Blaming Clinton First

sandor at the zoo · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 11:59 pm Post subject: Re: Imperial War

Dissident, you're simply wrong. I don't believe I "belong to an anointed people, graced with a strength and power far surpassing all others", nor do I feel I "have been burdened with the arduous task of saving this fragile planet from the Barbarians". These are ridiculous overstatements. I guarantee that you read about this "Faith Community" and "Mythic Heroism" business is some book and have been just salivating to apply it to someone. It's a convenient way of dismissing your opponents points: He doesn't have anything of value to say, he's living in a fantasy world along with all the other idiots who don't agree with me.

From my point of view, Dissident, it's you who is living a false, mythic existence. You are playing the role of a brilliant, compassionate, misunderstood protagonist who struggles mightily against the overwhelming forces of injustice. You are the champion of the people, a would-be philosopher king who wages a war of words against the ignorant and greedy men who have somehow usurped his rightful place on the throne. Only you, blessed by knowledge and understanding in your ivory tower, have the perfect intentions with which they can be thrown down. And woe be unto anyone who dares to offer a competing opinion, for they are either deluded or ignorant and shall fall before the might of your Chomskyite quotations.

Anyway, I gave you one last chance to respond to any or all of the points that I raised. You decided to simply condescend at me again. I'm finished here, there is nothing to be gained. You are welcome to have the last word (or a thousand of them if you so desire).

S

sandor at the zoo · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 10:30 am Post subject: Re: Imperial War

This:

Quote:
What's interesting about the "America number one" attitude is that it is a mirror image of the self-esteem movement in schools which is often denounced for its promotion of a "be proud of yourself no matter what" mentality.

is a good point, or would be if I had taken such a simple "America Number One" position, but I didn't. I think I've been very clear and specific about my reasons for thinking America is the present high-water mark for mankind.

But I'm certainly willing to entertain the idea that the distinction belongs to another. Which free-er, stronger, smarter, more foresighted, and more generous nation would you put forth as an alternative, Michael?

S

sandor at the zoo · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 11:38 am Post subject: Re: Imperial War

Michael says:

Quote:
"Effete" and "elite" are both buzzwords used to dismiss criticisms of conservative administrations in a knee-jerk manner. They say nothing about the real concerns of real people. What made you choose those words?

I use the following definitions for these words:

Effete: Lacking or having lost the strength or ability to get things done.

Elite: A small group of people within a larger group who have more power, social standing, wealth, or talent than the rest of the group.

There are undoubtedly those conservatives who use such terms to "... dismiss criticisms ... in a knee-jerk manner." I'm not one of them.

I use the word effete because it describes, very well in my opinion, the hooting ineffectiveness of the "It Looks Good on Paper" liberals of the far left. Their hypothesis seems to be that if we pass enough laws and condemn evil very loudly, all strife and injustice will disappear. They believe they can legislate war and crime out of existence and appease rampant thugocracy with "gifts" of food and money. These people are long on theory and short on practicality. Lacking or having lost the strength or ability to get things done.

Elite also describes the folks I'm talking about, because the vast majority of them are wealthy, educated Anglo men who are far removed from "the downtrodden" who's cause they believe they champion. Certainly they have good ideas sometimes and we're willing to listen to them (and those of us who managed to put ourselves through college had to listen to them a lot) but it's annoying when people who've never had a single callous on their hands think they always know what's best for farmers and soldiers and computer technicians. I'm not using the word elite dismissively, I'm using it to describe actual people who I know exist because I've interacted with them and I've seen the real-world results when their nitwit social experiments are put into action.

Now let me very clear on one thing: I know damn well that I'm talking about a relatively small group of people here. It's not all, most, or even half of liberals my comments are aimed at. It's the very leftmost third or quarter of them. Blue Collar Democrats are not found on the fringes of the party; that territory belongs to lawyers and college professors and rich white kids rebelling against mommy and daddy. I vote Republican because that party has succeeded in blunting the influence of its fringe elements. When the Democrats do the same - and rustle up some men and women who are actual leaders - they stand an excellent chance of getting my vote back. Not before.

S

Dissident Heart

"Without Sanctuary" is a photo document of proof, an unearthing of crimes, of collective murder, or mass memory graves excavated from the American conscience. Part postal cards, common as dirt, souvenirs skin thin and fesh tatooed proud, the trade cards of those assistant in ritual racial killings and other acts of a mad citizenry. The communities' best citizens lurking just outside the frame. Destined to decay, these few survivors of an original photo population of many thousands, turn the living to pillars of salt."

James Allen

Searching through America's past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. With essays by Hilton Als, Leon Litwack, Congressman John Lewis and James Allen, these photographs have been published as a book – "Without Sanctuary" by Twin Palms Publishers . Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very disturbing. We welcome your comments and input through the forum section.

