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November 07, 2004
Private Idaho
I've been doing a modicum of thinking about the permanence of the Alternative scene in America and what it says about zero-sum social progress. Today in the aftermath of the re-election of GWBush there's a whole different twist.
It is surprising to me how the spin of the losers has taken over. They have characterized the average Bush voter as an evangelical hick with no sense of intellectual vigor. I get the feeling that these people were more hurt by November Second than by September Eleventh. Here's an excerpt from somebody now forced to retreat back into his own private Idaho:
Who ARE those 53%? What happened to MY America--the America that would
see through such a vapid fool to the truly dangerous handlers behind him,
and cast them all out like demons; the America that had a respect for a
freer press in 1972-4, and thus brought down a far less corrupt and stupid
President, before we became a one-channel state; the America that would
see the "Patriot Act" for the Fascist framework it is, and tear it down;
the America that had the respect and goodwill of most of the world, even
past September 11th; the America that preached tolerance (we can argue
whether it ever PRACTICED it to the fullest extent possible, or even
3/5ths of the way) and was, just a few years ago, beginning to see gay and
lesbian rights as closer to "mainstream"; the America with a Supreme Court
that ratified women's control of their bodies; the America that thought
Senator Roman Hruska was a little addled and eccentric when he proposed,
in support of the truly mediocre Nixon Supreme Court nominee J. Harold
Carswell, that "mediocre people need representation, too"; the America
that had black leaders like Martin and Malcolm and Stokely and Huey,
rather than Chief Justice Clarence Thomas, and Prime Minister Condoleeza
Rice, and Media Czar Michael Powell..
It goes on and on. You get the drift.
It boils down to a single fallacious phrase 'my America'. Your America, anybody's America is just a tiny corner of it. It's not yours until you own some of it and control some of it, and for most of us that's a house, maybe with a front yard. This is the ownership society, and if you ain't owning, you're renting. You live in a rented blue house, not because the landlord agrees with you, but because he knows your type is attracted to blue. But he can paint it red, you can't. The smart landlord keeps the house blue, the smart tenant understands and respects this.
"Rights are the gifts of the strong." This is a phrase we need to keep in mind because today's strong Americans are committed to it. But it's their committment that we should honor, not the abstract principle. The man who is cursed for doing good may decide to take a holiday. But that's what a lot of folks are doing today.
I am recognizing the pain that people must feel in recognizing that they are not as connected as their love of songs like 'We Are The World' suggests. This is a contradiction. You cannot be 'alternative' and zero-sum at the same time.
Posted by mbowen at November 7, 2004 05:17 AM
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