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The history of American democracy is the rebellion of the marginalized against the grotesque hypocrisy of our stated values, faced as they are with the reality

The history of American democracy is the rebellion of the marginalized against the grotesque hypocrisy of our stated values, faced as they are with the reality of their social conditions. The only reason we have any freedoms is because the oppressed weaponized the noblesse oblige of a bunch of slave owners to carve it out for themselves. There is no reading of American history where the press or the judiciary function as some conduit for the immortal "brilliance" or protection of the framers. One needs to only look at recent history, the condition of minorities in modern carceral state, being lied into war in Iraq, to recognize this. Further back, the judiciary was used to justify segregation, eugenics, and mass disenfranchisement. And the history of the press speaks quite bleakly for itself. This kind of mentality, where individual agency is sacrificed in favor of "mythic" protections, is a big part of the reason things have become so precarious.

jnbiche 10y ago
Hippocracy: government by or of the horses? It's actually spelled hypocrisy, but that's a fun misspelling for those who know Greek roots. Otherwise, I think a huge reason for our moral progress in the US, slow and unsteady though it may be, is having a document like the condition to point to when advocating for better conditions.
- alphonsegaston 10y ago
  Pedantry about spelling on a message board will certainly save the republic. Just like literacy tests protected voting rights. The constitution enshrined the diminishment of blacks' humanity, had to be ammended to extend the franchise to women, and still says that slavery is fine under the right circumstances. It's as much a reflection of our failings as it is our ambitions, and has been wielded violently to uphold or change the status quo. It has no inherent trajectory towards progress other than the one we actively embody.
  - rtx 10y ago
    Constitutions come and go. Republics are saved by interests.
ArkyBeagle 10y ago
It's not myth, it's narrative. Antebellum slavery and Jim Crow were narratives[1]. Even worse, they're narratives based on phrenological "science". [1] see also a novel "The Klansman", the Word of that narrative made flesh and into "Birth of a Nation" , i which the modern movie was born. Sacrificing individual agency to mythic protections has a name. It's collectivism. And it takes quite the storyteller to kill that sort of story. The housing crisis? "Housing never goes down." Vietnam? "The domino theory." Manifest Destiny? "Go West, young man." The problem is that we're adapted to narrative as our principle means of information exchange. So we try to construct counter-narratives. Those work just about as well. The antidote to narrative is rhetoric.

jnbiche 10y ago

Hippocracy: government by or of the horses? It's actually spelled hypocrisy, but that's a fun misspelling for those who know Greek roots. Otherwise, I think a huge reason for our moral progress in the US, slow and unsteady though it may be, is having a document like the condition to point to when advocating for better conditions.

alphonsegaston 10y ago
Pedantry about spelling on a message board will certainly save the republic. Just like literacy tests protected voting rights. The constitution enshrined the diminishment of blacks' humanity, had to be ammended to extend the franchise to women, and still says that slavery is fine under the right circumstances. It's as much a reflection of our failings as it is our ambitions, and has been wielded violently to uphold or change the status quo. It has no inherent trajectory towards progress other than the one we actively embody.
- rtx 10y ago
  Constitutions come and go. Republics are saved by interests.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago

It's not myth, it's narrative. Antebellum slavery and Jim Crow were narratives[1]. Even worse, they're narratives based on phrenological "science". [1] see also a novel "The Klansman", the Word of that narrative made flesh and into "Birth of a Nation" , i which the modern movie was born. Sacrificing individual agency to mythic protections has a name. It's collectivism. And it takes quite the storyteller to kill that sort of story. The housing crisis? "Housing never goes down." Vietnam? "The domino theory." Manifest Destiny? "Go West, young man." The problem is that we're adapted to narrative as our principle means of information exchange. So we try to construct counter-narratives. Those work just about as well. The antidote to narrative is rhetoric.