The enduring attraction of war (Portraying “the Other,” Part 3)

[Today we have another guest post from our regular contributor, John Hess.]

In her remarkable study of our westward expansion, The legacy of conquest: The unbroken past of the American west, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues that the values the pioneer Americans attached to westward expansion persist even today, in cheerful defiance of any contrary evidence.The Legacy of Conquest by Limerick

Among those persistent values, few have more power than the idea of innocence. Americans moving west did not see themselves as trespassers or criminals; rather, they were pioneers. The ends, to them, abundantly justified the means.

Personal interest in the acquisition of property coincided with national interest in the acquisition of territory, and those interests overlapped in turn with the mission to extend the domain of Christian civilization.

Innocence of intention placed the course of events in a bright and positive light.

This innocence is preserved and the nation regenerated through violence, its guilt and failings purged and cleansed through blood. As Chris Hedges puts it in War is a force that gives us meaning:

“The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destructiveness and carnage it can give us what we long for in life.  It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness and vapidity of much of our lives become apparent….And war is an enticing elixir. It allows us to be noble” (p. 3).

“War makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them and us. It suspends thought, especially self-critical thought. All bow before the supreme effort. We are one. Most of us willingly accept war as long as we can fold it into a belief system that paints the ensuing suffering as necessary for a higher good, for human beings seek not only happiness but also meaning” (p. 10).

“The goal of such nationalist rhetoric is to invoke pity for one’s own. The goal is to show the community that what they hold sacred is under threat. The enemy, we are told, seeks to destroy religious and cultural life, the very identity of the group or state” (p.14).

No wonder we salute people like Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Eva Mozes Kor, for they are, sadly, extraordinary.

John Hess, Senior Lecturer in English and American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston

The causeless enmity (Portraying “the Other,” Part 2)

[Today we have another guest post from our regular contributor, John Hess.]

In my previous post on the forgiveness theme, I introduced Slotkin’s book, Regeneration through Violence, where he depicts the way groups create an evil “Other” to justify attacking the other.

Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative most fully represented this approach and became the paradigm for future captivity narratives. The wife of a Puritan minister, Rowlandson  was captured in a Native raid on and destruction of the frontier village of Lancaster. She was held captive for nearly three months before being ransomed. Her Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is an extraordinary book, the first colonial best seller. (See http://www.hannahdustin.com/maryrolandson.htm)

In Regeneration Through Violence, Slotkin argues (p. 100):  “The situation of the captive (the settler captured by the Natives) presented an exaggerated and emotionally heightened illustration of the moral and psychological situation of the community,” the embattled community, assailed from within and without.

This outlook passed into what became American culture, though obviously transformed and adapted to meet changing needs. Essentially what remains is this confrontation with the Other seen as the direct opposite of the (imagined) nation.  If you substitute Taliban for Natives, you will see what I mean by adapted and transformed.

One other aspect that Slotkin doesn’t stress that has also passed into our cultural heritage is revealed in the citation from the ”Preface” to Rowlandson’s Narrative, probably written by Increase Mather, where “lessons” are drawn for Puritan readers.

Here is how the Natives are portrayed: “such Atheistical, proud, wild, cruel, barbarous, brutish, (in one word,) diabolical Creatures as these, the worst of the heathen.”

Why are the Natives the enemies of the English?  Well, the behavior of the English has, in this view, nothing to do with it, as the author speaks of “the causeless enmity of the Barbarians against the English, and the malicious and revengeful spirit of these Heathen.”

The word I want to stress is “causeless,” for what this word implies is that the English were innocent, guiltless. According to that enduring narrative, we today, like the English then, are innocent of wrong-doing when we participate in aggression because we mean well—a theme that continues to pervade our culture.

John Hess, Senior Lecturer in English and American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Us versus them (Portraying “the Other,” Part 1)

[By guest author, John Hess.]

I was stunned by the title of a post on Engaging Peace. “Recovery through forgiveness” contrasts so greatly with Regeneration through violence: The mythology of the American frontier, 1600-1860, the first volume of Richard Slotkin’s trilogy on American culture.

