Will Bunch has a column about American fear of “The Other.” I agree with a lot of his points, but not that this iteration is somehow uniquely dangerous or unprecedented in American history; but, then, he has a book to sell on the topic, and I don’t.
He suggests, it’s not the “Mosque” or Obama in particular that have people riled up, but a fear of the other. I tend to agree. I think the tendency to divide the world into “in-groups” and “out-groups” is pretty well hard-wired into humans. The ability to define the group characteristics seems to be pretty flexible, however; and the wall between the groups becomes more rigid as the environment becomes more hostile.
I think, this time around, economic distress is probably the key factor in whipping up the frenzy against the “out-groups.” When the economy was booming in the 90s, I don’t recall all that much anti-immigrant sentiment, for example. I do recall more of it in the 80s and early 90s.
In college, I had a history course on British society in World War I and did a paper on attitudes toward people of German ancestry residing in the United Kingdom. As I recall, the attitudes that showed up in newspaper articles were fairly appalling, and there were even some internment camps. But the dynamic was fairly simple, the war created a distressed environment and people of German ancestry, whether loyal Englishmen or not, were part of the “out group.”
People are scared, and they’re lashing out at the unfamiliar.
You should have compared the Uk attitudes with US attitudes in 1917-18. In Indy, German culture was never the same.
In my neck of the woods growing up in Wayne County, there is the dual-named East Germantown/Pershing.
I bet that was a really interesting study of UK attitudes during WWI – I would’ve loved to have done a paper on that topic! Of course the most symbolic thing about the UK’s relation with Germans then was the changing of the royal family’s name from the uber-German and literal House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the super-English and non-ancesteral House of Windsor.
As Varangianguard stated, US attitudes, especially in Indiana, were also not favorable to Germans. And of course one of the worst examples of our attitude of excluding the others in the last century was the internment of Japanese immigrants and Americans during World War II (and a lesser extent bad treatment of German and Italian descent persons).
“Americans” have always had a bad habit of the majority distrusting the minority or minorities – from the first landings of the White Man to the Native Americans to the Catholics in Maryland to the Dutch in New York to the freed slaves post-Civil War to the Irish to the Mormons to the Indians to the Chinese to the Italians to the Germans to the Japanese to the Muslims to the Mexicans and more. All of that hatred to outsiders in just over 400 years!
Before we get too down on ourselves about our history of exclusion, however, we must remember that almost every country and civilization currently in this world and throughout world history have looked down on the “others” as well. Sure, it’s not a good excuse for the behavior, but America is not unique in that regard.
Purdue Exponent–Friday, August 20
Todd Rokita, Republican for U.S. Rep. District 4
“I defend the rights found in the U.S. Constitution, including those that ensure the free practice of one’s faith. No right is limitless and they can be constrained when they infringe on other Constitutional rights and duties of citizens, such as the duty to not give aid and comfort to enemies of the United States with whom we are at war. Erecting a mosque near Ground Zero does just that – it would be seen as a victory to the Islamic terrorists with whom we are at war and would further put our troops in harm’s way. Therefore, I am against the erecting of such a mosque.”
No, nothing new. Check out this great video from 1947:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w03tJ3IkrM
Rokita is an idiot. We are at war with the terrorist group al qaida not the muslims of the world or Islam. Remember todd? We invaded Iraq to save the muslims from Saddam–whom we put into power and kept there with out shipments of arms and poisonous gas and other bombs. We are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect muslims from terrorists of al qaida, we work with the Taliban and other muslim operatives and the muslim govts of each country to bring peace and build a version of democracy. What an idiot Rokita and all the other republicants are. As for reid and pelosi and the other democrats who cannot do something without worrying about polls, get rid of them too.
Thank you Mike Kole. That video clip sure says a lot about what the results of this could be. With behavior like this, we could find ourselves at war with the religion of Islam.
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough told Republicans today that they should “speak out against Newt Gingrich and the voices of hate.” While he was at it, Scarborough threatened to leave the GOP for a party “that actually believes in small government.”
For those willing to break their mental blocks, research for yourself, by watching, “Is there an AlQueda?” found at youtube, and elsewhere on line. Also read Gordon Duff at http://www.VeteransToday.com, an eloquent truthteller.