The Demonization of the US

It is infinitely true that we should never countenance efforts to minimize ghastly crimes against Gypsies, Jews, Communists, and others demonized as deviant by fascist Nazis in Germany and in their occupied European realms. This is why some people threaten to turn the debate about what is happening to migrants and their children on the southern US border in 2019 into a kerfuffle about the term “Concentration Camps”. They are right in that The Holocaust deserves a special place in our sense of history. Somehow, we must keep its memory alive to give its victims some measure of honor and dignity which they were unjustly denied in the circumstances of how they were murdered, tortured, exploited, and confined.

Most importantly we should preserve the history of Nazi crimes against humanity to work towards the day when such atrocities are not likely to happen again.

Anywhere.

Even the US.

“Never”, unfortunately, can be part of a very self-deceiving and self-defeating formulation about history and human nature. We must be ever so careful about what sense of history we have and are supporting in the public mind. In 2019 should we compare our concentration camps for border crossing migrants with the work camps and death camps run by Nazis during WWII and feel GOOD about ourselves?

Another comparison, perhaps more apt, is between those in Germany who were not active Nazis (and who maybe had uneasy qualms about Hitler) but who said, “Well what else can we do? I wish there were a better way to deal with the problems certain people are causing US who, after all, only want to be left in peace. And anyway, the Russians have their own brutal ways of . . .”

It is strangely provocative to say that Nazis and Fascists are people too. But it is imperative to never forget this essential truth. It’s absolutely crucial to remember this NOT to normalize or excuse torture, neglect, and the demonizing ill-treatment of helpless people, BUT to keep in mind how EASY it is to ignore it, passively support it, and even endorse it without ever getting OUR hands dirty.

The ones whose hands are dirty are, just remember, “only following orders”. And are administrators of our concentration camps to blame if we don’t provide them with enough blankets and diapers ?.... What can they DO?? What can ANYBODY do? Oh well . . . Anyway, the Iranians and Chinese are out to get us.)

There is a common connotation to the word “demonize” which involves depicting certain (often helpless) people in dehumanizing ways. But if you want to create real live actual human demons, just abuse, neglect, and despise them while they are helpless children. A few of them will survive into adolescence and adulthood in ways that will make us feel additionally afraid, superior, and even more crimped in our understanding of human nature.

Meanwhile, the world is watching the US and judging us.

And the vast condescension of history will have its savage say.




Joe Panzica (Author of Democracy STRUGGLES! and Saint Gredible and Her Fat Dad's Mass for which he is seeking an agent . . .)

Stinkers

Here's a dumbfounding problem with faithless American voters! It seems we're disgusted and exhausted with how our government wields power abroad, and David Brooks of the New York Times is very disappointed in us.

Yes, Iraq and Vietnam were “disasters.” But David Brook's Panglossian remonstrations ignore the monumental scope and multiple dimensions of these moral and material outrages as well as the deadly blowback that STILL devastates US far more than just the searing physical and psychic wounds of several generations of veterans. Is the problem that simply too many of us remember how both of these conflicts were a series of soulless atrocities sold to US with an endlessly repetitive litany of cynical LIES?

But Brooks does worse than blithely ignore the truly horrific dimensions of Vietnam and Iraq when he prattles about America’s “well-meaning” deployment of power into the world. What does he say about our interventions in Italy, Greece, and Iran? What about Honduras, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua? What about the Philippines and Indonesia? Where in any of those places did the US intervene to build democracy and support human rights?

Our leaders are blind, fools, and worse.

But are WE waking up?

Can we smell the coffee? Or is it whiffs of burning blood and cordite that we twist away from?

In the meantime refugees and their children flee from the charnel houses we’ve created in Central America and trudge a winding grinding treck through Mexico only to be coldly greeted by our very special form of tortured hospitality.

Hooray for US!

Stinkers...

Would we be more morally reprehensible if most of us were actually profiting from the chaos and despair with which we scourge the world? We sure do gobble up the cheap gadgets, clothes, and furnishing assembled for us in suicide factories armed with guards and barbed wire. And immigrants with and without correct paperwork labor cheaply in sun-scorched fields and sweltering kitchens to keep us fed. Need a new roof cheap or a rapid paint job on your second house? Those quick clean workers don't speak much English yet, do they?

