Pride goeth before a fall, the Bible says.
Well, not really. Like many widely-quoted phrases, that's an improvement on the original, polished smooth by longtime use. The actual line in Proverbs 16 in the King James Bible is "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
Either way, a reminder to tack toward humility.
I try to bear that in mind. But sometimes I get carried away.
Such as in February, 2021. The future was bright. The Trump era had seemingly ended the month before. If you told me the guy who sicc'd a mob on the U.S. Capitol would sweep back into office in four years, I'd have laughed. America was back, and what better way to celebrate than to brag about our freedom?
It being Black History Month, I chose our nation's bleakest chapter. My column began: "You know the great thing about centuries of slavery in the United States? The big positive that gets
overlooked ... ?"
A tease — what could be good about slavery? — to draw readers in, leading to the reveal. The good thing about slavery was:
"That we can talk about it now, honestly, openly, write and discuss, and contemplate our nation’s difficult and tortured past, unafraid. That is an undeniable greatness of America, one to be proud of. Because not every country can manage it."
To provide an example, I decided to kick Poland, because that winter, two historians, Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski with Warsaw's Polish Center for Holocaust Research, were hit by a lawsuit by the government-funded Polish League against Defamation, which sued the authors, as I put it, "for recounting history that contradicts their sense of unmitigated national glory."
The column I wrote was peppered with translated quotes from Yiddish letters from my great uncle, Zalman Bramson, about life in Poland in the 1930s. Let's just say Poles didn't need the Germans to teach them to abuse Jews.
“The Holocaust is not here to help the Polish ego and morale,” said Grabowski. “... which seems to be forgotten by the nationalists.”
Not forgotten. Actively suppressed. Nationalists have a way of pushing the nations into the abyss. History teaches this, so must be prettied up so as not to give away the game.
Feeling myself on safe ground, I indulged in some analysis.
"Like our own country for the past half decade, and nations around the world, Poland fell in the grip of resurgent nationalism. A shameful political philosophy that believes a country becomes great, not by actually doing great things, but through talk, threats and pressure. Their greatness is declarative — tell everybody “We are great!” Over and over and over."
The nation of Poland, through its embassy in Washington, demanded the column be taken down, while finding nits to pick — this supposed "historians" I cite, his degree was in sociology!
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Exactly what else would you expected from a fat, demented, deranged, fascist traitor?
ReplyDeleteHe flat out hates this country & wants to turn it into a clone of Putin's Russia, with him as it's forever king, at least until he croaks & then tries to pass the crown to his coke addled, halfwit son Junior or his equally halfwit daughter!
His obituary is the most wanted thing most of the people on this planet want. The sooner he goes, the faster we can all go piss & shit on his grave!
Nothing. But I don't think we should dial back our outrage just because he is so true to form.
DeleteFascists erase history. It's number one in the playbook.
ReplyDelete"Who controls the past controls the future:
DeleteWho controls the present controls the past."
--George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"
Trump makes everyone he touches a lesser version of themselves - it's his astonishing super power. And not just his followers. I would caution Clark St. to ponder this. I loathe Trump with the power of a thousand suns - but he isn't going to cause me to be a lesser version of myself.
ReplyDeleteMAGA cried about the government's infringement of their speech and the erasure of US history. Ironic solution: shut down opposing views and whitewash history.
ReplyDeleteDennis, I have no idea of what you mean!
ReplyDeleteI believe Dennis is suggesting that maybe even though our orange leader is out of his mind you don't have to act like you are out of yours
DeleteClark: I sometimes tell readers that just because you don't understand something, doesn't mean that it isn't understandable.
DeleteExcept I'm not out of my mind, I have hated that fat demented, deranged fascist from when I started reading about him in Spy Magazine years ago. How he, a supposed millionaire hand endorsed a 13¢ check made out to him in a fake rebate sting the magazine set up to see how cheap rich celebs were.
DeleteAn exellent piece, nailing yet another warped, unpatriotic aspect of the orange felon's view of the world.
ReplyDelete"... nits to pick — one supposed 'historian' I cite, his degree was in sociology!"
The definition of "historian," according to dictionary.com:
"1.) an expert in history; authority on history.
2.) a writer of history; chronicler."
If certain local folks without history degrees, yourself preeminently among them, did not contribute to our knowledge of Chicago history, regular folks like me would learn much less about our fair city. (Shout-out to Robert Loerzel, Cate Plys, Bill Savage, Shermann Dilla Thomas and too many others to name, who help to make this an even more interesting place that it already is.)
BTW, Robert Caro's degree is in English. Many seem to think he's something of a historian, as well.
A carnival barker and reality-TV-show host can become, ahem, "president," with no political experience at all, but a sociologist mustn't be referred to as a historian. Good to know! 🙄
"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." –George Orwell, 1984
ReplyDelete