Dissent with Clarity and Focus
by Carl Pwccaman
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Vague fears, a couple nightmare scenarios (either forced into the unconscious or bubbling up in panic), the same old staunch conspiracy buffs and radicals saying "yes, you heard it here first" as they hand out their pamphlets. People complaining loudly online. Two hundred thousand protesting on the streets. Words like "hijacked election", and "police state" thrown around. This type of dissent has always had its place in America, but now some of the scarier ideas, some of the alternative or “outside of the box” considerations, are more relevant to more people. More relevant than they were for a few decades, at the very least.
Because of this changing landscape, there is quite a bit of confusion as to how bad things are and what hope there might be. This confusion diffuses the energy of many who would speak up or take action. It explains a lot of the silence, some of the chill or apathy, and a bit of the feeling of impotence that a lot of people must be dealing with.
Right now the culture of dissent has strength and vitality, although it is faced with serious challenges. At this stage we can encourage it to grow and mature.
Who is rising up to help clarify the situation, to put things in perspective and explore the fears courageously but without hysteria? Right now courage is welcome! Those who dissent from the Administration's perspective on the war with Iraq, those who have serious concerns about increasing police and Pentagon surveillance of citizens, please speak loudly! Your voice is badly needed, however confused or hopeless you may feel. You are not alone. If you have not spoken much or don't know what to say, where to say it, how to make a difference, there are many like you. Some are even a bit paralyzed, frozen mentally and in an emotional fog, attempting to protect themselves from nightmare speculations.
The fact that 200,000 people protested, even before war officially begins with Iraq, the fact that even in the mainstream media there are people who raise a relevant criticism or concern once in a while, these are healthy signs. They are strong indicators of some sane process or undercurrent. Any time a website considers news outside of the U.S. mainstream media and gets a lot of hits, every voice that encourages debate or disagreement, every message in public or even among friends, family, and coworkers that says "It is good to disagree, even about the President, Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, War with Iraq, to demand answers from the Administration, and to strongly disagree, that is what makes America vital and free. Criticizing the government is good, it is an American value" is creating a counter-climate of more open and honest expression of concerns, an atmosphere of freedom of speech instead of self-censorship, individual thought instead of towing the Administration's line.
In union locals, grassroots organizations, behind the scenes during political campaigns, perhaps among the family, co-workers, strangers, you may hear some serious questions about where this country is going, domestically as well as internationally. In those few sections of the mass media where there is still some hope of dissent, some strategizing, clarifying, or organizing message is sometimes barely making it through, but we really shouldn't be relying upon the media anyway. We need to be the ones to put things into perspective and spread information that we find useful. It is important to stay in touch with grassroots voices, private expressions of dissent, and networking with activists; it will help us immensely to work to develop more clarity and focus.
We need to put aside defensiveness and blame so we can speak the truth and change, when necessary. There are a lot of reasons why few are providing the kind of clarity that is most helpful, and then it is mostly to their closest associates: situations that are in front of us at the moment, shift our perspective this way and that; there is concern that things are said in the most effective manner; and many people haven't thought it would be very likely that things would develop quite this way. But there are some fairly particular reasons why, in general, the more vocal and widespread voices of dissent in the U.S., and those who are in the better positions to challenge the Administration, are not yet able to assess the situation very well (from Democratic or Republican politicians, to leaders of various political or social organizations who are otherwise very eloquent in offering clear policy alternatives or challenges.) In many cases potential leaders just were not preparing themselves for this day, for these challenges, and in other cases good insight just isn't getting spread around. So wherever we are in our understanding, let's wake up a bit, pull ourselves together, and get past vague fear, nightmares, rash speculations, pet theories and pet assumptions. Let's look at things more deeply, and let's communicate well.
Two serious issues we need to confront, in addition to concerns about legislation and erosions of checks and balances, rights and freedoms, are demagogy and McCarthyist types of phenomenon. The atmosphere that feeds them, that gives their seedling forms support and momentum, needs to be understood.
Demagogy? Let's start there. What does it mean, how bad has it gotten, where could it go from here, how do we combat it? What has been overlooked?
