The Tea Party

[poliphilo]

We all hate government, right? Except the North Koreans. And maybe even they hate government deep down inside, where nobody can see. Government is always corrupt and stupid and disgusting. However, if you want to have a society of any degree of complexity you can't manage without it.  The bigger, more complex the society, the bigger, more complex its government has to be. 

The Tea Party dream is a dream of log cabins and coonskin hats and long-barrelled flintlock rifles. It's the dream Daniel Boone carried around with him, but which faded whenever he paused to set up a fort- which needs soldiers, administrators, law officers, decision makers- ie: government. It's a lovely dream if you fancy living way out on the edge- as a rugged 18th century individualist- and I can see why people buy into it- but there's no way you can make a 21st century nation conform to it without returning that nation to the wilderness. 

Comments

[oakmouse]

They're yearning for a past that never existed, just as Jerry Falwell and his minions claimed to be restoring a 1950s, god-fearing Leave It To Beaver world that never was. I don't know what they think they'll accomplish with this, but it certainly won't be what they think they want.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I lived through the 50s. I'm very glad that that world has passed away. One thing that's usually forgotten in reconstructions is just how terrified we all were of the Russians and the Bomb. It wasn't a happy time.

[oakmouse]

*nods* I wasn't born until the early 60s, but my elder siblings bore the marks of living through the 50s and even as a child I could see those marks in them. It definitely wasn't the happy, secure, peaceful time that conservatives claim it to have been.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We're paranoid now, but we were even more paranoid back then.

[oakmouse]

Oh yeah, we were. In a big way. Simple J. Malarkey (Pogo cartoonist Walt Kelly's parody of Joseph McCarthy) came out of that paranoia. The modern era doesn't have a Simple J of its own. (Yet. *crosses fingers*)

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

There's a terrific book called "The Way We Never Were" that talks about how incredibly wrong this idealized notion of the American 1950s was. For one thing, the prosperity that Americans enjoyed was largely due to MASSIVE amounts of government subsidy--far from the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" ideal we like to attribute to that period. And contrary to the "Leave it to Beaver" stereotype, divorce rates were the highest they'd ever been in the 1950s.

Anyway, fascinating read if this kind of thing interests you.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The 50s- across the world- were a period of recovery from the trauma of war.

[oakmouse]

Thank you very much for the recommendation! I went and looked this up, and I definitely need to read it.