Conspiracy Theory? - pop culture, US political passivity

Humanist, Nov, 1999 by Gregory Shafer

I've never been much for elaborate conspiracy theories, but sometimes I have to step back and wonder. If I were a modern-day despot in the United States who wanted to prevent the kind of discontent that might lead to revolt, what better system could I ask for than the one presently at work?

In U.S. schools, the curriculum is--with few exceptions--a blissfully romantic inculcation of "the American way." Textbooks rarely impugn anything "American," and when they do it is usually a qualified admonishment of "a great man" or "necessary" conquest. Thus, even after it was verified that Thomas Jefferson did more than write great documents at his slave-run Monticello, the majority of the nation's writers were quick to race to the icon's rescue, exhorting us to never forget the majestic democracy he and his fraternity designed. The result is that, almost two centuries after his death, we still fail to remember or even be told about the plutocracy he and his brethren propagated while ruling over the fledgling nation.

Of course, the unabashed campaign to promote patriotism and satisfaction with the status quo is certainly not limited to the peccadillos of the framers of the Constitution. When U.S. students study the Spanish-American War, are they simply inundated with heady stories about Teddy Roosevelt's heroic charge up San Juan Hill or is there time to talk about the genocide that quashed the independence movement in the Philippines? Is there time to broach the topic of imperialism and how the propaganda mill in the United States worked to promote a singular truth in citizens' minds? History, Howard Zinn reminds us, is not an objective science but a human construct--an artifact that is created as a way to shape opinion and truth. "There is always a tendency," Zinn says in his 1990 book The Politics of History, "to see history from the top," but such an approach invariably leads to passivity, to an acceptance of the status quo as the best of all possible worlds.

Thus, as students leave the kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade experience, they enter the "real world" with a plethora of lofty stories about our venerable heroes and storied history. As the officially ascribed "good guys," Americans are the survivors of a heroic battle with the iniquitous forces of communism. Precious little is written about the United States' pandering to big business, the orchestrated fight against organized labor, or the concerted effort to keep minorities in their place. Such omissions lead to romantic monoliths, to myths about the Roaring Twenties or the blissful fifties. Few of us ever hear about segregation or the unequal tax burdens imposed upon the poor and middle class. "The class nature of the American economy is reflected in the tax structure, but this is hidden from those without time or training to study taxes," argues Zinn.

After graduation from school--where students have been given a generous helping of the superiority of capitalism, Christianity, and the rightness of American political wars--one moves on to a virtual deluge of mind-numbing routines, one that, if I were skeptical, would seem to be specially designed to preclude any critical analysis or political action. Consider, for example, the lives of average college students who enter the classroom with aspirations of learning to reflect upon and dissect their world.

I recently did a series of informal surveys with my sophomore writing class, asking them to evaluate a societal injustice they would like to expose and possibly remedy. I suggested topics like racism, classism, gender bias, or the moronic content of day-time television --anything was an option. Incredibly, a majority came to me with few ideas about what to write. When I devoted a class session to the reality of an unequal tax system, students defended the idea of a flat tax, knowing that they--as struggling students--would clearly be the victims of this regressive plan. Later, when I broached the idea of racism among the students, even the African Americans waxed rhapsodic about the empowerment they felt. This, it should be noted, while affirmative action was being dismantled in states all around them.

Intellectual Paralysis in the Media

The United States, for most of my students, is a curious utopia--and this, I believe, is a result of a system that promotes passivity, intellectual indolence, and self-loathing, a system that massages its populace with mindless talk shows and courtroom melodramas where rather pathetic people are displayed for derision and pseudointellectual analysis. It really matters little whether one views the exploits of Ricki Lake, Jenny Jones, or Jerry Springer. In each case, one is confronted with a deluge of tawdry melodramas, devoid of meaning and intended only to titillate and lampoon. The upshot for those who crowd the television for these travesties is an acceptance of their place as silly and rather ridiculous people.

Yesterday it was the entertaining fight between unfaithful lovers. Today it is the struggle over interracial relationships. Tomorrow it will involve sordid details about women fighting over other women's husbands. Together they fulfill a need to wallow in a collective misery while reinforcing the insignificance of the people whom they exploit. This, I would argue, is an extension of the indoctrination machine that begins in elementary school and runs unabated throughout one's life. It is an education not unlike the racist minstrel shows, where African Americans were made the butt of jokes and the knowledge of their marginal status was reinforced. The only difference is that today it is in a courtroom and it is Judge Judy who is pontificating about the "sad lifestyle" of one of her victims.