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Yoni Applebaum, a writer for Atlantic,
has a piece on the
efforts of Americans
to articulate a
unifying national
narrative to bind
the country together
as a people and a
nation during the
250th
“birthday”
(hate that word) of
the Declaration of
Independence.
Of course, he rues
the lack of such a
narrative, wondering
if a nation without
a unifying fable can
survive, but he is
just spouting
sentimental claptrap
because if the
history of the
United States shows
anything, it shows
that its disunity,
fueled by racial and
gender bias and
forged through the
high heat of
exceptional
violence, is its
national narrative,
the driver of its
imperial expansion
and the enabler of
an apartheid society
that has no
compunction about
wiping out whole
classes of people,
be they Native
Americans, black and
brown people, trans
people or
immigrants, to keep
its blood and soil
clean and uninfected.
Applebaum
isn’t the only
one nattering on
about “the
story of
America,” and
the Trump
administration is
doing mighty work in
drafting its own
narrative of white
supremacist unity
with his Freedom
Trucks and the
hootenanny of his
Freedom 250
celebration on the
Mall.
But as I took all of
this in, all I could
think of saying was,
“Grow
up.” That is,
be an adult and face
up to the situation
as it is (or, as
W.C. Fields said,
“Sometimes you
have to take the
bull by tail and
face the
situation”).
We citizens, at
times, can be kind
and adorable, and
it’s
entertaining seeing
how visitors to the
United States for
the World Cup marvel
at just what strange
and delightful
people we can be.
That’s great
– it’s
nice to be liked.
But the whole
infrastructure of
who we are is filled
with legacies of
violence and
depredation, traces
of which run through
everything we
inhabit and shade
everything we do.
(There have been
historical pauses
when the nation
seemed to suddenly
recognize that it
could be, and should
be, doing better:
the New Deal (though
not for everyone),
the short rise of
union power to raise
living standards,
civil rights
legislation, and so
on.)
I have a test to see
if people could
agree upon a
unifying narrative.
If we really wanted
to come together as
a people to form a
more perfect union
that wasn’t
killing dozens of
people each day,
then let us all band
together to say,
“No more
Second Amendment, no
more weapons in our
society, no more
tolerating massacres
as part of an
ordinary day.”
If we could do that,
given the
irrefutable evidence
of the havoc that
second-amendmentism
causes in our lives,
then we might have a
chance as a people
and a nation.
But we know this
will not happen, and
if we can’t
eliminate this
scourge, which
affects everyone
regardless of class,
race, creed or
color, then what
chance is there for
agreements or
compromises on the
even larger issues
that continue to
frack our national
soul? None,
I’d say.
Better just to
accept that we are a
nation that
sanctions and
promotes carnage (to
use the Trumpism) as
part of our national
character and that
this tolerance for
slaughter and
exploitation is what
unites us, if
“unite”
can be used in such
a perditious way. To
do this would
demonstrate a level
of adulthood and
rationality that
could almost be
admired, if the
subject matter
weren’t so
dark.
No more unifying
narratives. We are
not a unified
people. Let’s
accept that and move
on as best we can.
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