There’s a pattern we can observe, it goes like this: naive enthusiasm, naive counter-enthusiasm, and wise release. Patriotism is foolish. Anti-Americanism is equally foolish. Nations seem to preclude some sort of world harmony, and yet to quest for their destruction is misguided.
Why celebrate the Fourth of July? The founders were intellectual elitists who forced their minority will upon the people. Britain was making poor decisions, but there was no conspiracy for total domination, the perception of which justified the revolt. A bunch of rich white men simply wanted to renegotiate power arrangements, and sent a bunch of poor boys to die so this could happen. This is still a favored method of negotiation for powerful men.
The American Revolution was not about you or I. It was not about wage-slaves. It was not about dreamers. It was not about cogs. It was about the elite. We are not the elite. To celebrate their victory is to celebrate our oppression.
Many realize this. Many submit to the reactionary impulse to protest with a mirror image: instead of having a BBQ to celebrate the illusion of freedom, they have a BBQ to celebrate the freedom of illusion–the illusion that spite is power. Why celebrate spite? Is it to come together, to feel some sense of community? It certainly is not pragmatic.
See, nobody cares if you hate the government, because the government still owns your ass. So burn your flags if you want to, but that only tells me that you are still caught up in seeking liberation through opposition. You can’t fight them, because they made the rules.
The wise release is this: play a different game. Don’t counter the holiday with an anti-holiday, just ignore the lies and live in the truth. Today is Friday, which happens to be the fourth day of the seventh month. Today I do what I would do on any other Friday in July. By chance, some stores are closing early, but this does not really concern me. I choose, simply, to not observe.
The abandonist renegotiates power through circumvention, not through competition.
July 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
The founding fathers (with the notable exception Adams) were all slaveowners who said that all men were created equal.
Is this enough reason to dismiss their arguments and achievements? What good can we take away from it all?
July 5th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Well, no, that would be ad hominum. Good arguments made by hypocrites are still good arguments. So it doesn’t allow us to dismiss their arguments, but it does allow us to dismiss them. And the holiday revolves mostly around them, so I dismiss it all.
July 5th, 2008 at 12:34 am
the blue hyperlinks tag all of this material as 2007. wa happened?
July 5th, 2008 at 1:54 am
I watched a 4th of July parade wherein my high school marching band played. I stood for the flag, out of respect for my community, not out of respect for my nation. I even watched the fireworks tonight and stood when some old dudes sang the National Anthem. But I did not “observe” the 4th of July in the sense that I felt patriotic and nationalistic and “Go America!” I feel that this nation does not deserve my respect because it makes choices that are against my morals, that conflict with my core-being. I observed the Fourth as a community gathering, which is really what it is in small-town WI. I see it no different than Catfish Days or Apple Affair or any other town festival. I think you don’t have to abandon the Fourth as a holiday to show your distaste for our society. I think abandoning it is as much of a protest as throwing your fist in the air. Abandonment can be powerful. Perhaps that will spark the next revolution.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:43 am
It’s a multi-faceted issue, and I presented only one side. Guthrie, you did a good job of bringing the wholeness of the thing back into the picture. My post explores only one aspect of the holiday, which is good in that it allows for a certain exploration of ideas, and bad in that it is ultimately unrealistic. So we have to take it under playful consideration, see if we can take anything from it, and then put it into context. Of course there is no final answer about how we should react to the 4th, and I have no actual problem with celebrations and anti-celebrations. Just exploring thoughts.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:01 am
“The American Revolution was not about you or I. It was not about wage-slaves. It was not about dreamers. It was not about cogs. It was about the elite. We are not the elite. To celebrate their victory is to celebrate our oppression.”
I don’t give a shit what the American Revolution was “for,” I don’t care what the elite scheme to do with poor boys caught in the glamor of patriotism. I didn’t fight in any American Revolution, no one in my family (present or past) fought in any American Revolution, and I sure as shit won’t be conned into fighting in any modern “war” to make rich people richer. That has abso-goddamn-lutely nothing to do with the Fourth of July. Nada.
What I care about, and what I celebrate on the 4th — and what everyone I talk to celebrates on the fourth — is what is possible and what has been done because this country is what it is and because this country still (even in troubled times) offers the amazing opportunities it does. I appreciate the bitching, really, it’s good to see that there’s a healthy culture of people who Aren’t Buying It, but stop for a moment and wrap your head around the fact that Monoculture is a myth: despite the raving nationalists who’ve laid claim to all things American, we are still a land of rather startling opportunity and mostly good people who do a surprising number of wonderful things.
I think the “wise release” is this: stop grouching and let yourself feel good about something now and then.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Haha, yes, I agree. As I said to Guthrie–my post explores only one aspect of the holiday, which is good in that it allows for a certain exploration of ideas, and bad in that it is ultimately unrealistic.
I suppose I get frustrated by the fragmentation that is symptomatic of the postmodern condition, and this is extremely apparent in holidays: Fourth of July, Columbus Day, Christmas, etc. They are all almost completely separated from their original context, and have become gross absurdities. I like to try to point that out from time to time. Ultimately you are right, we have to look at things for their wholeness, and there are a lot of great things about the Fourth.
My ultimate point was: patriots celebrate the myth of the Revolution, anti-patriots celebrate the myth that their cynical quips might start a revolution, and the wise release is to just experience the thing for what it is. For me, that comes down to ignoring it (outside of capitalizing on the opportunity to spend time with people I care about). For you, that comes down to celebrating the healthy aspects.
If I had had these conversations before I made the post, I would have focused more on escaping the patriot/anti-patriot dichotomy and experiencing the thing more directly. Because I was thinking as I was writing, the post wasn’t as coherent. But yeah, I agree with you completey.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Coherency, whatever; it’s the discussion that counts.
I’m actually a fan of what I think you mean by ‘postmodern fragmentation’ — it means that we can take something that, if we weren’t able to divorce it from its causes, wouldn’t be worth celebrating, and we can remake it into something that IS worth celebrating; it’s cultural self-appropriation. Next on my list is re-appropriating Columbus Day.
I once overheard someone ask a French person, “when do you celebrate the 4th of July in France?”
July 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
That was a wonderful moment in the world of signifiers.