Some Thoughts on Violence, Nationalism, and Bigotry: 4th of July, 2016

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Photo Wendy Lynne Lee, 2015

To the editor:

It’s telling that the vote in the UK to leave the European Union is followed by calls for referenda elsewhere by nationalist, unfailingly far-right parties like France's National Front. Like our own "America First" pathology incarnated as Donald Trump, these “movements” pretend to be populist uprisings in defense of the working classes, but are in fact opportunistic exploitations of racist and xenophobic hornswaggle that, wrapped in the flag, suckers folks into voting not only against their own best interests but for a world that better resembles Game of Thrones than anything we’d want to leave to our kids. 

 

Then again, it’s not the Trumpster’s kids who’ll get their legs blown off in the next war—it’s yours.

In the face of unprecedented human migration, 65.3 million women, men, and children in 2015, decisions like BREXIT and the emergence of the ugly face of nationalist bigotry in the U.S., make it clear that the geopolitics of the planet are driven not by thoughtful deliberation, but by exploitable fear. 

To think that closing borders and building walls will protect us from terrorism is daft.  Indeed, quite the opposite is likely to be true in virtue of the fact that a world characterized by divided and competing fiefdoms, turf devoted only to their own version of “My country right or wrong!” is a world made very brittle by its own arrogant medieval territorialism.

 

The tremendous and sad irony of BREXIT, Trumpster-mania, and all forms of xenophobia is that none will have the slightest mitigating effect on the threat that endangers human life, indeed, all life, the most: climate change. We wring our hands over ISIS, all the while failing to see its biggest driver isn’t the religion that smug born-agains like Mr. Trump love to demonize; it’s the drought, flooding, loss of arable land, and lack of potable water caused by a human hubris that pours greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere as if the planet’s capacity to recover is limitless. It’s the desperation that makes young men ripe for recruitment to their own religion’s version of self-righteous hatred. 

It’s the same staggering callousness to the lives of others that excuses the moral depravity of four Southern Columbia football jocks who beat animals to death for fun. Indeed, if we think that these upstanding young men are any different that the young bucks recruited by ISIS, we’re both blind and stupid. Both have been taught the appalling lesson that some life has value, and other does not.

 

Is it apples and oranges to compare a local story with international events? Hardly. What torturing nonhuman animals, demonizing “others,” sealing borders, and building moronic walls all have in common is a human chauvinism whose psychotic sense of unearned entitlement is going to burn the planet down—or, well, not the planet—just the ecological and existential conditions that make living worth the struggle. Laughable it is that we’ll risk even speedier dissent into 500 PPB just to drill the hydrocarbons we need to fuel the weapons of “the war on terror,” and in so doing create the conditions of more terrorism. 

Make no mistake about it: that lethal combination of arrogance and willful ignorance that excuses beating animals to death is not one whit different manifest as racism, misogyny, homophobia, religious intolerance, and bigoted nationalism. Exploited by those like Donald Trump or Boris Johnson to advance their own egomaniacal agendas, the ends are all the same: violence, suffering, and oppression meted out by those who think they have the right to make of “others” objects for their own use.  

Wendy Lynne Lee

Lightstreet, PA

590 words.

Educators Against Intolerance - An Open letter

Photo Wendy Lynne Lee, 12.10.15

Note: This came to me from a colleague in the English Department at Bloomsburg University. If you're an academic follower of this blog, please consider signing. We in the academy have, I think, a special duty to be out in front of standing up to bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance. Here is a modest opportunity to do just that.

Dear Colleague,

In light of recent events there is a heightened sense of intolerance in the US, especially towards Arab and Muslim Americans. A few faculty members from Harvard, MIT and Princeton have helped draft a letter (pasted below) that speaks out against such intolerance and discrimination. 

This letter is being circulated to solicit signatures from other educators who share these concerns. Once a sufficient number of signatures are collected (ideally by Wednesday December 23rd), the letter (along with the names of the signatories) will be sent to appropriate media/public outlets (such as the NYT) in the hope that they will be interested in publishing it.  

I have already signed the letter and am forwarding this email in case you would also like to do so. Signing the letter only takes a few minutes. Please click the link here to sign:

Educators Against Intolerance - Open Letter 

If you would like to see the names of those who have signed so far please click here: 

Educators Against Intolerance - Open Letter - Google Sheets

Please also forward this message to other academic colleagues in the US - both those in your department and in other departments/institutions - and encourage them to sign and also forward. Since the hope is to get the letter published, it would be best to not post it for now on social media. 

If you have any questions, you can email:

EducatorsAgainstIntolerance@gmail.com

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The Letter:

Recent events have, once again, brutally violated the nation’s sense of security. Many Citizens believe that another terrorist attack is as likely today as it was in the days following 9/11. Almost half worry that they or someone in their family will be a victim of terrorism. 

 But this fear can also disconnect us from reason and have devastating consequences. The reduction in immigrants’ rights codified by the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the restrictions on free speech established by the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917-18, and the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII were all policies born from fear, and all resound throughout history as stark contradictions to American values.

 We are concerned that we could head down a similarly dark path today. Hours after the San Bernardino massacre on Dec. 2, 2015, the top Google search in California using the word “Muslims” was “kill Muslims”. Public personalities have openly called for barring Muslims from entering the US and have not ruled out building databases to track American Muslims.

 While denounced by the majority, such rhetoric normalizes intolerance. It permits actions with undesirable and unintended consequences. The visa waiver bill, voted through by over 90% of the House on Dec 8 2015, is one such example. Under this bill, specific individuals from the 38 countries eligible for a visa waiver would be barred from using it. Those newly excluded would include British citizens of Iranian descent, as well as Germans who volunteered for relief work in Syria. As such legislation is often reciprocated by other nations, it may well relegate American Arabs and Muslims to second-class citizen status and deter all Americans from traveling to places where our help is critical.

 Broad-brush, discriminatory and highly visible measures targeting Arab and Muslim populations are likely to create division, not heal it – playing right into the extremists' hands. Making it harder for individuals to travel hurts the very exchange of ideas that fosters tolerance in our society and allows our universities to become world leaders in producing knowledge and promoting free speech and rational discourse.

 Our universities indeed exemplify how we thrive by enabling people from different cultures, religions, political values and priorities to cohabit and work together productively. As we interact with our students, fellow educators, and policy makers, we are constantly reminded of how important this diverse and open exchange is, and the critical part it plays in informing the fabric of our values.  As we see signs of fear clouding our judgment, we are compelled to speak out in defense of tolerance, rational discourse, and basic human values. 

 We therefore categorically reject all forms of intolerance and any discriminatory treatment of Arab and Muslim Americans and other minority groups. We call upon each other and upon our leaders to do the same.