That question rings in my head every year at this time. Meteor Blades asked a related question in his highly rec'd diary Forgotten on Memorial Day. Douglas' article in In These Times asks it again. We are a nation born in violence and torn by Civil War. We waged terrible violence on the inhabitants of this land we call ours. Many of them had a relationship with the earth mother that denied the possibility of "owning" it. We have war upon war and our economy is so very dependent on war or fear of attack by someone from abroad or within. Even our interstate highways in urban areas were designed to control the civilian population if it got out of hand. This weekend we almost worship that history. Let us see below if Douglas has some insight
This statement sums it up quite well:
I despair that we will always be cursed by racism, xenophobia and other forms of irrational yet raging hatreds, yet I want to believe that our better sides will win out.
Douglass starts by speaking about President Obama's speech at the University of Michigan for this year's graduation. She says, among other things:
In his address, Obama took on the current contentiousness of American politics. He noted how it was fanned by the news media, especially the cable channels, whose lifeblood has become irresponsible, inflammatory remarks. Then he added, "I think it’s important that we maintain some historic [sic] perspective. Since the days of our founding, American politics has never been a particularly nice business. It’s always been a little less genteel during times of great change."
He quoted attacks made on Thomas Jefferson (if elected, "murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced") and Andrew Jackson (his opponents "often referred to his mother as a ‘common prostitute’ "), and he told of the beating of Massachusetts anti-slavery advocate Sen. Charles Sumner on the Senate floor by a southern congressman. Thus, Obama urged the audience not to get "too depressed about the current state of our politics" because it has always been filled with vitriol. The republic has endured.
I am unable to help asking if this is totally a good thing. Forgive my sacrilege, but I think others wonder about this too. Douglas continues:
I don’t know whether to be heartened or depressed that the kind of fury-driven and racist venom we’re now seeing from the right has been and thus, by implication, will always be with us. But a compelling new book about this legacy has just come out: This Violent Empire: The Birth of an American National Identity by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg. In it you will not find more misty-eyed, honey-hued accounts of the greatness, altruism and nobility of our founding fathers. Quite the opposite: Smith-Rosenberg analyzes the foundational roles that racism, sexism, xenophobia and genocide played in the political formation of the United States and, just as crucially, in the formation of the country’s identity.
She asks a crucial question:
Where does this exclusionary vehemence and violence come from? Smith-Rosenberg argues that because immigrants to the 13 colonies were such a motley amalgam—people of differing, even warring countries, religions, political values and social mores—who, in turn, invaded already existing civilizations of Native Americans, there was no stable national sense of self. It had to be constructed, reaffirmed, cemented.
But why in the way it has been? That's the real question. Here's how she ends. is there an answer here or just a lingering question?
Drawing from speeches, women’s writings, novels and magazines of the times, Smith-Rosenberg carefully traces the construction of this deeply contradictory national identity, which wants to both view itself as egalitarian and tolerant and embrace the racial and imperial triumphalism that relentless exclusions have made possible. The result? "[A]n inherently contradictory, unstable national identity never quite at peace with itself."
Smith-Rosenberg sees the nation’s proclivity for violence as so embedded in our history and identity that, except for extraordinary moments, like the 2008 presidential election, we will never be rid of it. Obama, the ever-hopeful optimist, believes we can vault over it.
I oscillate between them. I despair that we will always be cursed by racism, sexism, xenophobia and other forms of irrational yet raging hatreds, yet I want to believe that our better sides will win out.
Yes I want to believe that too. I have to admit as a "veteran" of some of the most radical political encounters we have had during my 74 years I was totally able to let myself be filled with hope by Barack Obama. I needed his message very much. So as he now speaks to us from deep within the beast his words don't really pull me up out of it. I despair as I look at my country. I am depressed when my neighbors use the "N' word to speak about him and see his very centrist behavior as "socialist" and then sometimes "fascist". Are we really rational beings? Those of you who read me regularly know that I have strong doubts about that. I'll close reminding us that we are like lemmings. We rush to our demise with glee seeing who can do the most too keep us from seeing a way to at least try to save ourselves. Happy Memorial day everyone!