The need by societies to find all-purpose culprits and bogeymen shifts by generation. A century ago the dastardly were Jews, and Nazis constructed a literal Final Solution. But the hatred also had intellectual roots, with T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and French writer Céline making cases for the menace posed by Jews. In the postwar came paranoia toward communists and communism, with America taking the “Better Dead than Red” lead. Countless politicians joined in, and the sentiments gave Richard Nixon his platform. Now the enemy is migrants, in America largely Hispanics, while in Europe they are African and Middle Eastern Muslims. As always, parties have been formed and tweaked to absorb and spread the loathing. In the UK, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has come front and center and may soon be a power broker in British politics. He wants migrants deported or jailed and has shrewdly recruited mainstream “legal” Muslims as spokesmen for his purging wants. In January, three senior members of the usually moderate Tories defected into his ranks. His popularity has grown since the reign of a US president who shares his outlook on the rhetoric of exclusion and who has made deportation a bloodsport. Farage led the successful Brexit movement and is not to be trifled with. Elsewhere, in France, the anti-migrant National Rally is favored in many polls as 2027 presidential elections near. Fueled by unfettered social media, anger and resentment are the emotions of choice across the board. The problem with all such talk is that it suggests the recovery of some pristine past is possible if nations just clean house. Truth is, no such past exists. Rage is a social constant, all the more so in a tribal time, and new bogeymen will always and surely replace the old. Purity is a lie of history. And yet there sit Farage, Marine Le Pen, and an American president, avid as vultures with millions of stirred-up purists in their thrall.