Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Post No. 61: Further Thoughts about the Problems Associated with an Obama Victory

© 2008, the Institute for Applied Common Sense

Thanks Issac and Caleb for placing comments on our blog, in response to our earlier Post No. 60, “Why I am Concerned that Obama Might Win” (http://theviewfromoutsidemytinywindow.blogspot.com/2008/10/post-no-60-why-i-am-concerned-that.html). You both essentially are of the opinion that the candidate with the best credentials, regardless of gender or race, should be selected. I have chosen to respond to the two of you in the form of a new post.

I agree with you, in theory, that society should want the best person (from an objective perspective) for the job. However, that’s not the way societies do things. There are reasons why neither a woman, nor a black, has ever been elected as President of this country. The reasons go back hundreds of years. There is a substantial segment of the population that feels that no matter the woman or the black, or the Hispanic or Asian for that matter, who might be put forth to occupy that position, they are inherently unqualified and unacceptable.

If one believes that gender and racial attitudes have improved since the 1950s, then an argument can be made that the time for a woman or some other minority has arrived, and our society has evolved. On the other hand, if you believe, as I do, that racial and gender attitudes have not really changed, then one can easily come to the conclusion that America is not ready to have a woman or minority President.

What have changed over time are the visibility of integration, and the comfort level of at least some people to disclose their true feelings. Integration was effectively forced on this nation, first by the Warren Supreme Court when the Congress did not see fit to do so, and later legislatively, but with an extreme amount of reluctance.

There were clearly many bigots during the 1950s, who did not have a problem identifying themselves as such. There were probably just as many folks who were not legitimate, honest bigots, but behaved as such due to peer pressure and socialization factors. (This is the group which I suspect is comfortable having blacks as friends and colleagues today.)

Not only were many merchants, schools, clubs, public accommodations, and other entities forced to accept folks into their world against their will, but later the whole concept of affirmative action further soured the soup. There has been a lot of whispering, and under the breath statements of discomfort, over the past 60 years.

I’m not sure whether racial attitudes can change, as dramatically as we profess, over such a short period of time. Make-up can be applied, and plastic surgery performed, but the basic pragmatic and functional reasons for racism have existed, somewhere on this earth, for thousands of years. (Just think about all of the ethnic cleansing that took place over the past 30 years internationally.)

We previously addressed racism in our Post No. 2, in April 2008, entitled, “Why Racism, Although Problematic, Serves a Pragmatic and Utilitarian Function” (http://theviewfromoutsidemytinywindow.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-racism-although-problematic-serves.html)

I suspect that the expression of prejudicial attitudes and beliefs, and the comfort with which people feel to express them, is significantly dependent on the current economic status of the group affected. I submit that there are transient changes in generational attitudes depending on the economic status of the nation. It is unnecessary, and serves no useful function, to disclose one’s innermost prejudices, if one is doing fairly well. However, as soon as one, or the group of which the person is a member, feels that his interests are being adversely affected, and identifies, rightly or wrongly, another group as a causative factor, then civility and the exercise of self-restraint go right out the window. That we have folks at McCain / Palin rallies calling for Obama’s death should surprise no one during these economic times.

Now, getting back to the performance issue. Just for sake of argument, let’s assume that we could label the state of economic affairs in our country as poor, moderate, or good. If a substantial segment of the electorate feels that women and minorities are incapable of running the country and serving competently, and by whatever combination of forces, the country ended up with a woman or black president, I would just hope that individual would preside during a moderate or good economic period. Then at least the person would have a chance to disabuse the doubters of the inappropriateness of the selection, and the inherent inferiority of that individual’s group.

But when we thrust the first of any group into a situation which many deem perilous, he’ll either be viewed as a hero, should things turn around quickly, or an abysmal failure, should economic conditions continue to deteriorate.

I simply do not think that things are going to turn around sufficiently economically within the next 2 – 3 years, to give Obama a chance to even appear competent. I also believe that no one person, under our system of government, can quickly overcome, as George Will calls it, “the inertia that is Washington.” Furthermore, do you really have reason to believe that a Democratic controlled Congress will do a better job than what has been done over the past 20 years?

This has nothing to do with Obama. It has to do with the economy, and the apparent disinterest on the part of our elected federal officials, to place the interests of the nation, ahead of their personal interests.

I’m afraid that he will be a one term president, and we will not see another woman or minority elected for at least another 100 years thereafter.

We never allowed people to grow, respect, and value others on their own terms. We never allowed the concept of integration, fairness, and equal treatment to creep into the hearts and minds of people and evolve accordingly. Instead, we created awkward and artificial contrivances, and legal fictions, to achieve an admittedly lofty goal. However, we didn’t work on the hearts and minds of the core citizens of America. We just drove the bigots underground, and made unpopular the open expression of their views. (We also made employers financially responsible for discriminationatory acts of their employees which were developed years becoming arriving at that place of employment, as if an employer can really police the heart of an employee.) You couple those attitudes with some religious underpinnings, and nothing has really changed in the past 60 years. Their God supports their view of the world.

On the other hand, those closet liberals / potential race “minglers” who were afraid to disclose their true views during the 1950s, now feel free to do so.

The real question remains, deep down, have we really changed? If one believes that racism is primaily biologically and evolutionarily driven, and not a mere matter of choice, then it's going to take more than 60 years of artifical laws to change the DNA.

© 2008, the Institute for Applied Common Sense

8 comments:

  1. Well-said Logisitician. You definitely say it like it is and I’m in full agreement with you. Racism and Sexism is alive and well. It’s just taken on different costume than it wore in the 50’s and 60’s.

