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July 18, 2007

Dancing the Two-Step

Johann Hari has just returned from riding along with 500 right-wingers on the annual "National Review" cruise to find out what American conservatives say when they don't realize someone is listening, and offers up his report of the trip in "Ship of fools," an article published Friday in the UK Independent. In it he says the "straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republicans" he joined on the cruise believe that "the Iraq war has been an amazing success, global warming is just a myth – and as for Guantanamo Bay, it's practically a holiday camp." Most interesting in his report are the casual comments he records here and there, the sort that shock you because it is so difficult to believe people would say such things out loud, let alone think them.

For instance, upon learning Hari had no children, one woman said, "You'd better start. The Muslims are breeding. Soon, they'll have the whole of Europe." Another says of liberals, "Of course, we need to execute some of these people. A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralize the country. Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's what you'll get. Then things'll change." One lady says of the UN building in Florida, "They should suicide-bomb that place." Another lady says she gets on her knees every day to "thank God for Fox News." And a man says, "The quality of an immigrant is inversely proportional to the distance traveled to get to the United States."

The sad part is I've heard much of the same drivel many times in right-wing circles myself. It's a wonder my tongue still works, I've had to bite it so many times. But for me it is especially entertaining to see how different it all looks to someone who has never been a part of it. I think Hari has not yet figured out that the crazy things he heard are the crude expressions of concepts the masses have mastered, by rote, but to which they have given very little thought.

They're dancing the two-step. They know their dance steps, and when they are together, they perform them well, nodding in agreement, encouraging each other on, neither thinking nor straying from the choreography. The success of the dance lifts their spirits and gives them a sense of encouragement and rightness. Put a liberal like Hari in the middle of the dance floor, however, and they can lose their footing for a moment. He's dancing a waltz, and it doesn't fit their music.

I am quite sure the same sort of dancing goes on in all social circles – whether focused on politics, sports, business, religion, or any other type of music. Dancing the simple steps we know to the simple song we know is so much easier than trying to interpret the entire grand symphony of reality with any level of artistic mastery.

That's why you often find otherwise fully functioning and intelligent and even decent human beings making inane statements such as, "Republicans are the party of winners, Democrats are the party of losers." Or, "The coverage of this war is unbelievable. Even Fox News is unbelievable. You'd think we're the only ones dying. Enemy casualties aren't covered. We're doing an excellent job killing them." Or, "There was nobody better than Don Rumsfeld. This defeatist talk only contributes to the impression we are losing, when I think we're winning." Or, "Nobody was tortured in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo." Or, "If the Germans think they can take responsibility for the world [by trying Donald Rumsfeld on war crimes], I don't care about German courts. Bomb them." Or, "The civilized countries should invade all the oil-owning places in the Middle East and run them properly. We won't take the money ourselves, but we'll manage it so the money isn't going to terrorists."

And the music plays on.

Posted by Becky at July 18, 2007 11:50 AM