother and Splane's mother both had strong influence and impact on how their sons turned out. Mental illness also likely played a part, including with Lara and her father.