Experience the images as a flash movie with narrative comments by James Allen, or as a gallery of photos which includes 81 postcards. Participate in a forum about the images, and contact us if you know of other similar postcards and photographs.

www.musarium.com/withouts.../main.html

Dissident Heart

November 15, 2000

A day to give thanks?
by Ward Churchill

Thanksgiving is the day the United States celebrates the fact that the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony successfully avoided starvation during the winter of 1620-21.

But from an American Indian perspective, what is it we're supposed to be so thankful for?

Does anyone really expect us to give thanks for the fact that soon after the Pilgrim Fathers regained their strength, they set out to dispossess and exterminate the very Indians who had fed them that first winter?

Are we to express our gratitude for the colonists' 1637 massacre of the Pequots at Mystic, Conn., or their rhetoric justifying the butchery by comparing Indians to "rats and mice and swarms of lice"?

Or should we be joyous about the endless series of similar slaughters that followed: at St. Francis (1759), Horseshoe Bend (1814), Bad Axe (1833), Blue Water (1854), Sand Creek (1864), Marias River (1870), Camp Robinson (187

and Wounded Knee (1890), to name only the worst?

Should we be thankful for the scalp bounties paid by every English colony -- as well as every U.S. state and territory in the lower 48 -- for proof of the deaths of individual Indians, including women and children?

How might we best show our appreciation of the order issued by Lord Jeffrey Amherst in 1763, requiring smallpox-infested items be given as gifts to the Ottawas so that "we might extirpate this execrable race"?

Is it reasonable to assume that we might be jubilant that our overall population, numbering perhaps 15 million at the outset of the European invasion, was reduced to less than a quarter-million by 1890?

Maybe we should be glad the "peaceful settlers" didn't kill the rest of us outright. But they didn't really need to, did they? By 1900, they already had 98 percent of our land. The remaining Indians were simply dumped in the mostly arid and unwanted locales, where it was confidently predicted that we'd shortly die off altogether, out of sight and mind of the settler society.

We haven't died off yet, but we comprise far and away the most impoverished, malnourished and disease-ridden population on the continent today. Life expectancy on many reservations is about 50 years; that of Euroamericans more than 75.

We've also endured a pattern of cultural genocide during the 20th century. Our children were processed for generations through government boarding schools designed to "kill the Indian" in every child's consciousness and to replace Native traditions with a "more enlightened" Euroamerican set of values and understandings.

Should we feel grateful for the disastrous self-concept thereby fostered within our kids?

Are we to be thankful that their self-esteem is still degraded every day on cable television by a constant bombardment of recycled Hollywood Westerns and television segments presenting Indians as absurd and utterly dehumanized caricatures?

Should we tell our children to find pride in the sorts of insults to which we are subjected to as a matter of course: Tumbleweeds cartoons, for instance, or the presence of Chief Wahoo and the Redskins in professional sports?

Does anybody really believe we should feel honored by such things, or by place names like Squaw Valley and Squaw Peak? "Squaw," after all, is the Onondaga word for female genitalia. The derogatory effect on Native women should be quite clear.

About three-quarters of all adult Indians suffer alcoholism and/or other forms of substance abuse. This is not a "genetic condition." It is a desperate, collective attempt to escape our horrible reality since "America's Triumph."

It's no mystery why Indians don't observe Thanksgiving. The real question is why do you feast rather than fast on what should be a national day of mourning and atonement.

Before digging into your turkey and dressing on Nov. 23, you might wish to glance in a mirror and see if you can come up with an answer.

Ward Churchill is professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado. He's the author of "A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present" (City Lights Books, 199

and "Struggle For the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide and Expropriation in Contemporary North America" (Common Courage Press, 1992).

Copyright 2000, Ward Churchill. Reprint or electronic distribution without permission is prohibited. Call the Progressive Media Project for information, 608-257-4626.

Dissident Heart

INMATES IN STATE AND FEDERAL PRISONS, 2000: 1,324,425

INMATES IN LOCAL JAILS, 2000:
621,149

Around the world Nations with highest incarceration rates per 100,000 residents (includes all individuals held in prisons and local jails)

1. USA 702
2. Russia 635
3. Cayman Islands 600
4. Belarus 577
5. Kazakhstan 494
6. Bahamas 478
7. US Virgin Islands 476
8. Kyrgyzstan 462
9. Belize 459
10. Bermuda 447

Source: International Center for Prison Studies

The Real Price of Prisons There are more people behind bars in the United States today than ever before. Since 1980, the inmate population has more than quadrupled to two million -- an unprecedented explosion that is incurring unprecedented costs to all Americans.

www.motherjones.com/news/...index.html


	FORUMS	ABOUT	BOOKS	VIDEOS	ADVERTISE	LINKS	BLOGS	DONATE	CHAT	CONTACT