Slotkin’s argument is similar to that advanced by Christopher Hedges in War is a force that gives us meaning.

Specifically, nations often seek to work out pressing internal problems and bring about national unity through violence directed at an adversary who is portrayed as “the Other,” an embodiment of evil.

The U.S. used this approach in justifying the “War on Terror,” and later the Iraq War:

  • Us against them
  • Good against evil
  • War against those who hate our way of life and want to destroy it.

The first major example Slotkin discusses in Regeneration is King Philip’s War. That 1675-6 conflict is said to have been, relatively speaking, the most destructive war ever fought on (what became) American soil.

Puritanism was then in the throes of a spiritual crisis, with many of the more intransigent ministers claiming there had been a “falling away” from the fervor and purity of the original colonists. At the same time, the New England colonies were rapidly expanding, which led to a demand for more land. This in turn brought them more and more into conflict with the Native tribes, who were on land the Puritans desired.

Puritan thinkers increasingly came to portray the Natives as their direct opposites:

  • Where the English were Christian, the Natives were pagan
  • Where the English were civilized, the Natives were savage
  • Where the English were the new Chosen People, the Natives were not
  • Where the English were doing God’s will, the Natives were certainly on the other side.

John Hess, Senior Lecturer in English and American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston

A bouquet of stories: Valentines for peace

Malbin peace sculpture
"Vista of Peace" sculpture by Ursula Malbin. Photo by Guillaume Paumier / Wikimedia Commons, CC-by-3.0.

For the second Valentine’s day in the life of Engaging Peace, we want to re-share some posts that have been among the wonderful gifts our readers have given us.  The following selection focuses on messages of peace and love.

(1) A few years ago I joined “Checkpoint Watch,” an Israeli human rights organization of women who monitor and report human rights violations towards Palestinians who move from the occupied territories of Palestine to Israel.  Continue reading →   (Dalit Yassour-Borochowitz, October 21, 2010)

(2) It has been a privilege for the Paraclete Foundation to bring the Benebikira Sisters to Boston and to tell their story of courage and love during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that claimed over 800,000 lives in 100 days.  Continue reading →   (Sister Ann Fox , November 8, 2010)

(3) In a way that only being physically present in this country could convey, I’ve realized that the genocide is a very difficult thing for Rwandans to talk about. If people do speak about the horrors they have encountered, it is only under very hushed circumstances or around people they trust.  Continue reading →   (Andrew Potter, June 23, 2011)

(4) The framework for my reflections is constructed from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Speech delivered at Riverside Church in April, 1967 (a year before his assassination).  Continue reading →   (Dean Hammer,  July 21, 2011)

(5) My father was born and raised in Basra, Iraq. Graduating from Baghdad University, he earned a government scholarship to study in the United States. He completed his graduate studies at Georgetown University. While in DC, he met and married my mom, a nice Jewish girl from New York. Her parents had fled their homeland … Continue reading →   (Dahlia Wasfi, September 19, 2011)

(6) I have just returned from the demonstration to support Occupy Boston (10-10-11) and can happily report that it was a successful march of probably two or more thousand people.  Continue reading →  (John Hess, October 17, 2011)

(7) Over the past few weeks we have heard stories of bravery, courage, hope, happiness, and grief from Palestine. The stories accompanied the news that just over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners would be freed in exchange for … Continue reading →   (San’aa Sultan, November 3, 2011)

(8) Eva Mozes Kor, a “Mengele Twin” who survived the genetic experiments at Auschwitz, chose the non-standard route to recovery: forgiveness.  Continue reading →  (Elina Tochilnikova, December 26, 2011)

(9) From the time of… Moses, who helped guide the Israelis out of slavery and oppression to freedom, to Jesus, who preached equality and love and changed the whole human understanding of power structures, to … Continue reading →   (Majed Ashy, January 12, 2012)

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology, and Pat Daniel, Managing Editor of Engaging Peace