Saturday, June 02, 2018

Apparently, one Latino protesting against Uncle Sam is supposed to speak for all the other citizens of his country, if not the entire continent

Among the people coming out in protest against a European politician's anti-American caricatures were a couple of naysayers determined to extend the demonization of the Yankee nation.
See: If leftists (U.S. as well as foreign) can't depict the Indians as Buddhist-monk-like beings interested in only peace and harmony, it becomes much harder to depict (white) Americans as monsters
One of the demonizers of los Estados Unidos — as allegedly deaf to other peoples' voices, as allegedly indifferent to their customs — was pen Name who used that age-old leftist technique, the quote from a "respected" authority figure.
There is a long essay by Octavio Paz, the Mexican poet and diplomat, concerning US policies in Latin America. In that essay he observerd that US was a protestant polity in which it was posited that there could be a one-to-one relationship between Man and God. This fundamental belief of Christian Protestanism had fundamentally shaped the psyche of North Americans - it had defeaned (deaf) them to the voices of other peoples (their concerns, aspirations, etc.) because the North Americans were absorbed in this ongoing conversation with the Almighty. Thus they went and did whatever they wanted in Latin America (and now in the Near East) while oblivious to the protesting voices of Lations (and others).

To which a No Pasarán blogger replied as follows:
Has it ever occurred to anybody that maybe they should be listening to the Americans, at least part of the time (instead of always demanding that the U.S. listen to them)?! I mean, unless I am very mistaken, the U.S. has made a better life for most of its citizens than has any of the Latin American nations (and others).

In any case, "pen Name"'s post is quite symbolic, although he doesn't seem to realize it; While castigating Americans' individuality, he takes other nations' alleged collectivist thought for granted (as does Octavio Paz). Apparently, one Latino protesting against Uncle Sam (Castro, Chávez, etc, their respective intelligentsias, etc) is supposed to speak for all the other citizens of his country, if not the entire continent. Isn't this way of thinking the root of the problem to begin with?

Friday, June 01, 2018

If leftists (U.S. as well as foreign) can't depict the Indians as Buddhist-monk-like beings interested in only peace and harmony, it becomes much harder to depict (white) Americans as monsters


Americans and their allies reacted en masse on the Atlantic Review 11 years ago after


Lots of interesting reactions, from among others, Jabba the Tutt and Isolationist. Two of the latter's four points are as follows:
(2) Many Americans know that Navahoe Americans were used as radio operators during the Pacific War, using their own difficult language in the open and driving the Japanese crazy in their code breaking efforts.
Fewer people know that a company size unit of Comanches Americans was landed on Utah Beach on or right after D-Day. These Comanches were also used as radio operators and "wind talkers" against Germany just like the Navahoes were used against Japan. It is nice to know that these Comanche Americans helped bring Dr. Gauweiler's Germany to its knees.

(3) The statements above about the Comanche confrontation with the Apache are true. In fact, so severe and relentless were the Comanches against the Apache that the latter, at one point, sought frontier peace with the Spanish in order to better defend themselves against the Comanches.
Indeed, among the posters reacting to Herr Gauweiler's facile oversimplifications was a No Pasarán blogger who had earlier expanded on Isolationist's third point:
Concerning the Apaches, why would the members of that tribe live in the arid rocks of Arizona rather than on the cooler and more fruitful plains of the Midwest? Well, the main reason is that they were chased away from their homeland, which was the plains. That's right, their land was stolen. Whom by, you ask? Those terrible white Americans? (Tch, tch, head shaking…) No, their land was seized by the Comanches.

Concerning extermination, meanwhile, if we can hardly find a single survivor of the Erie nation, it is because they were annihilated. Annihilated to the last woman and child. Likewise, the Hurons, massacred to the very last tribe member. Warriors scalped, women killed, babies with their brains smashed in. Whom by, you ask? Those genocidal whites? No, by the Iroquois.

Those are historical facts liberals and Europeans don't know about and do not like to focus on, because if they can't depict the Indians as harmless, Buddhist-monk-like beings interested in nothing but peace and harmony with the earth and with forces of nature, it becomes much harder to depict (white) Americans as monstrous beings and their policies (past as well as present) as of a criminal nature beyond rational control.

You may have heard the sentence attributed to Sheridan, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." The truth is that type of sentence (or the idea it contained) was much more often expressed by members of one Indian tribe about another (e.g., The only good Sioux is a dead Sioux) but that's something we must forget about in order to be able to shake our heads mournfully at those clueless (white) Americans, past and present, while congratulating ourselves incessantly for our top-notch lucidity, our unrivaled love of peace, and our rationality the kind of which the world has never seen. 
Related: Apparently, one Latino protesting against Uncle Sam is supposed to speak for all the other citizens of his country, if not the entire continent