I've recently mentioned the academic journal Emotion, Space and Society, a periodical I came across in my continuing attempt to explore the subject of atmosphere, and perhaps one day to establish the field of Socio-Atmospherics. (That's a joke. That's ninety-three per cent a joke.)
As also mentioned in that same post, I've found myself frustrated by the familiar problem with anything involving academia, at least when it comes to the arts, social sciences and humanities; political correctness.
I was moved to send this email last night:
Dear Dr WIllis
I am reading your article "Restorying the Self, Restoring Place". I particularly like the emphasis on ordinary places and their capacities for healing as opposed to palliation.
However, I can't agree with this passage: "Within the dominant discourses of America the righteous, the land of the free, the place of opportunity there is no room for the stories of those who were evicted from their homelands, exploited, tortured and traumatized. In order for these stories to remain dominant, the pain of America’s native peoples – which Linda Hogan stories also as the pain of the land and of America – must be cloaked, palliated rather than healed."
I know you are summarising Linda Hogan's work here, but you seem to be agreeing.
Is it really the case that "there is no room for the stories of those who were evicted from their homelands"? The opposite seems to be the case to me, that the narrative of Native American dispossession and oppression is now generally accepted and has been for many decades. Similarly, it seems to me that the supposed dominant discourse of "America the righteous" is constantly challenged, even in mainstream discourse, and is highly controversial, to the extent that asserting it (for instance, in country music) is often a self-conscious act of defiance.
Many thanks
Maolsheachlann, Dublin, Ireland
This is a funny thing in American discourse. We are ok with discussing the stories of *certain* people who were forced from their homeland, but not others. We have plenty of room to discuss Native Americans (with good reason), but we no longer discuss the Acadians. In some corners it is alright to discuss the forced expulsion of the Irish or the Jews, but a certain part of the American discourse rejects any discussion of this. America is locked into a battle of "which groups are the most oppressed" and so differing types of wrong cannot be discussed because it threatens other oppressed groups claim to uniqueness. Until we no longer have an oppression Olympics we will be unable to have a healthy discussion. This is one reason I have hope for Ireland, at a certain point Ireland is going to realize that the oppression the Irish experienced is not considered oppression by large swaths of the American left and so hopefully it will cause the Irish elite to stop trying to fit in with the American left.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I had to look up the Acadians, even though I was reading about them only perhaps a month ago!
DeletePolitical correctness certainly seems to have begun in America, but I honestly wonder if it's not more virulent over here at this stage. The fightback seems to be beginning in America.
The oppression Olympics is so ridiculous and yet the left don't seem to be able to admit to themselves that they are doing it. I mean, even aside from any inter-group competition; the fact that there's an unspoken but obvious pecking order when it comes to oppression is ludicrous in itself. It's painful to watch them come to the same pre-ordained conclusions over and over again, or defending mad statements like Hillary Clinton's "Women have always been the primary victims of war."
I hope you're right about the Irish elites!
We do have an advantage over Europe in defeating political correctness in that we have the first amendment and so our speech really cannot be restricted (except when calling for imminent lawless action). On the one hand it allows pretty distasteful speech in the US, but on the other it makes it harder to punish people whose opinions are put off favor with the government. For instance in the US the right to protest abortion in public space in front of clinics is protected, but not so in the UK.
DeleteIndeed, I think that's a crucial advantage.
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