| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Too Few Oppressors, Too Many Victims |
| 2012-11-23 |
| h/t Gates of Vienna Since the election, some fatalistic Washington conservative elites have accepted â and Obama operatives have rejoiced in â a supposedly new and non-white-male ethnic electorate: Americans will be categorized, and collectively so, on the basis of largely how they look and, to a lesser extent, how they sound. Republicans, then, better get with the new tribalism and remarket themselves to address the new minority monolith. Accordingly, the enlightened and redeemable liberal elements of the otherwise now played-out old white majority, when combined with the new ethnic minorities, will result in a permanent progressive majority â one that rejects the archaic, if not toxic, racialist values that have been in the past so injurious to the idea of what the United States might have otherwise become. Just imagine a better world with no more required reading of white male Greeks, no more inordinate focus on Shakespeareâs Shylock, no need to suffer through Twainâs N-word or Tolkienâs stereotypical dark-skinned orcs â or indeed, the one-dimensional and boring world we inherited from a Jefferson, Madison, Melville, Lincoln, Grant, Edison, Bell, TR, Salk, Nimitz, and Ike. ...Land of the Bad If we are to live in a tribal society, at least get the narrative down to avoid embarrassing contradictions. America was a racist patriarchy of homophobic, intolerant nativists that exploited others â somehow to build the Hoover dam, invent electricity, create the largest economy in the world, provide a model for globalization, and craft the most inspired constitution in the history of civilization. Do Oaxacans flock to this terrible place on the theory that it is not necessarily any better than Mexico but that it belonged to their ancestors â in a way Oaxaca (where are they leaving from) did not? Thus the dilemma: most in the world wish to emigrate to the one place that is held to be unfair and biased and in need of radical change. But if the United States begins to change and operate on the economic, political or cultural principles of Bolivia, Uganda, the Philippines, China, or Oaxaca, will millions still wish to come here, or will they prefer Uganda and Bolivia? It is very American to find an âedge.â In the bad old days, that meant having an uncle who was in the butchersâ union, or a cousin in the fire department, or a granddad who gave money to Yale, or a sister who was married to the dean of the law school. So perhaps the world of Elizabeth Warrenâs con is long overdue. Only in America can we be all that we wish to be â by just declaring ourselves to be among the growing number of victims rather than among shrinking pool of oppressors. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #3 But if the United States begins to change and operate on the economic, political or cultural principles of Bolivia, Uganda..... The "change" began quite some time ago and it recently accelerated to warp-speed. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-11-23 12:47 |
| #2 will millions still wish to come here, or will they prefer Uganda and Bolivia? From a tru globalist's perspective, if the willing inflow and outflow from each country to each country is not equal, then the system is unfair. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-11-23 10:21 |
| #1 One obvious answer is for victims to unionize and demand more oppressors and increased victimization. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2012-11-23 08:27 |