File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0109, message 187


Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 01:48:00 -0400
From: Miriam Schacht <mschacht-AT-mail.utexas.edu>
Subject: Conversations in the U.S....


Just some notes on how public opinion in the United States is currently
shaping up and being shaped... 

I too am concerned with, as Danny said, the lack of tools the average U.S.
resident has for thinking outside (and, I would add, even within) their
culture. Nonetheless, I agree with Tony that 

>the widely publicized 
>statistics that claim overwhelming support for a "war on terrorism" among 
>Americans are, if not totally false, at least totally misleading. 

In the spirit of resisting the national consent/consensus that is currently
being manufactured through the media, I've been raising many of the issues
that we're also talking about on this list with the people around me. And
while I've been shocked at some of the knee-jerk and neofascist (and I use
the word advisedly) responses from some people I'd previously considered
critical and leftist, I've also been surprised at the number of people who
agree that there is a vast difference between mourning the victims and
"retaliating" against civilian populations in other parts of the world, and
that the "war on terrorism" is misguided and dangerous. (And there are many
who believe that yes, United States foreign policy (overt and covert) has
played a role in this.) I've raised these issues (and many of the others
already discussed on this list) with the undergraduates I'm teaching, some
of them straight out of Texas high schools (and the Texas high school
curriculum is pretty much the last place you'll learn about critical
thinking). Their responses make me hopeful that, in spite of the supposed
consensus for widescale "retaliation," the myth of that consensus may not
be sustainable. 

On the other hand, I am also seeing that it is becoming increasingly
difficult to voice "dissident" opinions - that is, opinions which do not
heed the call to "rally around the president" - without being accused of
treason and complicity with the terrorists. And I wonder how many people,
especially in the face of the supposedly overwhelming consensus, will
continue to be vocal about their opinions. The rhetoric of national unity
has returned with a force I don't recall having seen before. I don't
remember ever having heard so many claims about people being "unamerican,"
even during protests against the Gulf War, which had a similar kind of
national attention. Certainly, this rhetoric has always been present; but
I've never seen it used by so many people (and not just on the right). And
that kind of rhetoric is designed not only to enforce a consensus (if only
by excluding as unamerican anyone who disagrees) but also very much to
intimidate dissenters into silence. It also serves to reinforce the racism
that allows many Americans to see those who "look Arab" as clearly
unamerican and therefore as legitimate targets of harassment and violence
(abroad and at home). There's a climate of fear being fostered here, and
for many people I know, it's not so much the terrorists they're afraid of.
And so it is of vital importance, as others have said already, that those
of us opposed to military "retaliation" are vocal in our opposition, and
resist the imposition and manufacture of consent in any way possible. 

(Not to mention that it is still relatively easy in many places here to
speak one's mind, and many of those in academia ("tenured radicals"?) even
have the luxury of job protection. So just for clarity's sake, I don't mean
in any way to imply that what I and those around me face when I step out of
my house in morning is even comparable to the type of fear that, for
example, Afghani people will probably be feeling right now. I'm merely
trying to paint a picture of what I see going on in my particular part of
the U.S. right now, because it will have bearing on what's going to happen
in the world in the coming days...) 

All of which is to say I'm somewhat hopeful about critical responses in
this country, but pessimistic (or perhaps realistic) about the media
machine and culture we're up against. And I am sick with what this means
for everyone's safety on an international level.

Miriam


--------------------------------------
Miriam Schacht (mschacht-AT-mail.utexas.edu)

Assistant Instructor
Dept. of English
University of Texas at Austin
Parlin 108, Campus Mail Code B5000
Austin, TX 78712
Course website: www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~schacht/rhe309k


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