It is often said that when we point a finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at us. That reminds us to take a good look at ourselves before calling attention to what we perceive as the misbehavior of someone else.
I read a lot, and one of my favorite authors of fiction is surrealist Steve Erickson. I recently discovered a book of his I had missed, non-fiction coverage of the 1996 presidential campaign (American Nomad, Henry Holt & Co., 1997). Erickson, a novelist, was hired by Rolling Stone to bring a different flavor to campaign coverage. (Erickson’s running battle with Jann Wenner would make the book worth reading all by itself.)
This passage from Chapter 15 jumped out at me: “America wearies of democracy. Thirty years after a war that wounded its heart, twenty years after a scandal that scarred its conscience, ten years after fiscal policies that ridiculed its sense of responsibility and fairness, the country has nearly exhausted the qualities by which democracy survives and flourishes. America feels at the end of its power, and the result is a hysteria of which we’re barely conscious, a hysteria in which democracy appears as a spectacle of impotence and corruption.
“As Americans we have come to act more oppressed by freedom than exhilarated by it, more concerned with freedom from than freedom to. We divide between the vast and growing majority of us who – out of a sense of futility, confusion or indifference – are so disengaged from democracy we never vote at all, and those of us who vote not to thoughtfully resolve complicated issues but to express our rage.”
Those words were written over 20 years ago, before 9-11, before endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan, before Obama, long before Trump vs. Clinton. We should have listened.
Erickson goes on: “History is clear that democracy cannot long navigate a sea of national rage…Most importantly, (rage) overwhelms our basic faith in democracy itself and our belief in the individual freedoms that are inviolate…We display less and less patience with what we previously held to be unalienable, less and less patience with democracy’s inherent inefficiency, and the morass of conflicting interests that are read in democracy’s results. We display less and less patience, in other words, with America….
“(W)e have secretly come to fear and resent that the American Dream itself may be a delusion. This is the source of our rage, and of the rage that would devour democracy. It is a rage at ourselves, which we can barely stand to live with, but which is the only thing that seems to pump blood through the national heart anymore.”
THEM AND US
Note that Erickson always says “we,” “our,” “us.” He is not looking for scapegoats or saviors to point fingers at, but asks us to look at our American selves. We, the People. Democracy is forged, Erickson rightly reminds us, “of as many passions as there are voices, among which there is only one common rage, and that is the rage for justice.”
That “rage for justice” burns on the Left and on the Right, from antifa to the alt-right, from Black Lives Matter to white nationalism and the KKK. The problem is that we are not talking to each other and each believes theirs is the correct and only “justice” we seek. It’s “them vs. us.” And with that kind of polarization inevitably comes conflict, and then, violence. Violence, in turn, begets more violence.
While the corporate media fans the debate over football players “taking the knee” no one is really asking us to take a hard look at ourselves. Most white Americans believe that they are not prejudiced, that the legacy of slavery and segregation no longer matters, that race and nationality have nothing to do with building a wall between the United States and Mexico. I suggest that each reader take this little test for themselves.
The mainland United States is about to take in potentially millions of impoverished Hispanic Spanish-speaking refugees. What is your immediate reaction to that statement? These refugees are Puerto Ricans, homeless and hungry from the hurricane that has left the Caribbean island without power, food or water. FEMA already had a bit of a late start finding the island, and the destruction makes distribution of necessities extremely difficult.
The thing is: Puerto Ricans are natural-born US citizens, by virtue of the island being a colony – excuse me, territory — of the US since 1898. They don’t get to vote for president because Puerto Rico is not a state, but otherwise they have the full rights and privileges of any other American. Be honest – are your heartstrings tugged for them as they were for other Americans devastated by hurricanes in Texas and Florida? Are you as quick to send a check for hurricane relief aid in Puerto Rico as in Texas and Florida? Are you ready to welcome these homeless into your community? If not, why not? Are you among the half our population who didn’t realize that Puerto Ricans are Americans? What does your response tell you about yourself?
Erickson concludes: “Again and again the Twentieth Century tried to say no to democracy, again and again America answered: yes. The final American irony would be if…this country now turned to finish the job.”
(You might find American Nomad at used bookstores like Book Stop or Bookman’s in Tucson, or online at thriftbooks.com or AbeBooks.com.)
ABOUT COMMENTS FROM THE CHEMO COUCH: I am nearing 80 years of age and am taking chemo for multiple myeloma, an aggressive and incurable blood cancer that attaches itself to my ribs and spine and sucks the calcium out so that a sneeze breaks two ribs. That keeps me close to home. After several months of treatment it is still not clear whether the chemo is slowing the cancer down, but it all leaves me with little energy and a lot of time to think. And I think a lot, and because I’m a writer I want to put what I think into words for others to read. Give them something to think about too, about local and national politics, about nature, community, history, and maybe even about facing the end of my time on this earth. I am grateful to John and Lori Hunnicutt and the Arizona Daily Independent for carrying my opinionated stories, and hope these columns will get readers thinking. I am a trained researcher and do diligent research to present facts and avoid name-calling. Hopefully we will all learn something we didn’t know and will talk to each other about it. Right or Left, we have more in common than we are often willing to admit, and dialogue is, perhaps, the only thing that can save democracy in America. — AVL