A House Divided
Billmon has a rather frightening July 4th. post entitled "A House Divided" in which he likens the divisions in America today to those in Spain just before the Spanish civil war. He goes on to describe the bloodbath that Spain endured during its civil war, and then returns home:
The problem is not so much that there are two Americas, but that each of them -- particularly "red" America -- believes they constitute the only true America. Thus all the talk on both sides about "taking back the country." The only way to reach a property settlement in a divorce like that would be to wade though an ocean of blood.I'm not sure I agree with all his reasoning, but it's a thoughtful piece that's worth the read. You'll find it here.
posted by walldon | 12:24 PM
3 Comments:
Thanks for the lead, WallDon. I, too, am not so sure of all his logic, nor that the analogy to the Spanish Civil War is the most apt.
(As far as analysis goes, I find Barbara O'Brien's piece that you pointed out the other day more convincing, along with her other posts at The Mahablog, "Reactionaries" and "Dear Media, Part II".)
But I was struck by Billmon's point near the end of the article, that "civil wars aren't made by vast majorities, but by enraged and fearful minorities." This is a chilling thought, especially given the level of the rhetoric on the right.
The parallel is not to the Spanish Civil War, but to the social and political conditions in Spain that ultimately led to the war. Civil war in this country is extremely unlikely -- if we were going to do that, it probably would have been in the '60s, when the two camps REALLY hated each other. But it it doesn't have to end in civil war to do permanent, irremedial damage to the county and to whatever hopes are left for a future progressive movement.
Billmon-- hmm. I am honored that you bothered to reply to my hasty note. I usually think I am responding just for my co-bloggers, and so dash things off.
Yes, I caught the gist of your argument about the underlying conditions in Spain. And I pointed to Mahablog's analysis of contemporary conditions underlying the Kulturkampf, in that same vein.
I was most interested in what you had to say about the events and situation in Spain back in the '30s-- not a history I am terribly familiar with. One question about the aptness of the analogy rises from my sense of how internationalized the struggle in Spain was, on both sides: reminds one more of Bosnia at a certain point in the conflict. That there were homegrown issues, as you indicate, I don't doubt, but it was also a proxy war, no? That seems a critical difference.
And I am not sure how mass media came into play then, as it does now-- though I suspect it did: certainly the Nazis were masters of it. That would be an interesting thing to pursue, and might tie into the Mahablog articles, as well.
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