Howard Zinn: The Scourge of Nationalism

[paineinthearse]

http://www.progressive.org/june05/zinn0605.php

June 2005 issue

It Seems to Me Howard Zinn

The Scourge of Nationalism

I cannot get out of my mind the recent news photos of ordinary Americans sitting on chairs, guns on laps, standing unofficial guard on the Arizona border, to make sure no Mexicans cross over into the United States. There was something horrifying in the realization that, in this twenty-first century of what we call "civilization," we have carved up what we claim is one world into 200 artificially created entities we call "nations" and armed to apprehend or kill anyone who crosses a boundary. Is not nationalism--that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder--one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking--cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on--have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica, and many more). But in a nation like ours--huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction--what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves. Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy.

That self-deception started early. When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession." When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women, and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."

It was our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence," an American journalist declared on the eve of the Mexican War. After the invasion of Mexico began, the New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country." It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to war. We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people. As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our Secretary of War, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness."

much more.......

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Howard Zinn's latest work (with Anthony Arnove) is "Voices of a People's History of the United States."

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. Howard Zinn is one of my heroes

did you see the documentary about him on the Sundance Channel? It's called "You Can't Be neutral on a Moving Train".

[bpilgrim]

2. thanks for that, this reminds me very much of Imperial Japan during WWII

GEACPS

thanks for sharing :toast:

peace

[Cleita]

3. Howard Zinn is able to say these things that we can't and

he is so right. I wanted to put up a post about American bigotry coming over here on the Mayflower and how it is still going strong today as evidenced by the Minutemen on the Arizona border, but I know I would have been shouted down. Thanks Howard Zinn for saying it.

[paineinthearse]

6. Post away

The truth cannot be "shouted down".

[ultraist]

4. .

:kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Nationalism, hyped with deliberaately induced xenohobia and fear of

attack have been the driving force behind so much evil and destruction. It is one more ugly parallel between the neocons and the Nazis, for example, and anyone with any sense of history at all does not need to strain to think of additional harrowing examples.

It's invoking tribalism in the worst sense, while spreading lies about how dangerous and/or perverted, inhuman the designated enemies are - and it WORKS. Orwell was right. The neocons and their extremist Fristian enablers are pushing this evil agenda, driving to bring out the very worst of human behavior quite deliberately. The progressives need to fight it much more agressively rather than wringing their hands and tut-tutting. This is dead serioius.

It's also heart-breaking to see the delibreate corruption of American society.

We MUST MUST MUST fight their lies and give a POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE. Otherwise, we are heading to perpetual war, including nuclear strikes. The trend is all too obvious.

Recommended.

[ProudDad]

7. I 1996

I was lucky enough to attend the 1st Annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture at UC Berkeley. Howard Zinn was the lecturer at a packed house in a rather large classroom. (It has since grown to fill Poly Ballroom).

I had had the pleasure of meeting Mario Savio at the 30th Anniversary of the FSM in 1994, He died in 1996. Howard Zinn was a worthy choice for a lecture named after such a wonderful human being as Mario.

If any of you haven't read it yet, please RUSH out to get A People's History of the United States. Some of it's tough to take, especially the first chapter about the bloody Columbus, but the sum total is an inspirational story of "average" folks overcoming against all of that the "mighty and powerful" could throw at them.

[proud patriot]

10. Very cool

:D

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. kick!

[paineinthearse]

9. Morning kick

The Howard Zinn fans must be sleeping in.