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Jan. 7th, 2018 08:12 amWhen we invoked bipolarity as a means of handling differentiation within society without foregoing some notion of common character structure, we considered only the possibility of simple bipolar differentiation. Certainly this pattern is very common in Western cultures; take, for instance, Republican-Democrat, political Right-Left, sex differentiation, God and the devil, and so on. These peoples even try to impose a binary pattern upon phenomena which are not dual in nature—youth versus age, labor versus capital, mind versus matter—and, in general, lack the organizational devices for handling triangular systems; the inception of any "third" party is always regarded, for example, as a threat to our political organization. This clear tendency toward dual systems ought not, however, to blind us to the occurrence of other patterns. (1)
This quote is from a section of Bateson's work titles "Morale and National Character". I have been thinking about this particular subject for a while there and the thoughts that I have been having are less than flattering.
For some odd reason, Americans are obsessed with being the "best", or "number one", or the shining City on the Hill". I think that the question needs to be turned away from "What is our National Character?" towards "What are our National Myths".
The above quote goes into the most basic of our myths: That the puritans came here to spread their peculiar flavor of godliness and set the moral tone for the future of America.
The puritans (read here, fundamentalist fanatics, not significantly different than ISIL) came in with a "we are good and everyone else is evil" attitude. The most fundamental dualism is the "Us against Them" variety. It is also the most pernicious.
The kind of folks who buy into this crap are the most dangerous and oppressive of all the flavors of mankind. The don't value anyone except those who agree with them. If they achieve power, they appear to be the first to start systematic destruction of the "other". Consider that for a second. ISIL was marked for destruction because they were a modern-day Muslim version of these shitheads.
Look, the pilgrims didn't come to America to escape religious persecution, they came to America to start up their own franchise.
Our myths of American exceptionalism, our aggressiveness in pushing the neoliberal agenda, our bipolarity, and our self-righteousness all stem from this founding sin.
For some odd reason, Americans are obsessed with being the "best", or "number one", or the shining City on the Hill". I think that the question needs to be turned away from "What is our National Character?" towards "What are our National Myths".
The above quote goes into the most basic of our myths: That the puritans came here to spread their peculiar flavor of godliness and set the moral tone for the future of America.
The puritans (read here, fundamentalist fanatics, not significantly different than ISIL) came in with a "we are good and everyone else is evil" attitude. The most fundamental dualism is the "Us against Them" variety. It is also the most pernicious.
The kind of folks who buy into this crap are the most dangerous and oppressive of all the flavors of mankind. The don't value anyone except those who agree with them. If they achieve power, they appear to be the first to start systematic destruction of the "other". Consider that for a second. ISIL was marked for destruction because they were a modern-day Muslim version of these shitheads.
Look, the pilgrims didn't come to America to escape religious persecution, they came to America to start up their own franchise.
Our myths of American exceptionalism, our aggressiveness in pushing the neoliberal agenda, our bipolarity, and our self-righteousness all stem from this founding sin.
(1) Bateson, Gregory, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, (Jason Aronson Inc, 1987), pg 119
