Politicians and television talking heads, particularly right-leaning ones, have often talked about how things were so much better and simpler in times gone by. And while this Daily Show video lambastes Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, we're all a little guilty of mis-remembering events in our lives. Cultural theorist Maurice Halbwachs gives us clues about how (and why) we think this were better than they actually are through his theory of collective memory. Halbwachs was chiefly concerned with the ways in which we recount and mythologize the past. He believed that the only way that past is made relevant for us is by social institutions (like the media) and collective actions of commemoration and festivals.
Even more disturbing is the opening speech at the Tea Party Convention given by former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo. He believed that literacy tests as a prerequisite to being able to vote were a good thing. What he fails to "remember" in his remembering how these literacy tests ensured that we had educated people voting is that blacks were denied all sorts of civil rights in addition to just being prohibited from voting. Let's see... what could have possibly been happening to blacks when they were being denied the right to vote? Umm, being routinely hosed down in the streets with high-powered hoses. Oh yeah, another example is being lynched... and... one last one, having to endure a far inferior educational system (although schools have effectively been re-segregated thanks to differences in socio-economic status and "white flight" from urban schools).
Haiti is another example of collective memory. This excellent essay remembers the facts of Haiti and why it is one of the poorest countries in the world -- not because Haitians are some kind of slackers, but because America (the very country now coming to its aid and trying to rewrite history) has had their foot on the necks of Haitians for decades.
What we must work to do is remember events as they were and not as we'd like them to be. That is the best way for us to be more informed world citizens and not be told what to think by "the machine."
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Wow, I really would like to hear exactly what Tancredo said in his speech. I really think that people who say things like that are well aware of the implications of their words....this Tea Party Movement and the Right are very scary and I feel that they are just testing the waters to see how far they can push without being stopped...these upcoming elections will show the world if Americans have learned their lesson from the G.W. Bush era or if their support of Obama was just a fluke...
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