|
Quick Links
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category: Published On: Sep 23, 2008 09:28 PM |
Boojum
Sometime around 75 or 76, my brother and I were driving a VW van filled with all our earthly possessions from New York to Chicago. I had driven for a while, and was curled up asleep in the back. My brother was having problems with the van, and the next thing I knew, we were parked on the shoulder in the middle of Ohio in the middle of thick night fog, and Rob was trying to start the thing. I looked out the back window, and there was white light coming from the engine, pulsing to the rhythm of the starter. I said "Rob, there's white light coming from the engine. Better stop." He did so. The light continued to pulse. That's when I knew two things: 1) the engine was on fire and 2) there was no interior handle on the back hatch. "Rob, the car's on fire, get me out of here," I said, calmly but clearly. He pulled me out over the flames and we stood away from the van and watched it burn. (I must give credit, that within minutes, there were half a dozen semis with their drivers out with fire extinguishers.) My point is that at that juncture, not very high on the scale of human danger, but the time I was closest to being in peril of my life, my mind changed. Everything became clearer and slower. It was very clear to me that if I didn't act effectively, I would be dead. So I called, and my brother acted, and I was saved. At no point did I tremble, or shout, or cry, because it was not the time for bullshit. Once out on the grass, remarking that cars really did blow up just like in the movies, I felt the thrill of fear. I wasn't taught any of this: I wasn't infused with resolve and courage by the Boy Scouts, or toughened by my dad, or anything like that. I was an egghead hippie grad student--and therefore I tend to think my reaction is the way most people tend to react to a real threat. When I look at Republican behavior for most of my life, I think that Republicans are inordinately fond of threats that they're not really scared of. Make no mistake: I wasn't saying I wasn't scared when I was trapped between a huge mound of stuff and a burning engine. I was completely scared. But I learned there's a difference between practical fear and the fear I had that Dracula was outside the house--and the Republicans seem masters of the latter. When the Brits fought the Germans, they didn't rename sauerkraut victory cabbage. We did, with the Germans an Atlantic Ocean away. Communism was a real threat, with missiles and spies and everything, but, after the Truman Administration had uncovered the actual government spies, Tailgunner Joe McCarthy and the Right (not, of course, all Republicans--but Dixiecrats go into the 'R' column in that period as far as I'm concerned) started ringing the fear bell for Communist actors, screenwriters, and comic book publishers. A genocidal empire that oppressed half of Europe and another that turned China into a billion-person nightmare had to be met militarily, diplomatically and economically--but the Right was jumping up and down about ideological purity and our moral fiber. They could scream their heads off because nobody was going to poke a ricin tipped umbrella into James Eastland for destroying the Hollywood commie propaganda machine. Richard Nixon was an anticommunist to his bones--and that may be why he went to China. This is real scared behavior--trying to defuse the World Communist Threat by putting a wedge between the two biggest governments. He could also appear on Laugh-In. But after Communism fell, the R's were just ecstatic in finding Islamofascism: an evil enemy that is no actual threat. So they can wave the Dracula-is-outside fear banner all day long. Let me be clear about this: My father worked at 95 Morton Street in the far West Village. I hunted old comics, sf paperbacks and lp's from Houston down to Chambers Street. (I picked up a copy of Furtwangler's Ring of the Nibelung on Chambers St. by finding all the coverless lp's for 50¢ apiece and the scrunched box for nothing. I thought the World Trade Center was a big ugly building with no style at all compared to the Empire State and the Chrysler Building. I looked up at the twin towers with no affection: compared to the wonder that was City Hall, it was two cigarettes set upright filter down on Manhattan's bar by a careful drunk. I knew the place. I knew its shadow. But the 911 attack on the WTC could have been done by any 25 people in the world. It required no vast amounts of money, no technology, nearly no skill, and not even any split-second coordination. Just money for plane tickets, box cutters, and a willingness to commit suicide. And I also knew that the terrorists flew their hijacked planes right over the Indian Point Nuclear Facility. Two fuel-filled airliners crashing into the containment building could have made the Hudson River valley radioactive for a generation and could very well have forced the evacuation of all of New York City, and bring with it a fear of cancer and twisted infants among tens of millions of people. But they went for a big symbolic building instead. I also have no doubt that there are thousands and thousands of dedicated, sincere people devoted ceaselessly to preventing this from happening again. But as a nation, where have our burning-car reactions been? Osama Bin Laden is still alive, and is still posing for Dracula on the banner with a smile and a wave--Our chemical factories and nuclear power plants are not guarded by the government but at the judgment of the owners--our container shipping is still uninspected--and we don't seem to be concerned that we've a) waged war on two Islamic countries and b) are losing both wars. We have the Axis of Evil, consisting of three countries . The weak crippled one? We conquered and occupied. The much bigger one? We ignore for years, and then start threatening and waving the Dracula banner, this time starring Mr. Ahmadinnerjacket, someone who doesn't quite run the country. But the third guy? The military dictator who actually has nuclear weapons and missiles capable of reaching American soil? Well, him we negotiate with. Could it possibly be that with North Korea there's enough concern that, shit, something might actually happen that suddenly they start acting Nixonian. Did they actually see the white light coming from the engine? None of that GWOT crap, boys, the car's on fire. Get me out. Over and over, the bugaboos of the Republicans are things that they can comfortably and smugly be personally completely unafraid of. Are they really scared of immigrants? Scared of the dilution of the most powerful cultural algal bloom in the world--one which has assimilated enormous amount of Mexican culture in the past? Afraid of the people who already live here in their millions? Abortions? Gay people marrying? They jump up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs because they are not in the least bit of danger. There's a terrible danger in being the boy who cried Dracula. Even if people continue to flock to your call, you begin to believe that no danger is real. And it certainly seems that way these days. What, after ll, does it matter if the American Army is coming apart at the seams? We still have no military competition. So what if the American middle class is coming apart at the seams? The economy is booming! Corporate profits are up! Global warming? We'll think of something! "`You may seek it with thimbles -- and seek it with care; When America is genuinely scared, it often rises to the occasion. World War II...the Berlin Airlift...the race to the moon. Not always--but often enough that people wish for that resolution in the face of danger. And that in turn, unfortunately, makes engendering fake fear all the more attractive. The danger to us now--and the danger has not been greater for a long time--is that the Republicans can't bring themselves to believe in boojums. [\snark] Posted: Sunday - July 27, 2008 at 06:12 PM |