Fetish of Fear
This is just me trying to work some things out in my head...
I had a hard time getting to sleep last night.
It is no surprise that we are a country that tortures as we are also a country of police shooting young black men. It is the same cloth - a nation of fear. The thing is, there has always been something to fear and we have had problems giving in to it in the past. Sometimes we are able to grow out of it, but then something new comes along. But there will always be something to fear. Why must we always over-react to this fear. Why can’t we act like responsible people?
Of course, we have been afraid of “The Black Man” for some time. We took people from African, forciably, and bound them into slavery and beat them. And even though our ancestors said that slavery was good for slave, that we were the paternalistic influence, Christianizing force, deep down we knew that was wrong, we were still afraid of them. Afraid to educate them. Afraid to give them weapons. Afraid of giving them so much as an inch of freedom. And that fear and knowledge of our injustice against them, individually and as a people, has only fed in this country. When emancipation did come, we were still afraid. They were closer to animals, “like a demon”, and a potential corruption of our white women. (Neither the black man nor the woman was seen as a rational adult) And as they fight for more civil rights that is due them, we still fear that these years of injustice will come back to bite us on the ass. And so it might, the longer we continue react in fear.
And knowing we give in to that fear domestically, is it any wonder we give into fear internationally? We fear the unknown, we fear the new, we fear the different. And that isn’t to say that we haven’t been attacked, but we made a fetish of fear. We have allowed ourselves to become that which we despise. We freak out and then allow the fear to overrule our better judgement and we find our selves being complicite in torture. And when it comes out, without a doubt, we allow those who pushed for this program to defend it! Why the hell are we still listening to these douche-bags?
We used to be better than this. We, as a country, have made mistakes, but we learn and go on. We make laws. We are not perfect, we never have been, but we used to have a trajectory towards a better world. Or was that a delusion?
We emancipated the slaves, we ratified the 15th Amendment. We force feed suffragettes but we ultimately ratified the 19th Amendment. We had Jim Crow laws in our country, but we had the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We didn’t solve the problems, but we made some effort to go toward justice.
We used to be a more optimistic country. We believed in that “Shining City on a Hill”. We believed we strove towards a more perfect union. Lincoln appealed to the “better angels of our nature”. I don't buy into "American Exceptionalism" but I thought the US took pride in justice.
And now we allow young African American men to be shot down in the street and allow the CIA to waterboard.
I had a hard time getting to sleep last night.
It is no surprise that we are a country that tortures as we are also a country of police shooting young black men. It is the same cloth - a nation of fear. The thing is, there has always been something to fear and we have had problems giving in to it in the past. Sometimes we are able to grow out of it, but then something new comes along. But there will always be something to fear. Why must we always over-react to this fear. Why can’t we act like responsible people?
Of course, we have been afraid of “The Black Man” for some time. We took people from African, forciably, and bound them into slavery and beat them. And even though our ancestors said that slavery was good for slave, that we were the paternalistic influence, Christianizing force, deep down we knew that was wrong, we were still afraid of them. Afraid to educate them. Afraid to give them weapons. Afraid of giving them so much as an inch of freedom. And that fear and knowledge of our injustice against them, individually and as a people, has only fed in this country. When emancipation did come, we were still afraid. They were closer to animals, “like a demon”, and a potential corruption of our white women. (Neither the black man nor the woman was seen as a rational adult) And as they fight for more civil rights that is due them, we still fear that these years of injustice will come back to bite us on the ass. And so it might, the longer we continue react in fear.
And knowing we give in to that fear domestically, is it any wonder we give into fear internationally? We fear the unknown, we fear the new, we fear the different. And that isn’t to say that we haven’t been attacked, but we made a fetish of fear. We have allowed ourselves to become that which we despise. We freak out and then allow the fear to overrule our better judgement and we find our selves being complicite in torture. And when it comes out, without a doubt, we allow those who pushed for this program to defend it! Why the hell are we still listening to these douche-bags?
We used to be better than this. We, as a country, have made mistakes, but we learn and go on. We make laws. We are not perfect, we never have been, but we used to have a trajectory towards a better world. Or was that a delusion?
We emancipated the slaves, we ratified the 15th Amendment. We force feed suffragettes but we ultimately ratified the 19th Amendment. We had Jim Crow laws in our country, but we had the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We didn’t solve the problems, but we made some effort to go toward justice.
We used to be a more optimistic country. We believed in that “Shining City on a Hill”. We believed we strove towards a more perfect union. Lincoln appealed to the “better angels of our nature”. I don't buy into "American Exceptionalism" but I thought the US took pride in justice.
And now we allow young African American men to be shot down in the street and allow the CIA to waterboard.