After a week
kicking back with the goodwife and bonnie wee bairn on Spring break, Spartacus
plows into the midst of the foray, like an M-1 tank out of
the Churchill Downs starting gate. (That would be a sight!
"I can't believe it! I have never seen the horses run this
fast!" Vrrooomm!!)
Spartacus is
good for reality checks; I can generally count on him to cut through any
thickness of BS (including my own) and expose the sick digestion behind it.
Thanks to years in the military, his nose is even keener than his eyes, and he
almost never gets his boots dirty. He also doesn't BS, himself – usually;
sometimes, though, courtesy/culture requires him to squat and produce something
particularly redolent… in which case, you'll either swear you're smelling
roses, or stand back and marvel at the end product.
So I sent
him a copy of Lewis Napper's suggested "New Preamble to the
Constitution" that had served as the pivot-point for last Friday's posting here. I
wanted his read, figuring he'd spot more effluvium than I'd caught on my own
quick weekend rake-over.
His response
last night doesn't let us down.
Thanks for sending this "new preamble" along.
This is another one of those conservative screeds which cycle and recycle
interminably through the netherworld of the of the forwarded e-mail. At first
glance, many of the points seem reasonable and desirable, but it doesn't take
too much effort to pierce the façade to see the bigoted assumptions which lie
underneath--and that, I believe, is where the corrosive insidiousness of this
sort of "thought" dwells. You have addressed a number of these issues
point by point, and done a great job with it.
(Thanks for
the compliment, Sparks! I wasn't trying to impress you, though you know, or
anybody else; I just couldn't sit still and leave that simplistic drivel un-
responded-to.)
I see no point in reiterating your comments, so I'll just
limit my critique to a brief look at the most obvious examples of the
underlying assumptions which inform the conservative viewpoint contained
within.
The most striking is the willfully ignorant, arrogant
mindset of those accustomed to a position of power and privilege, a mindset
which places the holder both apart from and above the rest of the world.
Unreflective, smugly self-congratulatory and vindictive, this mindset finds
"its own" blamelessly perfect and places all the ills of the world in
the hands of those "less worthy".
"Article X" is
typical of this sort of thinking, promulgating the myth of the English speaking
nation, and simultaneously denying at least 14,000 years of history. Before the
white man there was the "native" American, then the Spaniards, the
Dutch, the French, the English, and many other ethnic and national groups.
English rose to predominance as a consequence of war and cultural domination,
and its preeminence has endured as a result of those particular historical
forces--it was neither first, nor God-given, nor preordained to dominate
forever. Just because our nation's founders were better at slaughtering the
competition doesn't mean we are now somehow immune to the forces of
change.
"Article XI"
promulgates another myth--that this nation was founded on a belief in God.
Actually, the founding fathers were far more influenced by Enlightenment
thinkers such as John Locke. Yes, belief in God permeated the culture of the
time, yet if one looks at the personal beliefs of many of the key founding
fathers, one will discover their conception of God was closer to the
Enlightenment's Deism--a viewpoint which was quite different from our
contemporary conservative right's fundamentalist Christian god.
"Article VI and VII",
yes, you are absolutely not allowed to rob or commit crimes of violence upon
other people, unless you are a member of the dominant culture and inflict those
crimes upon the politically, socially and culturally disenfranchised members of
"inferior" races, cultures or creeds. Phrases such as "manifest
destiny" and "national interest" sanction the abandonment of all
that is considered moral and just.
If we are to live up to the ideals of the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution; if we are to realize the true potential of
America; if we are to endure as a vibrant nation; we need to take a painfully
honest, objective look at ourselves, free from mindless, flag-waving hooplah
and jingoistic self righteousness. Until we fully understand, accept and atone
for the fallacies and flaws of this nation and our culture, we will never be
able to attain true morality and justice.
We have already endured almost 2 terms of the most
ignominious yahoo to ever occupy the Oval Office. Electing the originator of
this "preamble" to the office might well be the final straw...
Preach on,
brother! Speaking of rewriting the constitution, that's exactly what we've been
sitting entirely too still throughout, these last six-plus insane years.
Enough! Stand by for a further tirade, this one from none other than Lee
Iacocca. I ran into it earlier today, and would like to put it up here a bit
later today or tomorrow if possible.
(And lest my
other two readers think Sparklous and I are lock-steppers, I hope to post soon
(with his permission) one of our debates on art. I mentioned this in passing,
several paragraphs into my comments on Jesus-as-confection.)
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