My mother's family is from the Old West. My grandfather was born on an Indian reservation, son of a horse trader. He saw the Wild West turning into the tame version full of vanity ranches we have now. Didn't say much about the changes because he didn't have anything good to say. Back in those days, 'uppity', 'spit in their eye', and 'I don't reckon', were pretty mild ways of expressing a fiercely independent and individualistic streak Westerners proudly wore along with jeans that had a round mark from the Skoal tin in their back pocket. Read Thomas Pynchon's 'Against the Day' for more on this, if you can handle a lot of sex in a novel.
Our political history, it seems to me, is based on this style. Early colonists came to get away from governments telling them what to think. Escaping poverty has played a big part in our in migration, but escaping oppression has been and remains a big factor. We stood up to King George, and did more than spit in his eye. The European powers tried to push our new country around, and we formed ragtag militias and showed them that the Atlantic was too big an obstacle to be able to impose their Imperial ambitions upon a determined and armed society.
We have glorified the little guy in our mythology and law. This has led to a culture where taking on the big guys and popular opinion is seen as heroism rather than idiocy. See Gregory Peck in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. The back stop of rule of law has made this possible. We have gotten our day in court, some kind of attorney, and with no obvious bruises showing, for the most part. Journalists will likely be there, and the little guy against the system story sells newspapers. To me, this is one of the most important parts of our history and traditions.
After my little jaunts to Russia, Malaysia, and now back in Thailand after the political unrest recently, here are some thoughts on how differently their societies deal with dissent.
In Russia the state is once again consolidating legal power over the post Soviet breakup oligarchs as well as ordinary people with nationalism and brutality as their hallmarks. America is the convenient bad guy, responsible for the breakup of their Empire (true enough in part, and boy are we paying a price for our own Imperial ambitions and willingness to print money in support of it). A new version of the former 'Young Communists' youth movement is arrogantly standing up for the United Russia party (black shirts in waiting) and are breaking heads to prevent any independent political parties from gaining traction. Those that complain about cronyism are likely to get beat up, arrested, and tried in closed courts (family members included). My younger Russian friends see no point in even thinking about politics.
In Malaysia, state sanctioned preferences for Malays are now entrenched, with every vote in party congresses having a price tag up front and a feeding frenzy on the exchequer in the back room. The question of who qualifies as a Malay seems to come down to religion more so than origin, with some from Indonesia and India managing to get to the trough as well those with a longer tenure on the land. Bloggers are getting arrested and Singapore's repressive meritocracy looks better and better to a lot of Malaysian citizens. The weight of inefficiency is starting to drag the economy down and a lot of hard working upwardly striving people can't reach success.
In Thailand a seemingly developing country has been revealed to have never gotten beyond its feudal past, as the populist government (startlingly efficient in its corruption and totally indifferent to the good of the country) has now been brought down by what many foreign commentators are calling reactionary forces in society. A mostly well intentioned mass of urbanites has been led by a black magic believing demagogue into crippling the elected government. The army prevented an otherwise bloody resolution until the suddenly speedy courts brought down a third prime minister in three years (the first one, still pulling the strings, was removed by an Army coup in 2006). This group took over the Government House for months before occupying the major international airport. No effective legal action was ever taken against them and the same courts released their leaders on bail to continue despite their political foes holding a parliamentary majority.
I hope that the old style conservatives in America, a la Barry Goldwater, realize how combining deregulation of the markets with giving the fat cats front row seats at the federal appropriations merry go round has bankrupted America in a way that no socialized medicine pay outs ever could. Charting the national debt versus party in power for the last 20 years shows how social conservatism has trumped fiscal conservatism.
My real fear is that with the erosion of our proud tradition of civil rights and the individuals rights to habeus corpus, privacy, a speedy and fair public trial with a jury of their peers, that old 'spit in their eye' spirit may be gone. With the Eurozone at the mercy of the southern gas pipelines, Britain on its knees economically, France still holding its post colonial non Gallic population down, and America polarized between blue and red instead of thinking of red, white, and blue, what little guy will still be able to stand up to fight for principles?
A lot of people feel the rapid expansion of information technology and phenomenons like blogging will empower the individual. Looking at America from afar, I think the recent ascendancy of fear over principle in public affairs is what we need to be empowered about.
island guy
1 comment:
I forgot about your tribes Montana and Imperial Valley connection. Must have been a source of continual pain to raise an intellectual. And a college graduate, no less. Oh well, it happens in the best of families...
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