Fw: One last attempt?

[Carlton Fist]

I'm glad you mentioned George Will. After Don Delillo released Libra, Will 
accused him of being a "bad citizen". Delillo replied by saying that "being 
called a 'bad citizen' [by George Will] is a compliment to my mind. Will 
also said I blamed America for Lee Harvey Oswald. But I don't, I blame 
America for George Will." Delillo also went on to say that it wasn't a 
writer's job to be a good citizen, which I think should be extended to all 
Americans not lucky enough to have the writing abilities of Mr. Delillo. I 
think that we should also ask what it means to be a good citizen, as well as 
what specific characteristics define anti-Americanism. No one's really given 
us an adequate definition, yet everyone seems to know, on a subconscious 
level at least, what a good citizen is; it almost goes without saying, which 
is unfortunate. When the term 'good citizen' comes up, I usually think of 
someone who supports official policy without making too much of a fuss about 
the particulars, someone who prefers to be a spectator rather than a 
participant. Ari Fleischer's comments a few weeks ago represent just one 
definition of good citizenship, one that in IMHO seems to be very powerful 
at this point in time (more so than Delillo's anyway). Not that being a bad 
citizen means that we should start blowing up dams or power stations or 
anything, but I think what Don Delillo meant (and I apologize for putting 
words in his mouth) is that we would all be better citizens if we failed to 
live up to say George Will's Whiggish definition of good citizenship, that 
we be a bit more skeptical about what's going on around us. Unfortunately, 
the term 'anti-American' has usually been used to stifle debate rather than 
deal with some of the critiques that have been leveled towards the American 
government. This is true whether you discuss 100% Americanism during WWI 
(see John Higham's 'Strangers in the Land' for an excellent study about the 
merger of nativism and nationalism and how both were used to quell dissent) 
the Red Scare of 1919-20 (again, check out Higham), the McCarthy period, and 
the protest movements of the 60s. The term has a long history and it has 
rarely been used in a benign fashion. Now I agree that Doug's ideas are 
frequently one-sided, that they lack complexity, and are often ignorant of 
the moral ambiguity of the situation, but calling him (or his posts) 
anti-American disturbs me. Sometimes being anti-American is a good thing. I 
still think Doug's posts are somewhat misguided, but I would prefer to 
characterize his beliefs as 'wrong', or 'strident', or 'doctrinaire' or what 
have you, than anti-American. Although, now that I think of it, if calling 
Doug anti-American will deal a death blow to the hysterical discourse of 
late, then so be it. That last part's a joke. Well, some of it.

p.s. by the way, I'm not arguing here that you're "foaming at the mouth with 
patriotism and jingo ire". I realize the gist of your comments, but I do 
think that anti-American is not the best term to describe Doug's posts. I'm 
sure Doug has many positive things to say about America, but this forum 
isn't exactly the best place to make such views known.


From: The Great Quail <quail at libyrinth.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Fw: One last attempt?
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 13:44:52 -0500

[...}

I would say if you consistently criticize the government, economics,
lifestyle, values, and culture of a nation, with hardly at all any
acknowledgment of anything positive to come out of a nation's
government, economics, lifestyle, values, and culture; and if you
tend to broadly exaggerate your claims and discount any opposition;
then, yes, I would say your views could fairly be called anti-German,
anti-French, anti-Slovakian, or whatever. And some of the articles
Doug forwards, some of the sources and authors, have done that. For
instance, Noam Chomsky tends to write fairly anti-American essays;
and Pilger certainly. Of course, being anti-Capitalist is also tied
in there. And again, that's fine; George Will generally writes
pro-American articles. It's a set of opinions.

Look, I am not using the phrase all foaming at the mouth with
patriotism and jingo ire; though I know some people do so. I think in
the context of my comments, my meaning should be obvious.

--Quail



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