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3.23.2003
Standing on a Street CornerPeople are not at their bests when yelling out their car windows, as evidenced by today's display of hatred directed towards peace demonstrators. Here are some examples: "Get a job!" yelled at least twice, even though it was Saturday. "How many kids do you got in the military?" I'm 28, which makes that near impossible. But my response would be "The same number as Bush." "Go to Russia!" - To which I might explain to them that Russia is now a free society. ----- But what really made me think today as I stood out in the nice weather on a busy street corner here in the heart of Tulsa, Oklahoma is that the response to our presence had predictable patterns. Patterns that I will try to present here. The most likely person to yell or gesture in anger over our presence was overwhelmingly white men in pickups. This in itself wouldn't be too telling because of the preponderance of white men in pickups but in contrast to that was the African American and other non-white response to our demonstrations. Their response was almost 100% positive with honks and peace signs and thumbs up. This was in marked contrast to the thumbs down, middle fingers and angry yells more likely to be eminating from that of middle aged white people. Pickups and SUV's were also more likely to harbor hostile reactions. But that could be a by-product of their desire to project a powerful image which leads to yelling out of windows as well. Ohe truck with a confederate flag license plate in front even swerved towards the curve where we were standing to scare us. But why the racial divide? My theory has to do with the dominate mythology within the different segments of American society. America demonstrated a national predilection for war and domestic violence long before the 9/11 attacks, but its leaders and intellectuals through most of the last century cultivated the national self-image, a myth, of America as a moral, peace-loving nation which the American population seems unquestioningly to have embraced. He says the American population embraces this myth. I would say that only certain segments of the American population have accepted this myth of America as a moral and peace loving country. The other parts of American society, namely the ones that were on the receiving end, have a slightly different view of America. So, to the extent that the violence that America has used benefitted you determines how likely you are to accept that violence as being in the service of good and moral ends. And I say that if you buy into the mythology of America you will be more likely to think that we are pursuing pure just goals in our invasion of Iraq. Whereas if you are skeptical of America's motives, as evidenced by Bush's revolving reasons for this war, then you will be more likely to oppose. The mythology of America affects how you pursue your life. If you accept that the U.S. government and other agents of American influence will act on your behalf and in your interest, you are more likely to vote, work for a large U.S. mutinational corporation, invest in the stock market, consume more products, buy an SUV or pickup and support our policies around the world. Of course this isn't a scientific conclusion but my mere speculation based on some observation. It also has more to do with perception than reality. We can expect to see someome that believes the myth of moral righteous America at the same time getting screwed by government or corporate policies. This mythology of America as moral and peace loving is mainly an American notion. The acceptance of that image also reflects the degree that you have been on the receiving end of American violence as well. This explains the massive protest in countries like Egypt and other parts of the middle east, where the perception is that the U.S. acts in its own self-interest and supports repressive regimes as long as they side with the United States. The image of America as a coercive regime that meddles in other people's affairs has little currency in the U.S. itself. Others see it, we don't. Another interesting observation from today is the numerous references to 9/11. This despite the complete lack of connection between this war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks. Apparently, a sufficient number of people are ready to bomb just about anybody to heal the psychic wound still left over from those attacks. And from a country that has repeatedly turned to violence as a way of addressing greivances the obvious action taken after an attack is a retaliation. A recent press photo had the words "pay back" written on the barrel of a tank gun. As I have mentioned before, military officers are using imagery from the World Trade Center towers to motivate troops in the invasion of Iraq. Polls have indicated that 45% of people that support war believe that Saddam Hussein is connected to September 11th. This is reinforced by repeated references to the terrorist attacks in the speeches justifying the invasion of Iraq. The message is "this is related". Whatever anyone may say about weapons of mass destruction, or about Saddam's savage brutality to his own people, the reason Bush can now get away with his war is that a sufficient number of Americans, including, apparently, Bush himself, see it as revenge for 9/11. This is worse than bizarre. It is pure racism and/or religious prejudice. Nobody has made even a faintly plausible case that Iraq had anything to do with the atrocity. It was Arabs that hit the World Trade Centre, right? So let's go and kick Arab ass. Those 9/11 terrorists were Muslims, right? And Eye-raqis are Muslims, right? That does it. We're gonna go in there and show them some hardware. Shock and awe? You bet. The chilling message is that we are willing to commit violence against a people motivated by ethnic similarities. Not a unique event in American history but not one that fits easily with the mythology of a peace loving nation hell bent on bombing people to freedom. Another quote from Ira Leonard sums it up nicely. Despite the national, peace-loving self-image, American patriotism has usually been expressed in military and even militaristic terms. No less than seven presidents owed their election chiefly to their military careers (George Washington, 1789, Andrew Jackson,1828, William Henry Harrison, 1840, Zachary Taylor,1848, Ulysses S. Grant,1868, Theodore Roosevelt,1898, and Dwight David Eisenhower, 1952) while others, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, for example, capitalized upon their military records to become presidents, and countless others at both federal and state levels made a great deal of their war or military records. Your value as an American is directly related to your willingness to kill? | |
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