Fall from Grace

[sen_no_ongaku]

One of the chapters in Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, focuses on the political and social turmoil surrounding the United States’ first foray into Imperialism: the Spanish-American War and the resultant annexation of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

Many, both home and abroad, were distraught by America’s eagerness to throw away the principles on which it was founded and happily join the game of exploitation played by the decadent, reactionary, damned powers of Europe. People all over the world lamented the loss of their beacon of hope, its transformation from a new kind of nation into just another power-hungry state for whom liberty and sovereignty for others were annoyances to be discarded when inconvenient.

But the real tragedy escaped me until I was eating breakfast in a café[FN 1] in which one wall displays a small shrine to John Wayne, while on the opposite hang homages to the Native American.

No, the real tragedy was that America had already fallen from grace decades before; and nobody noticed. America represented the (Western) world's dream of a new kind of state uncorrupted by imperialism, whose aim was peace and justice for all; but the focus of their optimism had long ago announced that power corrupts even those with the noblest of beginnings, the highest of intentions.

Anyhow, just wanted to post this while I 1) was thinking about it and 2) had wireless access. (Our hotel has WiFi; back in Utah my brother's computer can piggyback on a local network but mine can't find the signal.)
___

(1)The Bear Claw in St. George, Utah, which serves perhaps the best breakfast I have had. Ever.

Comments

[archaica.livejournal.com]

"America: The Biff Loman of the World."

[cybersattva.livejournal.com]

No, the real tragedy is that I nearly missed the interesting musings in this post because I kept thinking about Planescape: Torment.

[sen-no-ongaku.livejournal.com]

Mmm...Planesacpe...

[shgb.livejournal.com]

Yar! someone's borrowing my discs... I need to get them back.

Though I don't see how I'd have time to play, given my Warcrack addiction.

[haak0n.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I think that there's a meaningful difference between the examples I understand you to be talking about here - the forceful realization of Manifest Destiny and the country's entry into the colonialism game heading into the 20th century - though I don't know if I can articulate it without it sounding offensive in a way I truly don't intend. The former, like the country's ugly history with slavery and racism, doesn't fully invalidate the political ideals associated in Civics classes with the country's founding. In a way, I see these representing betrayals of those ideals, rather than a rupudiation of them. I'm no temporal moral relativist, but I think there's a notable difference between the (willful?) blindness adopted by generations due to stupid / evil biases and the mindful rejection of the political ideals of democracy and self-determination that was part and parcel of the Spanish-American War.

I remember writing a paper based on some of the Congressional debate over the annexation of the Philippines, and it's striking how self-aware policymakers were at the time of what they were doing. Interesting stuff, particularly for the Congressional Record.

[sen-no-ongaku.livejournal.com]

One of the surprising things to me -- and perhaps Tuchman overstates it -- is America's position as the focus of many Europeans' hope for a better model of how a nation-state should conduct itself internationally, and I feel that not just America's but Europe's dismissal of the policies of Manifest Destiny as irrelevant to the realization of that hope as...well...tragic.

I don't think the difference between Manifest Destiny and American Colonialism is pronounced enough to consider them only loosely related scenarios. I would like to hear what you have to say to the contrary, though.

I certainly agree that betrayal is a more appropriate word than repudiation.