The Mote in Everyone’s Eye

[McCamy Taylor]

Sometimes, I write about regional problems. Almost invariably, someone will show up to protest “Don’t pick on our state. Other states are just as bad.” This is a recurring problem, not just at DU, but in the U.S. and around the world. Remember the old saying “My country, right or wrong”? Remember the kinds of messes that one has gotten us into? Nixon playing dirty tricks on American celebrities was grounds for impeachment. Nixon illegally invading Cambodia and Laos, Nixon arranging for military coups in Argentina and Chile----that was “nothing to see here, move along” in the eyes of the majority of Americans. The mainstream media never seriously talked about impeaching Nixon and indicting Kissinger for war crimes. Because, if our country did it to someone else, it must be ok. And you were a damn commie pinkie traitor is you staged a protest for anything that did not involve self interest----like your interest in not dying young in a country far across the Pacific Ocean.

“My country right or wrong” was used to get us into the war in Iraq, where millions of civilians were killed and displaced. It was (and continues to be) considered beside the point to advocate for those millions of Iraqis. If you want to capture America’s attention, you talk about the thousands of U.S. soldiers who were killed.

Now, I don’t want to stigmatize any particular region as a bunch of whiners. Everyone is potentially a whiner when it comes to regional pride. Take Israel. The country advocates for the oppressed that the rest of the world sometimes forgets, like the people of Tibet and the Kurds. At times like those I love Israel. But, any reference to Israel’s own problems is often met by jeers, charges of anti-Semitism or warnings that national security could be imperiled if aid is given to the enemy. And that is a bloody shame, because Israel, more than just about any other country on earth, knows the dangers of using regional pride to stifle dissent.

France is another country with a long love of liberty. However, remind France that it continued to own (and brutalize) slaves in Haiti after its own revolution and France gets pissed. Remind France that they bankrupted the emerging nation of Haiti by force and they get even more pissed. “Not our fault,” we are told. “You can not blame the French people for what our government did.” Which is absolute bullshit. We already know that if the French people do not like what their government does, they are more than willing to march their leaders to the guillotine. In my mind, that is the best kind of proof that the French were more than happy to punish Haiti for having the temerity to do what they had already done----fight for freedom by killing their oppressors.

The prosperity that lead to the rise of the middle class in 18th and 19th century Europe came at a terrible cost for the native people of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia---and at least one European country, Ireland. During those bloody years, every one of the rich countries was ready to criticize its neighbor for its blood thirsty greed---while declaring its own right to kill for the sake of profit. So, we saw Great Britain denounce U.S. slavery at the same time that it was attempting genocide in Ireland by forcing Ireland to export food to England even as its own people were starving to death.

Regional pride gets most offended when you attempt to analyze the factors at play in a certain region that lead to the problem. Such analysis forces folks to acknowledge that they are not innocent bystanders. In some cases, they are part of the problem. Their attitudes allow---or even encourage—their government to do the unthinkable. Key parts of their culture---traits which make up part of their self identity---may have a down side. So, for instance, if you suggest that there was a tradition of respect for authority in Germany that lead to the rise of Hitler, you will be told “For shame! Don’t be so anti-German!” I choose this example because, of course, everyone agrees that Nazi Germany was so absolutely bad for its own country and the world that we can never stop studying that nation’s history in order to determine what went wrong and how we can make sure “Never Again” is more than just two words.

But what about all the other atrocities? The ones that kill thousands instead of millions? The ones that only cripple and maim instead of killing? What about the ones that involve the deaths of millions within one’s own borders (think Stalin and Russia)? How can we not study all that suffering and poverty? How can we not attempt to learn from history what went wrong?

The notion that atrocity comes from the top is nothing more than an extension of the very old fashioned belief that you could understand a culture or civilization by studying its rulers, its artists, its flag. In the post Marx era, we all know that the rulers do not inform the country. The country creates the rulers. And the country is created, in turn, by a while bunch of factors like geography, climate, local flora and fauna as well as the past history of the various peoples who inhabit it. And yet, we continue to cling to the belief that anything we do not like about our own city, state or country is the “fault” of someone else.

Want to know where that kind of thinking gets you? Look at the European witch hunts, in which whole towns were put to death. Look at the Holocaust. Look at the Crusades. And look at the apathy of so called freedom loving men like the Founders of our country who decided it would not be politically or economically expedient to outlaw slavery, no matter how morally reprehensible it was. Yes, Thomas Jefferson was a great American. Thomas Jefferson also owned slaves. To criticize Jefferson for owning slaves is not to criticize the American Revolution. We are all both saints and sinners.

Right now, we are occupying Wall Street. We march through the streets wearing shoes made by a child who works long hours and never gets to go to school in some far away country. Yeah, I know that I’m a real pain in the ass raining on the parade. No, I am not claiming that New Yorkers alone are responsible for the problem of forced child labor in other countries. You can still feel proud of yourself for picketing Bank of America, even if you do not where your shoes come from. But picketing Bank of America does not relieve you of your responsibility to that nameless, faceless foreign child.

Yes, places that used to have Jim Crow laws have made great strides forward in promoting equality under the law for members of different races. But some of those places have not really changed. They have simply changed the target of their oppression. Now it is immigrants who are stigmatized---at the same time they are the employees of choice for countless business owners. What does it say about a culture if it attempts to threaten, intimidate and even kill the very workers upon whom it is most dependent? It says that the economy of that culture has never really rid itself of the notion that slavery is the key to prosperity.


Many parts of the country pride themselves on not being the South. As if “not being the South” made it ok for Ohio to disenfranchise Black voters in 2004. As if “not being the South” means that Oregon never had a thriving KKK. As if “not being the South” means that migrant farm workers from Oklahoma were never brutalized in California. Each of these regions has a history and an ecology that made it possible for such things to happen. If you want to keep them from happening again, you have to study the region. But you can not study the region if you are told “Don’t blame us. It’s not our fault. Other people have acted worse than us. At least we aren’t the South.”

And the problems of the South---or Canada or Australia or Japan---- will never be solved if the answer you hear is always “I’m sick about hearing how bad we have it. Point your finger somewhere else.”

Speaking of shoes, I don't know where mine come from. So, once I finish posting this, I am gonna go find out. I suspect I won't like the answer. I am pretty sure I'm gonna feel down. "What was I thinking? How comes I never looked for a 'Made in the USA' label?" Oh, well. I may be 50 years old and have two advanced degrees, but I am never too old to "learn better".

[annabanana]

1. k&r for the simple truth. . . . . . and it's complicated implications. . . n/t