I'm glad that Robbins touched on the difficulties of contemporaneous empathy when it comes to the Cold War and anticommunism. Having been born in 1985, my real-world exposure to the Red Menace was limited to the gradual phasing out of school maps that still included the USSR. Our early education on the American Revolution referred correctly to our independence from "England", rather than the "United Kingdom" as it was called some time later, and adults often used them interchangeably into the present. The Russian SSR was the key member of the USSR and followed a similar pattern which continued to beguile us. Perhaps that contributed to my eventual sub-specialization in Russian studies which, together with my relative youth, allows me to see Russian communism more objectively. As an American patriot I believe our system is superior given its adaptability rooted in pragmatism rather than idealism, as a student of history I can see how the Soviet system was doomed for internal and external reasons, but I have great difficulty putting myself in the shoes of people who feared communists were under their beds or hiding in their closet.
The USSR were technically allies, perhaps better to say respectfully neutral and assuming the worst was to come, and Russian forces bore the brunt of wartime casualties in a bloody struggle which killed tens of millions while the other allies bided their time to invade North Africa, Italy, and finally France. Those members of the American Legion faced a smaller and weaker German army precisely because the USSR threw their lives into the conflict.
This anticommunism extends into the institutionalized racism of the US during this time. It's always disappointing that white settlers, introduced to punish the treacherous Indians, adopted and maintained a similar racism practiced by the slave holding Indians who were removed from their native lands so whites could grow tobacco, cotton, rice, and indigo. Society and individual behaviors feed off each other to create irrational manifestations of our hopes and fears but for the life of me I can't understand how people can justify certain actions. I cannot recall who uttered this in Dismissal... but one of the charges against Ruth Brown was that her media exposure threatened the progress of local Negros: I've heard this same claim made in my studies of civil rights in the 1960s.
Phrases like that should be dubbed "2/3s phrases." One-third of the population will hear it and know it's an out and out lie but say it to deflect criticism, another third will identify it as a compromise that will quell agitation and restore peace, and another third will realize its absurdity but be overwhelmed by the other two-thirds. A similar claim can be made about gay marriage. There will always be a segment which feels homosexuality has no Godly right to exist who will be allies with morally conservative people who don't want gay people to further dilute the permanence of unions.
Particular to Ruth Brown, the logic of the conservative -villers aggravated me to no end. Particularly on page 73 when, after saying she did not consider herself having committed great harm, was asked the loaded question "Miss Brown, if you remain here as a librarian would you agree to do nothing more that would harm Bartlesville?" This is what happens when ad hoc citizens committees which have little to no expertise mandate policies under the guise of public accountability. They were little more than a professional lynch mob by committee with the intention to subvert the autonomy of a public institution with an avowed professional commitment to grant access to more information rather than less and facilitate thoughtful questions. I'm not the type of LIS student who got into the school with a political ax to grind--I just really want to be an archivist--but this sort of behavior stems from public hysteria and irrationality. This shit continues to the present and usually the actions of conservatives who fear loss rather than liberals who dream what could be improved. Lefties possess some crazy and irrational ideas as well--but they are usually unrealized aspirations watered down by conservative circumstances rather than the established norm struggling for survival.
Reaction is rarely celebrated in history texts because it is often based on intolerance, prejudice, and comparatively has a clear and present enemy rather than a sympathetic victim so often the subject of social history. Just look at our fiction--even the 1950s era Captain America Commie Basher was rendered an imposter by the Marvel retcon because we like our creative works to, in some ways, reflect our ideals. Real-life bigotry at a substantial enough level conveyed to the reader beyond mere standard practice makes an unsympathetic character indeed. I'm glad Cap got frozen and stands up for America once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment