History, moving in circles
In less happy times- notably, the day after the 2004 election, I was fond of quoting Greil Marcus at some length:
In Berkeley in the mid-1960s, I used to marvel at the way friends made the world anew each day by cartwheeling down the street, moment to moment exchanging Trotskyism for anarchism for Stalinism for the occult for drugs for religion while Professors who in the 1930s were Communists and were now Freudians explained it all. In every case there was a received answer to every question, which meant that there were no questions. Everything seemed possible, and the prospect was terrifying-- so "nothing is true", one basis for "everything is possible", was exchanged for one Truth, whatever it was. Everything was present save a critical spirit, which might have made real the great adventure in doubt that, as Descartes described it, lay behind his "Cogito, ergo sum": his dead slogan. No doubt the mad multiplication of choice by which "the sixties" are known led straight to a surrender of choice in the next decades, a surrender to authoritarian religion, authoritarian politics- for some, freedom from doubt was always the point, peace of mind worth any price. An aide to Senator Jesse Helms, tribune of the American right, could speak of the need to go back beyond Descartes, explaining that inside all the vulgar propaganda of fetus murder and racist nightmare was a true project: the repeal of the Enlightenment, the rebuilding of a world where the affirmation of one’s own thoughts was a sin, the return of the will to God. Everyone knows history moves in circles; the surprise is how big the circles are.
I've been thinking about that today, and thinking that it's not always so bad that history moves in circles- there are good things to be found in the past, shining moments when decency and justice have found their way, against horrendous odds and the pernicious scheming of petty and evil men, back into the forefront of civic life.
Tonight, on NBC Nightly News, there was an interview with an 87 year old veteran of the US Tuskegee Airmen. In a beautiful gesture, the surviving members have been invited to the inauguration. Asked how he's going to feel watching Barack Obama take the oath of office, this old man, this hero, said: "Well, I can't really say what's going to happen, because I've never seen such a thing before, and thought I never would. I think it's going to feel a bit like... Heaven."
I couldn't presume to add anything to that.
I don't know if Gary Trudeau has ever done a rerun of a Doonesbury cartoon, but he could do worse this Tuesday than to reprint this masterpiece from September 2, 1974:
Welcome back, America. We've missed you.
In Berkeley in the mid-1960s, I used to marvel at the way friends made the world anew each day by cartwheeling down the street, moment to moment exchanging Trotskyism for anarchism for Stalinism for the occult for drugs for religion while Professors who in the 1930s were Communists and were now Freudians explained it all. In every case there was a received answer to every question, which meant that there were no questions. Everything seemed possible, and the prospect was terrifying-- so "nothing is true", one basis for "everything is possible", was exchanged for one Truth, whatever it was. Everything was present save a critical spirit, which might have made real the great adventure in doubt that, as Descartes described it, lay behind his "Cogito, ergo sum": his dead slogan. No doubt the mad multiplication of choice by which "the sixties" are known led straight to a surrender of choice in the next decades, a surrender to authoritarian religion, authoritarian politics- for some, freedom from doubt was always the point, peace of mind worth any price. An aide to Senator Jesse Helms, tribune of the American right, could speak of the need to go back beyond Descartes, explaining that inside all the vulgar propaganda of fetus murder and racist nightmare was a true project: the repeal of the Enlightenment, the rebuilding of a world where the affirmation of one’s own thoughts was a sin, the return of the will to God. Everyone knows history moves in circles; the surprise is how big the circles are.
I've been thinking about that today, and thinking that it's not always so bad that history moves in circles- there are good things to be found in the past, shining moments when decency and justice have found their way, against horrendous odds and the pernicious scheming of petty and evil men, back into the forefront of civic life.
Tonight, on NBC Nightly News, there was an interview with an 87 year old veteran of the US Tuskegee Airmen. In a beautiful gesture, the surviving members have been invited to the inauguration. Asked how he's going to feel watching Barack Obama take the oath of office, this old man, this hero, said: "Well, I can't really say what's going to happen, because I've never seen such a thing before, and thought I never would. I think it's going to feel a bit like... Heaven."
I couldn't presume to add anything to that.
I don't know if Gary Trudeau has ever done a rerun of a Doonesbury cartoon, but he could do worse this Tuesday than to reprint this masterpiece from September 2, 1974:
Welcome back, America. We've missed you.