Genre

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The REAL Amerikuh

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An impassioned Letter to the Editor in our local newspaper the other day made me think.  The letter did not seem worth commenting on at the paper's website, but here's the more general thought it raised:
Students of art, music, literature, and theatre often speculate about what features of the artwork's creator's unconscious are embodied or revealed in the particular instance of imagination one is contemplating.  The vision of "America" behind this particular Letter to the Editor is clearly a work of a feverish imagination or fantasy, so maybe analysing what it reveals about the author's subconscious or character would be revealing in a more general way.
I say this because the man writing the Letter seems to me not so much a unique individual, but a representative of a loud and potentially influential side of our current culture.

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The writer himself is concerned about the crucial difference between appearance and reality (I might say, the difference between imagination and truth).  His intent seems to be to make sure his readers understand that the "America" supported by one of the national candidates on November 6 is not the same as "ours."

He complains about the real America today, for which the other party is responsible.  America today is not recognizeable from what it once was, he says.  These were his particular concerns:
  1. "continuing massive debt"
  2. "political correctness," which has apparently contributed significantly to America's decline
  3. "constant attempts to divide and incite different groups of people
  4. "the ability of a minority [of Americans] to overrule the majority on moral, religious and patriotic issues and more.
  5. "the assault on Christianity" and our hope to "preserve this nation 'under God'"
  6. "photo ID should be required in all states," though the letter-writer doesn't say why he thinks so.

What apparently does this writer hate about our nation today?  And what were the key features of the "America" of the past which he has imagined?  What does this tell us about the mass of Americans who seem to feel the same way?

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First, let's reconstruct this man's America in its better days.

That America had at most a small national debt; when a large debt did accumulate, it was paid down quickly.  Everybody took this as their responsibility.

People got along with each other, and everyone agreed this was as it should be.

In America, you didn't have to worry about offending someone just by using a word that everyone uses, and has always used, to refer to some minority group, like saying someone is "physically challenged" instead of being crippled.  That's too bad for him, of course, but that's the truth.  Okay, we know "Nigger" shouldn't be used anymore, but what's wrong with talking about a colored girl instead of "an Afro-American woman," Right?  And Polack jokes?  They're just jokes!

As in all true representative democracies, the majority of Americans' views on all key matters were embodied in our laws and customs.

Everyone was Christian, or at least everyone understood that America is and always has been a God-fearing and God-loving Christian nation.  (As for you Jews, we always included you too, didn't we?  And you appreciated that.)

No one - or at least no respectable and self-respecting individual - had anything to hide and wouldn't think twice about having a photo ID handy at all times, if it were required by majority rule.

Now that's the America - my letter-writer would say - the America that used to be but recently has been stolen from us.

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The reason a person fervently holds to a view that is obviously false is often that this person wishes with all his heart and mind that the fantasy were reality.  He or she fears against all hope that if reality were as "bad" as what he denies he sees around him, his life would be worthless and he would be nothing.

True believers in the early fifteenth century feared they would be unimportant and not special if the sun and all the other heavenly bodies did not revolve around our mighty earth.  In the 19th century, many feared their lives would be meaningless and lacking in value if in our ancestry, we could find animals, like monkeys. 

So, since we must remain as valuable, as meaningful, as special, and as significant as we have been thinking we are, we are driven to deny the evident facts that are right there for us to see around us.

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If everyone is the same as we are, as deserving of respect, then we are not special as we have always thought.

If we have not always been in the majority, but merely in the dominant class or party, then those others are at least as powerful as we are... maybe more so!

If our values and beliefs are only as true as those of others, then we are not superior as we have always thought we were.

If we are not special, in the majority, all-powerful (though compassionate), and morally superior, then, we are not safe.  Someone is out to get us.  We just don't want to think what might happen.  We and everything else are going right to hell.

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That's my portrait of this man who wrote his angry Letter to the Editor.  What he most hates about our real America today is that he and those he is used to interacting with now have to deal with Blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans... Muslims for God's sake! 

They don't share this man's culture, his religious practices, his ideas... and they seem to think this is all right (unlike Jews, who know their place).  They even think it's all right for folks to disagree with each other about public issues, out loud.  They think it is fine to let people make bad choices and commit immoralities that would have shocked our parents, and they are even willing to weaken our government by running up a big national debt.  That makes all of us unsafe!

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There are many Americans who see things as this man does.  How can we make them feel secure enough that they can help the rest of us face the real challenges of tomorrow?


Note:
If you found this article interesting, you might also be interested in this one
http://byronderrick.blogspot.com/2010/03/essay-too-much-government-not-enough.html

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