Right now the mainstream media is reporting the following.

• The US is the worst developed country in the world in which to GIVE BIRTH.

• The LIFE EXPECTANCY of US residents is still declining.

• The US HEALTHCARE system is deplorable when compared to other developed nations.

• Our EDUCATION systems are far from stellar.

• The state of our PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE is somewhere between subpar and a shambles.

But voters don't thrill to the idea of MORE overseas adventures?

Something sure stinks.

Is it fake news?

Or could it be US?





Joe Panzica (Author of Democracy STRUGGLES! and Saint Gredible and Her Fat Dad's Mass for which he is seeking an agent . . .)

The GOP IS an Apocalypse (and so are we)

“My mentor William F. Buckley vowed to stand athwart history yelling “Stop!” Today’s Republicans don’t even seem to see the train that is running them over.” 

— David Brooks

Simply because "Today's Republicans" are not as diverse and contentious as Democrats, doesn't mean they are a monolith.  Aging rural "whites" and fundamentalist "Christians" are distinct groups no matter how much they overlap. Hair-on-fire working stiffs and dead-eyed plutocrats share nothing save a sick propensity to latch onto conspiracy theories.  Such groups and their historical counterparts have a long and dismal track record in the US and other developed nations engaged in shallow experimentation with liberal democracy. 

David Brooks glosses over the revanchist and racist brutality lurking just below the bovine stupidity of the populist base of our current reactionary coalition to try to assure us it is doomed by demographics.  No doubt Mr. Brooks is as sincere as he is earnest, but no matter how appealing his claim and how winning his sentiments, there are good reasons to challenge his optimism. 

Yes,  most young people of all backgrounds are rightly revolted by the false nationalism, racist cruelty, and misogynist "morality" that now galvanizes the G.O.P.  But such types of understandable dissatisfaction are not inevitable spurs toward positive reforms.  History proves such impulses are easily co-opted.  They are also likely to fester into swamp species of profound alienation which, in turn, can generate extremely frightening and unpredictable conditions.  Such forms of anomie are, even now, a potent driver of what passes for "today's 'conservatism'".

Nothing is more seductively "conservative" than the idea that invisible forces such as "markets" or "demographics" will solve all our problems if left to themselves. The arch of history is indeed long and determined by many forces our minds lazily lump together as "markets" or "demographics".  But many, if not most, of what are labeled as "markets" and "demographics" are susceptible to nudges.  These "nudges" come in many forms and from many sources including the wealthy, the powerful, the lucky, the damned, and the popular.  When these nudges are implemented in a relatively open and above board way, they are called "politics".  

Politics, no matter how democratic and/or technocratic, do not always lead to good results or well-advised interventions into economies and cultures, but politics has always been practiced by the few and reacted to by the many.  Right now, the US is being convulsed by the myriad reactions of the many to decades of indefensible politics by the few who may have believed our institutions could survive levels of wealth inequality which had previously lead to Great Depressions, totalitarian forms of government, and World Wars. 

Brooks makes the claim that people don’t get more conservative as they age. But the process of socialization and adaptation continues and the pressures to conform do tend to mount with seniority. While childhood trauma is the most impactful and long-lasting, every year of existence offers more opportunities to be traumatized. Much of the trimp reaction was ignited by the trauma of people losing jobs, businesses, homes, and savings in the Great Recession.  The conditions that lead to the last major recession have not been reformed away - and other forms of crisis are looming - or are in the process of being manufactured.

The corporately financed right wing has the resources, the time, and the implacable predilection to generate more crises and skillfully use them to tap into more trauma induced atavism. The fact that reactionary groups are more and more obviously an entrenched minority will only inflame their determination to scuttle democracy and hope. 

Call it fascism, populist authoritarianism, or corporate pragmatism, the forces arrayed against prospects for democracy cannot be underestimated.

Joe Panzica (Author of Democracy STRUGGLES! and Saint Gredible and Her Fat Dad's Mass for which he is seeking an agent . . .)