M&D CH 31

Joseph Tracy brook7 at sover.net
Sun Apr 29 12:43:12 CDT 2018


Ch 31

  General interpretation: A kind of review of theological/political arguments at play : casuistry, strict morality, pelagianism, predetermination, means and ends, fashion messages, conscience vs doctrine, who will stop Paxton types.    M&D , observing and dubiuos about American infighting, are themselves infected with disagreement and mild aggression.

Summary
M&D awake to a day so quiet birds are heard. Curious, after a brief talk about hats and wigs( Dixon wearing quaker hat to blend in),  they go to  a local coffeehouse to see what is up.  At Restless Bee a quaker is fighting a presbyterian. Turns out Paxton boys have murdered another group of peaceful indians with no restraint from army and are reputed to be headed toward Philadelphia to kill Indians converted by Moravians. The city is rife with arguments over situation.  
 Rev Cherrycoke blames a doctrine of liberty which allows violence, but then shows indifference to violence against native people.

M&D  in a long discussion recall Jacobite uprising, each claiming a dubious participation or sympathy, showing desire to connect to the by then mythic rebellion.  ???

Mason says Dixon from part of England where magic is still possible, but he from a part of England where mechanized looms have banished such so that there is no home to return to for him. 
Dixon asks if he is in exile but Mason says not exile from but progress toward, accusing Dixon of boobyish casuistry and pessimism.  Dixon is confused by Mason’s intensity.

Thoughts
As I think over this chapter I find a profound correspondence to how morally troubling actions are processed in american culture, and may indicate a flaw in majoritarian populism. The massacre of native people who had peacefully assimilated reminds me of Old Testament stories of ethnic cleansing or the triumph of Anglo Saxon culture over Celtic culture, protestantism over catholicism . Once a group is deemed to be  “savages”  which is usually a cover story for the sense that the targeted savages are standing  in the way of the opportunistic expansion of wealth and power,  even the most obvious and horrible aggression is seen as a necessary defense of sacred rights and obligations.

The chapter is  keenly relevant. Every violent action from  the Trail of tears to the Vietnam war to contemporary school shootings is interpreted through the endless culture wars, unity rarely achieved, and worse possible outcome common. Is this what we mean by freedom?


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