[lbo-talk] Re: stupid americans?

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Sep 28 07:22:55 PDT 2004


Doug:
> But you also get the opposite - that traditional societies are
> healthy and peaceful and un-alienated, and that "civilzation" carries
> with it nothing but trouble.
>

Both are variants on the same theme of noble savagery and aint-intellectualism, based on the belief Civilization, culture and learning corrupt human nature. Richard Hofstadter convincingly argues that these are deeply rooted in American religiosity and populism. Although mainly the domain of the Right, Hofstadter devotes two or three chapters of his book (_Anti-Intellectualism in the American life) to show how the Progressives and New Dealers developed their own, equally poisonous, varieties of that theme.

The main difference between the right and left variants of that theme is the scapegoating of the purported agents of that corruption: for the rightists it is intellectuals, assorted aliens, and civil servants; for the lefties - businessmen, pundits and policemen. The identification of foreign countries as "corrupting agents" follows the formula the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Thus, the countries denounced by the US business class and by extension - the US government - automatically become heroes of the leftist peddlers of the noble savagery myth, while those anointed by the business class - the darlings of the rightist peddlers.

Wojtek



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