    And one other obvious thing that you don’t really point out- ‘we- the lesser/ incapable human beings’ (black, female, etc.) now ADD to the problem ourselves. We pretend like we don’t notice and we’re not affected. It’s necessary, you know? We have to be able to function and be accepted socially and professionally to survive.

    I hope your wrong about Obama’s term as President, but do fear you’re right. We’ll see

    Vikki

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  2. Usually I think that the Logistician is too pessimistic, but not now. I guess I was naive to think we were evolving . . slowly but consistently. But no, not when we have a candidate for Vice President of the United States proudly and publicly standing before TV cameras and microphones and calling herself a redneck, with the mainstream press reporting it as if she said it's raining today. We are going backwards, not forwards, as shown by this quote from George Wallace at the 1968 Democratic Convention:
    "Yes, they’ve looked down their nose at you and me a long time. They’ve called us rednecks -- the Republicans and the Democrats. Well, we’re going to show, there sure are a lot of rednecks in this country."
    Sadly, it's very probably that Governor Palin doesn't know her U.S. history well enough to know this quote and understand the evil that is inherent in her use of the word redneck. Or worse, she and her cynical handlers know their history all too well.
    How did we get to this point, where people like John Lewis who are connecting the dots from 1968 to 2008 are marginalized and disrespected? And where the Republican candidate "proudly" uses both McCarthy AND Wallace tactics and pays no discernible price? Does the entire country have amnesia? Young people only know what they know from history books, movies, and what they are told by their families. I have come to fear that the next generation will not see the "die-off" of racial hatred, bigotry, and fear because we are passing it on. Why are those of us who were witnessses to the wrongs of the past allowing this terrible regression? I am terribly afraid that this embedded bigotry is not at the margins . . . it is in our country's DNA. So, Logistician, I am coming around to your very gloomy way of seeing our country . . .

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  3. Thanks Vikki, that's my goal, to say it like it is, hopefully without bias and without subjectivity.

    Sobering isn’t it? However, I am a motivational speaker, and thus a highly motivated and eternally optimistic person.

    I believe that there are some areas in which we as individuals can have a positive influence. There are others, because of their size and breadth, we can not. But, we have to get to the real root of the issue to even start trying to address it.

    People say that we have never had a true conversation about race in this country. We've been looking in all of the wrong places, and starting out the conversation with blame, finger pointing, and talking about "I," and "me." That ain't going to work. That just shuts people up momentarily.

    As for minorites and women and their complicity by pretending that they do not notice and are not affected, the best way to deal with that is to make one's self financially independent and significant by ownership of yourself and your enterprises. (The Jews figured that out long ago, despite the fact that there is a segment of the general population which criticizes them precisely for that behavior.) For example, very few people remember that the formation of Jewish accounting, legal, and other professional services firms occurred not that long before similar efforts by minorities and women, because of the difficulties they encountered trying to work in main stream firms.

    Actually, I'm quite optimistic. Why? We've at least identified what I believe to be the root cause of such behavior and now we can try to address it. One can't successfully fight the disease unless one determines its origin.

    Thanks as always.

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  4. Thank you Kathleen. I have long suspected that you thought that I had become pessimistic. Mais, au contraire, ma soeur. I invite you to consider the underlying meaning of this famous poem:

    A wondrous thing
    Is the ketsup bottle
    First you get a little
    Then you get a lottle

    Moving on to something less serious :), no, you're not naive. You're always been optimistic and thought that we can always do something, each of us, in our own way. Those of us who were fortunate enough to receive decent educations, should appreciate how fortunate we really are in terms of our world view. The more exposure one has, the more likely one is to appreciate worlds outside of their own.

    I found myself reading your comment and agreeing with at every step of the way. Particularly with respect to the marginalization and disrespect directed at John Lewis. It is part of the two edged sword that is free speech. The Constitution says nothing about motive or purpose.

    I don't see my view as gloomy. I'm encouraged by it. I like being able to analyze situations and determing the beast with which we are really dealing. That enables us to develop better solutions. The Army must be able to identify the enemy to fight it.

    The Institute for Applied Common Sense plans to disseminate its message to the high school seniors and college students of the world, so that they can think themselves out of this mess. It's about education. Always has been, always will be.

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  5. Just the response I needed! After all, who wants too much ketchup, too fast? (Or, how about chutney or salsa instead?) I guess it's people like you, out there trying to share history and legacy with students and other young people, who are our hope. May you outnumber the Know-nothings and bigots.

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  6. Thanks again Kathleen for your comment. We can only do what we can. We just need to make sure that we're not wasting our time on the distractions and surface issues, and that we get to the underying sources. In that regard, check out my next article onb Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky, a professor at Stanford, whose lecture I attended earlier this evening. He wrote "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." I asked him point blank whether racism is biologically based. You'll find his response interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks again Kathleen for your comment. We can only do what we can. We just need to make sure that we're not wasting our time on the distractions and surface issues, and that we get to the underying sources. In that regard, check out my next article onb Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky, a professor at Stanford, whose lecture I attended earlier this evening. He wrote "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." I asked him point blank whether racism is biologically based. You'll find his response interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just the response I needed! After all, who wants too much ketchup, too fast? (Or, how about chutney or salsa instead?) I guess it's people like you, out there trying to share history and legacy with students and other young people, who are our hope. May you outnumber the Know-nothings and bigots.

    ReplyDelete

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