Every once in a while, the media present statements so
uninformed and unintelligent that the only really suitable word for them is
“stupid.” Such stupidity is often the
result of someone trying to support a position in the absence of evidence or
argument of merit.
I have in mind a brief statement in “Sound Off” (29
Dec) supporting personal weapons, possibly assault weapons. Someone called in, “After Pearl Harbor, the
Japanese had thoughts of possibly landing troops on the shores of the American
mainland. They gave up the idea because
they knew that most American homes had firearms in them.”
Everything about this statement is false to the
historical facts. The Japanese never
deliberated invading America before, during, or after the attack on Pearl
Harbor; the entire purpose of that attack was to deter America from interfering
with Japanese conquest and control in East and Southeast Asia. So they never gave up an idea which they
never held, and they would not have given it up for the reasons asserted. At the time, relatively fewer American homes
had firearms, and those had shotguns, rifles, or six-shooters—which is why the
West Coast, where the Japanese would have landed, felt defenseless and demanded
that Japanese-Americans be interned inland.
The statement is absurd in its lack of
proportion. The caller wants readers to
believe that the Japanese had no fear of attacking our military forces—naval
port and yards, army forts, and army airfields—on Oahu but feared civilians
with firearms. Perhaps the caller will
supplement this inanity with assurances that greater firepower from modern
assault weapons in greater numbers among today’s West Coast population will
deter North Korean ICBMs.
The puzzle is whether the caller, obviously
ideologically driven, is ignorant of the facts and their implications or
dishonest in attempting to persuade the ignorant with falsehoods. Certainly, such folderol can not contribute
to that national conversation which gunslingers claim they want to have with
the rest of us.
Nothing is puzzling about the Tea Party’s
rationalization of its “small-government” position because it depends on calculated
misrepresentations of the historical facts.
The Tea Party claims that the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution and
the Tenth Amendment to reduce the power of the federal government. It offers this double fabrication—sanction by
icons and imputation of its position to them—to the faithful or the
uninformed—often one and the same—as a huckster of falsehoods.
Anyone who did not sleep through the fall term of
high-school American history should know that, within 6 years of the approval
of the Articles of Confederation (1781), the country’s founders gathered to
draft a new Constitution to repair the evident failures of weak government
under the earlier document. Anyone who
was awake to discussions of the Tenth Amendment should know that it was
intended as a sop to small-government advocates. For this amendment relies on narrower interpretations
of the broad language of the approved Constitution than are possible with a
decent respect for the purpose and meaning of its language. Even so, the Tea Party has never identified
one governmental power not mentioned in the Constitution which the states may
reserve to themselves.
The Tea Party’s invocation of the Founding Fathers
assumes that they were united in their views, which anticipated the Tea
Party’s. Despite its professions to the
contrary, the Tea Party disrespects the Founding Fathers in its ignorance of,
or indifference to, the fact that they often disagreed, quarreled, even dueled,
with one another. An excellent account
of their personal and political relationships in the context of contested
issues is Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers. It begins with the Burr/Hamilton duel; it
ends with the Adams/Jefferson reconciliation, in which each former president
and former adversary set aside past animosities to join in respectful
friendship, explained his differences in position to the other, and—well, I
shall not spoil the astonishing end. It
is the kind of short, lively, informative book which should be read in high
school. Tea Party members might want to
give it a try, if they have the stomach for the truth.
These local examples of ignorance or dishonesty
represent too much of what occurs in exchanges on political issues in this
country. Politicians and political
activists are given to trim their utterances to their policies and
purposes. But now many otherwise
ordinary people are doing it. We may
deplore such conduct, but tut-tutting is not enough to effect a change; only
penalties at the ballot box and public disapproval by the media may help. If it is not already too late—the inertia of
widespread ignorance may already have corrupted public discourse beyond
repair—it may help to explain how we got to this place, where stupidity and
deceit have become acceptable in public discourse.
My candidates for blame remain, as I have argued previously,
English and, to a lesser, degree, history teachers. In a desire to encourage responses, they
tolerate any response. The supra-subject
lessons taught are that any response is as good (never as bad) as any other;
that any distinction between better and worse answers is judgmental (which is
very bad); that any opinion has value because the opiner has value; and that
there is no differences between idea and individual. Ergo, criticism is personal attack motivated
by hate, and outrage at stupidity is anger.
Such are the lasting lessons of the public schools. So they teach, not “critical thinking,” but disregard
for factuality and reasoning, and intolerance of differences of opinion and
discussion.
Such public education in Las Cruces differs from
public education in other cities only in degree. Here as there, local education establishments
do what the public wants them to do.
