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A self-described right winger often visits the gym at the lab when I work out. Fred (not his real name) and I maintain a cautiously friendly relationship, and when my lunchtime workout coincides with his, we sometimes politely spar about the issues that face our society and the world. During one such repartee, as I was questioning some of Freds beliefs about the motives of our countrys government, he suddenly asked me, Do you hate America? I cant say I was surprised at the question; Ive heard the accusation of anti-Americanism used often in recent years to quiet dissent. Yet it was the first time Id personally been confronted with the thinly veiled accusation.
In my view, Fred (like others) is moved to try to stifle disagreement by his amazement, and fear, that I would have the audacity to disagree with many assumptions most Americans hold about their countrys culture and political motives. After all, there was widespread shock when celebrants of Columbus Day learned that other groups of Americans, namely the original ones, intended to protest the glorification of that mans legacy, using his own records to prove his greedy intent and murderous actions.
The subject here is myth, which according to Dr. Rick Wheelock, professor of Southwest and American Indian Studies at Fort Lewis College, is not just for small indigenous groups anymore. Myth might be defined as a traditional story or set of stories shared and accepted by any group of people to explain their worldview and justify their actions. In a Fulcrum Press anthology tentatively titled Destroying Dogma, Professor Wheelock instructs that in each aspect of Americas development, a lasting, larger than life theme emerges to support the identity of a steadily progressing nation. The compilation of these themes is what Dr. Wheelock calls The American Story, carefully edited in our nation-states history into master narrative form: the account of Americas successful rise to glory.
Like Columbus hero image, myths can often be easily disproved or discredited, which is not to say they die easily. Because myth lives in the incredibly powerful emotional and subconscious spheres of its adherents, mere fact does not automatically displace the preferred belief. In fact, accurate information is often bent in order to preserve what Wheelock calls the basis for group actions and solidarity of purpose among the American people. (With apologies to other inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, America will be used to refer to the United States. )
If the actions of the American citizenry through a tacit responsibility for their governments actions toward, for example, elected governments in South America or civilians in Iraq turns out not to match the popularly held notion of a just and caring society, that information is suppressed and the messenger vigorously attacked. Witness the clamorous denouncements of France, the United Nations and anyone else pointing out the illegalities and immorality of the unilateral attack on a sovereign nation. The specific points of reason behind any such insults to America, whatever their merits, were conveniently lost in the furor and did not see the light of day. At least and this should alarm us not in this country.
There are many instances of the myth of America obstructing our reasoning, leading to denials that permit and even dictate wrong action. Why, if a sacred part of Our Story is the overthrow of monarchical rule in favor of an egalitarian society, do we still strive to live like kings, feeling that we as Americans (at least some of us) have the unique right to that lifestyle, regardless of the cost to other peoples and the wealth of the planet?
Now we have turned over leadership of our national government and many local and state institutions as well to men whose greatest, perhaps only, talent is knowing how to use The American Story to fulfill their ideology. They know that the great Americans in the history books never suffered self-doubt and that to admit mistakes is weakness. They are acutely aware of the reverence with which military heroes are held and how, in America, the concept of the self-sufficient individual, though in fact a bygone phenomenon, can be easily twisted to mean devil take the hindmost.
I am not suggesting we scrap our myths, even if we could. Rather, let us truthfully reexamine them in public dialogue. As a multicultural society, we will surely discover useful ideals in the myths of others among us: tolerance for the ways of others; the solidarity that comes with understanding that offense to one is offense upon all; maybe even a long-lost tradition of self-restraint. Ancient stories can serve us well in facing the challenges of the 21st century.
In my view, Fred (like others) is moved to try to stifle disagreement by his amazement, and fear, that I would have the audacity to disagree with many assumptions most Americans hold about their countrys culture and political motives. After all, there was widespread shock when celebrants of Columbus Day learned that other groups of Americans, namely the original ones, intended to protest the glorification of that mans legacy, using his own records to prove his greedy intent and murderous actions.
The subject here is myth, which according to Dr. Rick Wheelock, professor of Southwest and American Indian Studies at Fort Lewis College, is not just for small indigenous groups anymore. Myth might be defined as a traditional story or set of stories shared and accepted by any group of people to explain their worldview and justify their actions. In a Fulcrum Press anthology tentatively titled Destroying Dogma, Professor Wheelock instructs that in each aspect of Americas development, a lasting, larger than life theme emerges to support the identity of a steadily progressing nation. The compilation of these themes is what Dr. Wheelock calls The American Story, carefully edited in our nation-states history into master narrative form: the account of Americas successful rise to glory.
Like Columbus hero image, myths can often be easily disproved or discredited, which is not to say they die easily. Because myth lives in the incredibly powerful emotional and subconscious spheres of its adherents, mere fact does not automatically displace the preferred belief. In fact, accurate information is often bent in order to preserve what Wheelock calls the basis for group actions and solidarity of purpose among the American people. (With apologies to other inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, America will be used to refer to the United States. )
If the actions of the American citizenry through a tacit responsibility for their governments actions toward, for example, elected governments in South America or civilians in Iraq turns out not to match the popularly held notion of a just and caring society, that information is suppressed and the messenger vigorously attacked. Witness the clamorous denouncements of France, the United Nations and anyone else pointing out the illegalities and immorality of the unilateral attack on a sovereign nation. The specific points of reason behind any such insults to America, whatever their merits, were conveniently lost in the furor and did not see the light of day. At least and this should alarm us not in this country.
There are many instances of the myth of America obstructing our reasoning, leading to denials that permit and even dictate wrong action. Why, if a sacred part of Our Story is the overthrow of monarchical rule in favor of an egalitarian society, do we still strive to live like kings, feeling that we as Americans (at least some of us) have the unique right to that lifestyle, regardless of the cost to other peoples and the wealth of the planet?
Now we have turned over leadership of our national government and many local and state institutions as well to men whose greatest, perhaps only, talent is knowing how to use The American Story to fulfill their ideology. They know that the great Americans in the history books never suffered self-doubt and that to admit mistakes is weakness. They are acutely aware of the reverence with which military heroes are held and how, in America, the concept of the self-sufficient individual, though in fact a bygone phenomenon, can be easily twisted to mean devil take the hindmost.
I am not suggesting we scrap our myths, even if we could. Rather, let us truthfully reexamine them in public dialogue. As a multicultural society, we will surely discover useful ideals in the myths of others among us: tolerance for the ways of others; the solidarity that comes with understanding that offense to one is offense upon all; maybe even a long-lost tradition of self-restraint. Ancient stories can serve us well in facing the challenges of the 21st century.
