Tag Archives: Carl Becker

I don’t know if you have observed but we have become shabby as a country; the American people absolutely deserve what they are getting, for they have voted in the rascals. Indeed, we are the rascals. I have no faith in politicians but I have a greater lack of faith in the American people — and a great fear of them as well.

White men, lawyers, WASPS wrote the Constitution and it is a perfect lawyer’s document which protected economic vested interests (See Charles Beard’s The Economic Interpretation of the Constitution )– and racist: the slave is three-fifths of a white man for purposes of representation, etc. Yeah, yeah. I know the come back lines. I don’t read the books Glenn Beck reads and only a decade or two ago he would never have been allowed to drive a Good Humor truck much less preach his Mormonisms filtered through his racism and ignorance. There are those who learn history from him, who esteem him and they are fast becoming in charge, as far as I am concerned. If I had the werewithal I would leave this country, for it reeks of things foul and fetid. Hatred pours in large quantities from each of the stars in our flag.

I have observed that Newton Minow’s comment about television decades ago is still of worth, that it was “a vast wasteland.” It still is. Anyone watching American television abroad might conclude that we are a fairly polluted people, reeking of materialism, the fat cats of the world; we find it hard as a nation to look at ourselves closely or in any other perspective except positive. I feel we are a society in decline. Years ago, many years ago, the historical bromide was that the American people eventually catch their wind and do the right thing; that this was a remarkable trait of us as a people. Well, that is over. The American people have acted as dullards for decades now and if you have observed this empire of ours, yes, it is an empire, we  have been in continual wars up to this date. Sssshh! Don’t tell anyone. In fact, we easily feel free about labeling war criminals in other nations but there is no doubt in my mind that George Bush and Dick Cheney are war criminals and that no one will ever bring charges against them; that in 25 years we will have revealed historical knowledge about how our dear Constitution was sullied by their behaviors. Our textbooks most likely will expunge any mention about the cultural genocide we wreaked against the American Indians, for we must sell textbooks and the grand state of Texas, because of its buying power, tells publishers what they want in their social studies textbooks. The publishers capitulate.Talk about corruption.

In a side note: when I began to teach social studies more than 30 years ago, I came to the classroom constipated with a lot of historical knowledge, weighted with all the historical works of note I could manage to read and absorb, for I had majored in American History. In a book by Carl Becker, one of our most eminent historians, about the Declaration of Independence, he made the very capable case that it was essentially a piece of propaganda meant for the digestion of the American colonies; that some of the charges against King george were meretricious, and so on. He had done the historian’s task — he told the truth dispassionately. In class, in my naivete, I had mentioned that it was propaganda and before the week was out one family asked that their child be allowed to transfer out. I told the unvarnished truth and for that I was not punished, but a child was denied what I feel is still a very valid truth. Read his book! We don’t want to hear, we don’t want to know — ask any witness to the cattle cars heading to Auschwitz.

All societies are essentially corrupt, Krishnamurti said a long time ago. And his generalization is spot on, all countries except the United States, that is. Only in this country might we say that such and such is “unAmerican.” Do they say in Europe something is “unFrench” or unGerman”? It is as if the very language we employ reveals our obstinancy and blindness. However, let me be gracious — since all societies are essentially corrupt because all societies are composed of human beings and human beings are a very dark species, indeed. What is insufferable in this nation is the traditional trait of our feeling superior, as if we are the coming of the lord, our messianic impulse if you will. The same old shit that the Catholic Church has used to declare itself as the successor to Judaism (super succession or replacement theology), that for me to be better you must get worse, for me to succeed you must fail, all emblematic of human nature and society, all societies, at large. You know it is really damn hard to get off this planet in one piece, intact and whole. I imagine this is the “up” side of dying, for this living lunacy dies — the thought of heaven with others of my ilk is just too much a fantasy for me to entertain for even a moment.