Demagogy is about escalating tensions and hatreds, painting a picture of larger than life evil scapegoats versus the good crusaders, seeing your opponent as vile, making crude personal attacks against those who are critical of you, equating dissent with disloyalty and the utmost of evil, dehumanizing the opposition, etc. Most of us already know quite a bit about it, just look at how the Klan and some Politically Correct liberals have spoken when they get really ticked off about blacks or fundamentalists, Jews or people effected by unconscious institutionalized racism. It doesn't matter whether the ideas have a basis in truth, or whether they are deemed “progressive”, whatever that conveniently foggy and context-ridden idea means. Please put aside defensiveness. It is the polarized lenses, the vitriol, the dehumanization of the opponent, that is corrosive. Not all bigots have dehumanized others to the same degree; not all Politically Correct people have dehumanized their opponents to the same degree. But dehumanizing others effects the social climate, the political expectation.
It might be difficult to see this clearly if you've been creating a climate of self-censorship or if you've been contributing to fears of exposure of unconscious sexism or racism. Just might be. Let's be very serious about this. In the name of making people more enlightened, more compassionate and open to understanding the experiences of those who are different, too often a climate has been created which demagoguery feeds off of on the giving as well as the receiving ends. The fact is that while a climate is created which increases fear of having thought processes, assumptions, and ideas exposed as the ultimate evil, of facing ridicule and harassment for these ideas or feelings, a climate of intimidation, it is not compassion that is being nurtured. Understanding of those who are different or those who disagree, is not encouraged in that environment. When someone complies under the pressure, that isn't a manifestation of untainted compassion or understanding at all. People rightly desire to be free from such mental, emotional, and social constraints, and from compliance with those pressures, but that should not result in reveling in obnoxious inconsiderateness or arrogance, at least not for long. Fleeing PC pressure is not an excuse for rudely refusing to attempt to understand someone; that is just a rationalization. The pressures as well as reactions to those pressures, are caustic.
Let's move on to McCarthyism: what is it, how bad have things become, etc.
Senator McCarthy, in the late 40's, created a committee to inquire into un-American activities to hunt for hidden Communists. Grassroots supporters issued blacklists that got people fired and ruined careers and lives. Hoover's FBI was used to find people with secrets and bust them, ruining their careers or blackmailing them, all in the name of finding hidden enemies. On different levels, this is just like the Christian Right's desire to hunt out non-Christian religious ideas in their churches or in the culture at large, or gay agenda hidden in corporate logos or secular policy, and also the pressures for resignations when an affair is discovered... this is just like the difficulty of getting tenure at a major university unless you are politically correct, and the harassment or attempts to expel or censor students and teachers for thoughts and speech... abuses of hate crime legislation... abuses of the Patriot Act and Homeland Security Department... Poindexter's database used against dissidents. Just picture this sort of thing more consistently resulting in censorship, interfering with relationships, hiring/firing practices, and career advancement/ruin, with official governmental policy firmly behind it, as well as university policies, and grassroots support and actions.. picture it happening on a larger scale, with more official endorsement, to a greater degree, chilling the voices of dissent more perniciously... with those who challenge the administration in the media on much shorter leashes or off the air after a frenzy of protests against their disloyalty... as the new norm of politics, the new norm of public expression.
There's another reason why it might be hard for some to adequately clarify what this country is going through right now. A climate of manipulation and of exposing hidden thoughts and urges, censuring people on campus, shouting down their speech, removing them from their positions in campus or local newspapers, taking away support from student organization funds, penalizing students for feelings and thoughts, harassing dissenters who are not politically correct, penalizing thoughts as crimes or increased sentences... all of this has fertilized the soil, fostering a climate where rationalizations are offered and then accepted, to excuse harassment or ruining the careers of opponents, or restricting their access to the means to promote their views, on the basis that they do not think or feel the correct way, do not express their views in the proper manner with the proper language. Hyper vigilance towards out of context, off the cuff remarks, or mistakes or unconscious innuendos by politicians, and the mud slinging and revelations of dirty laundry used to get ahead rather than to demonstrate actual corruption, inability to adequately represent people, or political differences, mistaken policies or positions, skews public political dialog unproductively. The Christian Right has contributed to the rationale to uncover and expose hidden un-American or un-Christian values that must be routed out for the good of the country, to pressure those with cultural differences to be silent, to attempt to restrict or boycott them, to legislate to make their own cultural values priviledged even though their more extreme views do not even reflect the majority view in Christian churches, much less the population of America at large. Even though many of the more extreme measures offered by the so-called Liberals as well as the so-called Conservatives have not been put into effect, or have backfired, the social climate has taken damage. Hysterical, sensational “Liberalism” and Over-sensitive, Insecure “Conservatism” has pushed aside the more reasonable, thoughtful voices of true Liberals and Conservatives.
