I just got home from going to the theater, something I love to do but unfortunately rarely am able to do in rural Uruguay. I saw Spike Lee's BlackkKlansman, the story of the 70's infiltration of the KKK and, ultimately as in most of Lee's films, an essay on race and inequality in America.
A number of sharp critiques of American culture have surfaced in the media recently. I am thinking of Childish Gabino's This is America:
Or Sasha Baron Cohen's Who is America:
Alongside Lee's film and many others. To me, the message is clear: America is full of hate, and it has been that way since its inception. This isn't news to me or anyone who has studied classics of America cultural history like Morris Berman's Dark Ages America or recent follow up Why America Failed which argues that American culture has been hyper individualistic, competitive, and money-loving from the very beginning. The current iteration of America (and president) that seems to be so shocking to many is actually part of a trajectory that's long been set forth.
Although this is not a popular message, this explanation is widely accepted by cultural historians and sociologists. You could point me to acts of good and kindness, and of course no one would ever argue that a country of 320 million is all one thing. But, study after study and work after work of art demonstrate that, overall, Americans tend to think in black and white terms, and often in terms of good guys and bad guys, friends and enemies, people to love and people to hate. This manichean ideology leads to things like Charlosttesville, where a man drove a car into a crowd of people he didn't know, but hated.
Lee's film ended with that footage, and it is both haunting and beautiful that America's best artists are waking up to American culture and its fundamental maladies. My best hope is in facing those maladies, naming them, and spending every day of our lives realizing something different.
What does that mean for me? It means I don't have any enemies, just people who don't understand me well and whom I need to understand better. It means I will think of community before myself. It means money won't be my sole driver in life. It means I will cooperate and find ways to benefit myself and the (human and nonhuman) world, not compete with it.
A number of sharp critiques of American culture have surfaced in the media recently. I am thinking of Childish Gabino's This is America:
Or Sasha Baron Cohen's Who is America:
Alongside Lee's film and many others. To me, the message is clear: America is full of hate, and it has been that way since its inception. This isn't news to me or anyone who has studied classics of America cultural history like Morris Berman's Dark Ages America or recent follow up Why America Failed which argues that American culture has been hyper individualistic, competitive, and money-loving from the very beginning. The current iteration of America (and president) that seems to be so shocking to many is actually part of a trajectory that's long been set forth.
Although this is not a popular message, this explanation is widely accepted by cultural historians and sociologists. You could point me to acts of good and kindness, and of course no one would ever argue that a country of 320 million is all one thing. But, study after study and work after work of art demonstrate that, overall, Americans tend to think in black and white terms, and often in terms of good guys and bad guys, friends and enemies, people to love and people to hate. This manichean ideology leads to things like Charlosttesville, where a man drove a car into a crowd of people he didn't know, but hated.
Lee's film ended with that footage, and it is both haunting and beautiful that America's best artists are waking up to American culture and its fundamental maladies. My best hope is in facing those maladies, naming them, and spending every day of our lives realizing something different.
What does that mean for me? It means I don't have any enemies, just people who don't understand me well and whom I need to understand better. It means I will think of community before myself. It means money won't be my sole driver in life. It means I will cooperate and find ways to benefit myself and the (human and nonhuman) world, not compete with it.
