Conservatism, History and Insanity (America Is Not So Exceptional, Part Three.)

Is it not true that our brotherhood transcends distances, different languages, and the absence of close cultural links, and unites us in the struggle? Ought not a Japanese worker be closer to an Argentine laborer, a Bolivian miner, a man working for United Fruit Company or a Cuban cane cutter, than to a Japanese samurai? ~Che Guevara, as quoted in the Mexican publication Humanismo, September 1959.

Help me here.

In what idealized alternate universe were the 1950's "A culture that championed meritocracy and colorblindness and the superiority of individual achievement?" In any country? Go ahead, I'll wait.

In 1959 much of the world still labored under colonialism, a bloody revolution against French rule in Algeria was just starting its bloodiest phase, the British and Commonwealth forces were fighting an insurgency in Malaya, US involvement in Vietnam was low-key, but present, and the Civil Rights movement was in full swing in the United States. There was a reason for that. The United States, hell the world in 1959 was not colorblind, nor a meritocracy, nor a place that championed individual achievements. In point of fact, the defining issues and threats of the times, colonialism, communism, racial oppression and the looming threat of nuclear war were primarily driven by the policies of nation-states.

Although, for the record, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged had been published two years before and was then a roaring success, Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers would be published in November of that year, and despite its universe of gun-happy borderline fascism it did present a more socially libertarian vision, the beginnings of modern conservatism (and yes, even a few ideas that would not be out of place today) were present, but only in science fiction.

As an example of just how egalitarian the world of 1959 was, the British Commonwealth would only appoint its first non-white colonial governor (Chinese Trinidadian lawyer Solomon Hochoy, of Trinidad and Tobago) in 1962.

People of different races couldn't get married in many parts of the United States.

Feminism and LGBT activism didn't exist, women's liberation would follow the beginning of the breaching of the color lines over the next decade. The push for LGBT rights would only begin after the Stonewall uprising in New York City in 1968.

In 1959, anyone other than white men having power in the United States, especially outside of a very few urban majority-black districts was either a novelty or a token, and that was rare enough. The first Black Congresswoman would not be sworn in until a decade hence, Shirley Chisolm in 1969.

There was one Asian Senator, Hiram Fong of Hawaii, and one woman...Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. The first Black popularly-elected Senator, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, would not be elected until 1966.

Again, the idea of a Black person being president wasn't even thought of outside of science fiction. Again, in Robert A. Heinlein's writings.

In point of fact, one of the few professions in which non-white men (and yes, this almost entirely would apply only to men until the early 1970's when most non-combat career fields were opened up to women) could actually get a fair deal was in the military, that is, if you weren't stationed in the South and subject to Jim Crow the second you went off post. There was a burgeoning class of Black officers and career non-commissioned officers, true enough, but a man of Color in any level of major command authority was still rare enough to be kind of famous. The first African American to command a US Navy ship, Samuel Gravely, would command a Destroyer starting in 1961, having previously served as an officer at sea and ashore including as the communications department head on the USS Iowa.

True enough, there were plenty of people like him forging a path toward the future, but it was by no means a certain thing.

This is the future white conservatives want. They want to have everything and make the rest of us fight to get their scraps.

Conservatism has been lionizing the 1950's since I was a kid. That never made much sense to me and mine. Nobody I knew growing up, who'd lived through the 1950's really wanted to go back.

Myself, I always thought it was better to look forward.

But I suppose the 1950's was a good era to be a rich smarmy white asshole like Tucker Carlson.

For the rest of us, not so much.

That anybody else besides people like Tucker would sign on to this bullshit is an indictment of our country and out culture. These fucking people aren't conservative, they're insane.

And this obsession with Dr. Seuss is both an attempt at distraction from, and perversely the result of, that one particular fact.

Keep your eye on the ball. Move forward.

John Constantine: You're handing Earth over to the son of the Devil? Help me, here;

Gabriel: [Gabriel sits on top of John Constantine, explaining her rebellion] You're handed this precious gift, right? Each one of you granted redemption from the Creator – murderers, rapists, molesters – all of you just have to repent, and God takes you into His bosom. In all the worlds and all the universe, no other creature can make such a boast, save man. It's not fair.

[Gabriel leans closer to Constantine's face]

Gabriel: If sweet, sweet God loves you so, then I will make you worthy of His love. But it's only in the face of horror that you truly find your nobler selves – and you can be so noble. So … I will bring you pain. I will bring you horror.

[Gabriel lifts up Constantine from his collar]

Gabriel: So that you may rise above it. So that those of you who will survive this reign of hell on earth will be worthy of God's love.

John Constantine: Gabriel... you're insane.

Gabriel: [smiles] The road to salvation begins tonight. Right now.

~From the film Constantine.

Part Two.