Here, NMSU trains elementary school teachers neither proficient nor
inspiring, who then produce large numbers of students neither proficient nor
inspired. The public does not want it
otherwise. It expects the university and
the school district to reflect and reinforce the local conservatism which
dominates the culture, strongly influenced by a Hispanic and Catholic conservative
majority.
For two reasons.
One conservatism wants continuity, not change. Two, conservatism is pessimistic; it assumes
that change, especially in the name of reform, is less likely for the better
than for the worse. So most people hope
that the powers-that-be will leave things alone—polite handwringing and politic
tinkering are sufficient—so that people can enjoy families, friends, and nigh-school
football teams; than to involve themselves in civic affairs and remedy poverty,
illness, and ignorance in this predominantly Hispanic, Catholic city and state.
Which explains why Las Cruces and New
Mexico officials say much about these problems but offer little in the way of
solutions to them.
My proof of this dismal view of Las Cruces in an easy
one. Knowledgeable residents who have
lived here far longer than I report that the university and pubic schools are
no better, and may be worse, than they were decades ago. Of course, School Boards and Superintendents
chatter about education and doing everything for the kids; the fact that
education remains mediocre means that public education continues to do little
or nothing for them. Chambers of
Commerce and developers chatter about jobs—which, given the City’s no- or
low-skill workforce, means more low-paid work in construction, retail clerking,
burger-flipping, and pizza delivery. But
thanks to the local media, the city has no lack of editorial cheerleading and
reportorial coverage of ribbon-cuttings and kick-offs by local notables gathering
to congratulate each other on new initiatives which change nothing and achieve
nothing. No follow-ups report their
failures because their success is continuing stasis.
Local journalism has greater sins than these of
commission; more serious are the sins of omission. Thus, the Sun-News
got so mad about a senatorial candidate’s decade’s-old violation of an
open-meetings law that it supported an ignorant and deceitful Tea Party
candidate; more, it editorialized on the need for transparency so that the
paper could report the news. Fine words,
but before and after, it has gone AWOL about promised NMSU reports on
investigations on the Yelana Bird-John Moraros episode involving racial and
sexual harassment, and pornography, by leaders in the College of Health and
Social Services or the more recent investigation of the problems associated
with the loss of accreditation of DACC nursing program. The absence of editorials or articles on
these cover-ups suggests a no-dirt-on-city-whites policy which enables
ignorance and inaction.
Las Cruceans like it this way. They accept ignorance and deceit, and mediocrity
and inertia. For higher standards would
imply criticism of the status quo and might prompt reforms to better lives.
While I agree with your comment on the 29 December Sound Off being in the "stupid" range, your assertion can also be considered in the same "stupid" range. Unless you were a part of the Imperial Japanese military, how do you know what their intentions/plans were? Any comments by anyone not actually involved is pure speculation.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago when I was growing up in Carlsbad, my neighbor (behind my house) was in the Bataan Death March and had very little use for Japanese Imperial military. He grew up in Japan as his father was some sort of diplomat and came back to the States in 1940 (or thereabouts). When he got back here, he joined the Army or National Guard (can't recall which) in Carlsbad. He was fluent in Japanese (spoken and written) and said that the Imperial Military wanted to "control" the world and the Pacific Ocean. How far up those thoughts went are anyone's guess now.
I do agree that the premise of the Japanese not wanting to invade mainland USA because of "armed citizens" borders on the absurd, just as stating the "real intentions" is also absurd. You were not a part of Japanese military and therefore can not state what their actual intentions were.
Tea Party: When the Tea Party first started up, I agreed with the majority of their platform. But since the elections of 2010, they seem to have "jumped the track" so to speak and have become useless in my opinion, much like the current Democrat and Republican parties. They no longer speak for the average citizen, instead they speak for a small number of mega-donors who want to dismantle the US Government and reform it to their ideals (just like the Democrats and
Republicans want nowadays). Personally I think that both political parties and the Tea Party should all be banned from participating in elections forever, and all of the current crop of politicians be evicted from their respective seats so we could elect true "citizen-legislators" who would actually listen to the people and not their mega-donors. That will never happen, but still it is a nice thought.
We know the Japanese intentions from relevant historical testimony and documents, which have become the basis of histories of the war in the Pacific. Direct personal knowledge is not required.
ReplyDeleteEliminating the current office holders and holding new elections would do nothing it all. There are no blank slates; the issues, the candidates, the parties, the platforms or policies, etc., would all be the same or essentially the same. It would not be much of a democracy if it banned political parties. There are no "citizen-legislators," and it requires more than being a "good guy" or a "good gal" to pass good legislation.