Blind spots
Submitted by James on Tue, 08/21/2007 - 10:00am
In my old age, I spend an increasing amount of time looking for what's not there, looking for holes. For example, when I'm reviewing a business strategy or a plan, I try to focus as much on what's missing as what's included. It's harder to see holes sometimes, but when you find them, they can be enlightening.
So when I read John Hood's gushing review today of Fred Anderson's The War That Made America, I couldn't help but notice a few gaping holes in his analysis of the French and Indian War that "created" our so-called land of the free and the home of the brave.
Mr. Hood, of course, is a huge fan of the historical importance of rich white men, especially those with militaristic flare. He has nicknamed his own children The Little General and the Little Conqueror, and seems to have great reverence for wars of aggression, like the ones that ultimately spawned the United States of America. And yet he recounts the history of those wars without so much as a nod in the direction of the attendant genocide.
If the story of Indian intrigue and Washington’s blunder intrigues you, you’ll find even more of interest in Anderson’s discussion of the river port sieges and backcountry raids that typified the North American war. The aftermath of the French and Indian War saw a triumphant but debt-burdened Britain try to recoup its costs by increasing levies on its lightly taxed American colonies, only to be surprised and stung by their violent reaction. The seeds of the Revolution were planted during these critical events in the 1750s and 1760s.
At the center of free-market (FM) rhetoric lies a fundamental principle that government should not force people to do much of anything. That idea underpins FM opposition, for example, to taxes and planning. Too bad it doesn't include opposition to the wholesale destruction of other civilizations.
I finally understand some of what's missing in the minds of many free-market fundamentalists: a sense of responsibility, and a sense of shame.
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And, yet...
I don't hear them whining about the government bailing out Wall Street - Socialized Business. That's what we have here. Government bailouts to the air industry, to oil industry, to pharmaceuticals, and now to the entirety of Wall Street. Socialized. Business.
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
That doesn't count
Because it works to their advantage.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
__________________
"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
Racism lies at the core
of the FM ideology, and the monster is omnivorous. By that, I mean they can digest new sociological findings as well as historical events and still come to the same Darwinistic conclusions.
When you actually trick yourself into believing the "greater good" eclipses human suffering, you can look at the exploitation and genocide of Native Americans and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and label it as "progress".
Well said.
My 10 days in New Mexico were filled with both wonder and horror. Wonder at the the amazing civilizations that took root here in the western hemisphere . . . horror at the death and destruction wrought by European culture on the indigenous people.
Tolerance ends
We are the deadliest plague
this world has ever seen, bar none. The bubonic plague of the 14th Century and the Influenza outbreak of the early 20th might have killed 90% of a village here and there, but we did it to a whole hemisphere.
There is nothing we could do that would be "enough" or "too much" to render aid and support to the descendents of these once great peoples.