tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184575347466163757.post278934305067356466..comments2023-07-03T08:51:01.209-05:00Comments on What Powderfinger Said . . . Observations on Life in the Dying Empire: Blown AwayAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00111660094586126379noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184575347466163757.post-49403108199027043762009-04-09T11:14:00.000-05:002009-04-09T11:14:00.000-05:001. Of course. War/violence have to be hallowed as ...1. Of course. War/violence have to be hallowed as a legitimate tool of foreign policy and then further sanctified by attaching notions of honor and patriotism to it. The idea of dying for an abstraction like "country" won't stand up to scrutiny, so it's one of the "truths" that people are socialized into from the beginning of their lives, so when it comes time for their lives to be sacrificed for whatever political expedient is at hand, they do it willingly, to the plaudits of everyone else.<BR/><BR/>2. JQA could have never gotten an ounce of political backing for emancipation in the 1820s. He would have been considered a lunatic. It would never have worked then. Lincoln, in my view, was a pragmatist to his bones. Emancipation was a war measure. He is on record as saying if not freeing the slaves would preserve the Union, he would take that course.<BR/><BR/>3. We are callous, avaricious, and, increasingly, ignorant. The three reinforce each other. As writers, it's our obligation to stand for the opposite of these. <BR/>I don't think "brutal" with its connotations of savagery and barbarism is accurate for the vast majority of us, although it would certainly describe a portion of Americans.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00111660094586126379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184575347466163757.post-70006510973175263522009-04-09T04:00:00.000-05:002009-04-09T04:00:00.000-05:00Yes.(1)Only I don't think it is cause-and-effect. ...Yes.<BR/>(1)Only I don't think it is cause-and-effect. The instances of violence and war in history march along hand in hand with our acceptance of it - they reinforce each other.<BR/><BR/>(2)What if John Qunicy Addams had issued the Emancipation Proclamation and had made it work? How would we view Lincoln and the Civil War? Would we consider him a pawn of the John Brown-type radicals? <BR/><BR/>(3)If we are not gentle, what are we? <BR/>Are we brutal?<BR/>There are only so many choices.<BR/>If we are brutal, have we actually understood - as writers - what it means to write for a brutal audience?Montaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00017648070522030951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184575347466163757.post-53081765255576627042009-04-08T16:08:00.000-05:002009-04-08T16:08:00.000-05:00Hmmmm. I'm not so sure that I'd equate fascination...Hmmmm. I'm not so sure that I'd equate fascination with violence with finding it satisfying. Although I don't think this is what you're saying, is it? I think our historical conditioning as Americans--slavery, destruction of the native Americans, in particular, Manifest Destiny, imperialistic seizure of territories in the 1840s and 1890s--all this leads to our acceptance of violence as normal. We are not a gentle people.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00111660094586126379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184575347466163757.post-87260628448384901852009-04-07T01:42:00.000-05:002009-04-07T01:42:00.000-05:00I did a post on March 31 about John C. Calhoun.I s...I did a post on March 31 about John C. Calhoun.<BR/><BR/>I started reading his writings. I had never before questioned anything connected with our praise and adulation of Lincoln, however:<BR/> <BR/>"It is madness to suppose that the Union can be preserved by force. Disguise it as you may, the contest is one between power and liberty."<BR/><BR/>Do you think that our attitude towards the Civil War is possibly another example of our fascination by violence, and why we find it so satisfying?Montaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00017648070522030951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184575347466163757.post-70225600750218516992009-04-07T00:20:00.000-05:002009-04-07T00:20:00.000-05:00Alas, you are unquestionably right.Alas, you are unquestionably right.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00111660094586126379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184575347466163757.post-64761942532468284682009-04-06T04:25:00.000-05:002009-04-06T04:25:00.000-05:00There are more than enough good size shootings to ...There are more than enough good size shootings to warrant a cable channel on their own, something like Nancy Grace.Montaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00017648070522030951noreply@blogger.com