No wonder we hear of Big Brother and business as usual... not much that's very helpful to assessing the current dangers, or pointing a way to change. In order to effectively attack the Administration's rationale for various policies, many would have to undermine the rationalizations for the policies they themselves have been supporting, or taught to support, for the last two decades and longer. And a lot of that is simply because people have not understood the dangers, just could not see the potential. After all, to many it looked like there were sound reasons to feel that anything like our current situation was remote and unlikely, or that the remedies offered made a positive contribution that outweighed any negative effects.
Another important point: watching hate just will not do. Not any more, not by itself, not as the simplistic answer to all ills that it once was proclaimed to be. Innocent people died on the streets of a major city; they were civilians. Is anyone really surprised there is hate, however unenlightened hate may be? Why is anyone surprised some people hate quotas or white culture, Christian politics or gangs in inner cities, or suicide bombers? If your fears and ideas of freedom and justice are dependent upon ideas about hate and attempts at reducing it, is it any wonder the current situation is bewildering? The concept as it is commonly expressed just does not allow for the type of complexity, context, and relevance to the type of issues we are now forced to deal with. For more general concerns the hate framework can be helpful at times, but we need to move past simplistic panaceas. Start asking what kind of hate are you experiencing or seeing in others, what kind of reaction lies in the reactionary response, is the degree of reaction or hatred understandable or is it sign of something more pervasive and repugnant? If you cannot begin to answer these questions right now, you will just have to find people who have some ideas about it and work together to learn, compare reflections, and figure it out for yourself at a pace that helps you sort it all out.
Whether PC militant, fundamentalist, independent, Libertarian, Liberal, Conservative, skeptic, Anarchist, or critic of all of the former movements, we have been guided by others to look at things the way we do, and situations in the past just didn't force us to see the limits in that thinking. Some of us did see limits and looked past the influences or the immediate situation more often. Some of us resisted reflexive acceptance of guidance from the media, political parties, or well intentioned fellow travelers fairly well, and some of us did not, but let's move past all that and get down to business. 9-11, the Patriot and Homeland Defense Acts, and the drive for war on Iraq, did tend to push us to take another look at things, to the extent we understand the seriousness of the issues.
It really is behavior that is the pressing social problem. A culture of thought police and self-important social engineers, psycho-social political therapists of the self-proclaimed “progressive” intellectuals, lawyers, journalists, and politicians clamoring to be the official voice and patron of various wronged people, vying for supporters and lobbying clout and votes, has little clue how to encourage much that is very helpful right now, but they have contributed to Demagoguery and McCarthyist tendencies in the past, and seem to be helpless to really counteract these tendencies... too many of them seem helpless to do much else than contribute to the problem during this time of crisis.
So if we take our lead from them, what else can we expect, but confused resistance or even worse: compliance with the madness. Let's step up to the plate and really talk about what's going on, what it means, what healthy tendencies we can support, how we can best clarify the situation, strategize, organize, be heard, protest, see where different types of people fit in and contribute as individuals in a way and degree that is best, and generally be more effective in protecting our freedom from attack. We cannot just proceed to do more of what we have done in the past; we have to be more flexible, innovative, encouraging, and also critical. Not everyone will protest on the streets, but everyone can foster a climate that expects and respects dissent. Not every protest is effective, but we can have more perspective on the cultural space and climate, more effective strategy and organization.
