Folks want to know.
Put away the flags
By Howard Zinn
On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.
Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?
These ways of thinking -- cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on -- have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.
National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.
Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy.
That self-deception started early.
When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession."
When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."
On the eve of the Mexican War, an American journalist declared it our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." After the invasion of Mexico began, The New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country."
It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to
war.
We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people.
As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our secretary of war, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness."
We see in Iraq that our soldiers are not different. They have, perhaps against their better nature, killed thousands of Iraq civilians. And some soldiers have shown themselves capable of brutality, of torture.
Yet they are victims, too, of our government's lies.
How many times have we heard President Bush tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for "liberty," for "democracy"?
One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail in 2004 that God speaks through him.
We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.
We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.
Howard Zinn, a World War II bombardier, is the author of the best-
selling "A People's History of the United States" (Perennial Classics, 2003, latest edition). This piece was distributed by the Progressive Media Project in 2006.
Well, we did "civilize" and attempt to "christianize" a bunch of cultures at gunpoint.
and we prevailed because our civilization was/is superior to theirs.
If ya don't like it here, move to france, asshat.
Howzabout Venezuela instead? I happen to like France and even though he would probably fit in fairly well, he would bring that place down immeasurably.
Sad thing is, he's a little bit right - nationalism for its own sake can be a dangerous thing. A rational patriotism, based on the idea that our country is the best for a particular reason, is not. He's too much of a moron to even make the distinction, much less agree that we are.
I think it would also depend on the policies behind the nationalism. While there have been some bad decisions and atrocities, there have been some good decisions and positive actions. It all depends on the leadership.
No matter how bad I think things are, I can't think of another country I'd like to live in.
If you question someone's patriotism, then you are obviously not very patriotic, because questioning patriotism is unAmerican, you commie slime!!!!
we prevailed because our technology (one small part o our "culture") was/is superior. BUt I don't think we can say our "culture" as a whole was superior (unless you'ld like to point out some examples)...
Technological superiority was only part of it. The natives were doomed to lose, because they had no concept of an organized military, of a sustained campaign, of settled farming or of medicine or the other non-technological factors that allowed Whites to outnumber them, and to keep hounding them until they were defeated. Besides that, the Whites were organized into a few very large groups (English, French, American, Mexican, etc.), as opposed to the myriads of unorganized tribes, nations and bands that fought with each other, and with the White Man.
Examples of what? The evils of the native cultures? There were many. The advantages of Western culture? Many of those, as well. I'm not sure how to point out American cultural superiority in any succinct way, so I'll just say our culture is superior to any of the other cultures heretofore arrived at by humans. We could spend several long threads discussing all of that.
There is no need to read the entire piece; just reading
is the author of the best-
selling "A People's History of the United States"
and This piece was distributed by the Progressive Media Project in 2006.
tells me everything I need to know.
I can live with sending him over to make friendly with hugo.
Sorry laurent, the French are still by default my goto, self loathing scapegoats. nothing personal
Bigjake,
If this guy hates mindless nationalism then France is just about the last place this guy will want to go.
If ya don't like it here, move to france, asshat.
Nah, the French are about the only place left that can match us for nationalistic zeal. Heck, it's why we don't get along all that well. If he wants some company with a bunch of self-loathing folks, he should try Germany.
Sad thing is, he's a little bit right - nationalism for its own sake can be a dangerous thing.
Thank God we don't have to worry about that. Our so-called 'leaders' don't even have a sense of sovereignty or stewardship. They're prepared to just give the country to whoever can walk across the border.