Divided We Fall

found online by Raymond

 
From conservative T. Paine at Saving Common Sense:
June 20 2016

Once again America has experienced terrorism at the hands of a radical Muslim extremist. What compounds the tragedy of this mass shooting at an Orlando night club that killed 49 people and injured at least that many more though, is that the evil perpetrator behind this cowardly attack was not some foreign-born jihadi miscreant that snuck through our porous border in order to wage war on “the great Satan” but rather a home-grown citizen who was born in Queens, New York and was raised in Fort Pierce, Florida. This Islamic terrorist was a natural born American.

So how exactly does this American terrorist grow up cheering the 9/11 attack in high school, thinking that women ought not to drive, and swearing allegiance to ISIS? What is it about our society today that even allows this to be a possible outcome of an American life? What has changed in the last few generations that makes such an unimaginably evil thing to even contemplate become a ghoulish reality? Why does someone like Omar Matteen grow up despising his own country of America?

I would submit that part of the problem exists in the fact that not only do we no longer teach objective United States History anymore, but we absolutely do not teach civics and a justified sense of patriotism and honor to our children.

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2 thoughts on “Divided We Fall”

  1. So. Because children are not taught the right kind of American History that is the reason a bunch of club-goers were shot? ‘Cause kids are taught about things like Slavery and the Trail of Tears, that’s why a bunch of Kindergartners perished. A crowded theater full of folks wanting to see the newest Batman movie had their lives ruined all because we don’t teach a selectively edited version of our national story? Of all the deflections I’ve heard and read about how to avoid these tragedies, this one’s a doozy.

    There were a lot of words in that blog post and I just wonder… is there anything specific that T.Paine finds unsettling about what is taught in American History and American Studies? Or are we just yelling at clouds again?

    Yelling at the Clouds

  2. “So how exactly does this American terrorist grow up cheering the 9/11 attack in high school, thinking that women ought not to drive, and swearing allegiance to ISIS?”

    If teaching American exceptionalism in schools would have indirectly prevented this attack, then surely teaching, as we do, that terrorism, looking down on women, and hating gay people are wrong would have more directly prevented it. (Never mind that some of these things have been part of our “exceptional” moral tradition.) But they didn’t, so you’ll have to excuse me for doubting that the less direct approach would somehow have worked instead. By some accounts, by the way, the Orlando shooter was mentally unstable, which isn’t something that a civics class can fix.

    Given our population (320 MILLION) and the ease of getting a gun, I’m frankly surprised that we haven’t had more attacks like this.

    “Without an over-arching belief in American Exceptionalism and an understanding of the individual rights that our republican government was founded to protect, our citizens see America as just another nation – often corrupt and self-serving – among the hundreds of others in the world.”

    We *are* just another nation, often corrupt and self-serving. That’s not to say that we don’t have good qualities that many other countries lack. I would, after all, much rather live here than in Somalia, Russia, or North Korea. But plenty of other countries have most of the qualities that make our country great and some even have good qualities that we lack. Does that make them exceptional too? If so, then American exceptionalism isn’t as big a deal as conservatives make it out to be. If not, then we’re probably not being very consistent in our usage of the term.

    “We no longer see America as worthy of our protection, sacrifices, and certainly not our love.”

    According to common conservative rhetoric, our country has gone down the drain, no longer respects the Constitution or the rule of law, and is full of people (usually meaning immigrants or liberals) who don’t share the important values that would make this a good place to live. Which is it? Are we a sewer or are we worth protection, sacrifice, and love?

    And what is the nature of the sacrifice that you think is so important? We already send young people off to die. According to conservatives, it isn’t higher taxes, either. I’m also not hearing too many calls for Americans to shop only with companies that charge more because they hire and produce exclusively in the USA. Maybe sacrifice means forgoing needs like health care–but many do that already.

    “Instead, today, we see deep division and hatred of others that are different from us.”

    I know that conservatives like to blame the BLM movement, feminists, gay rights groups, and liberals in general for this, but I’d say that the blame rests mostly on those who support or have supported oppressive traditions, xenophobic rhetoric, and the right to discriminate against people for harmless qualities over which they have no control. Who right now is campaigning on fear and resentment of foreigners? Which religious group is most intent on retaining the ability to discriminate against gay people and which political party supports them? What sort of people have consistently relied on arguments from tradition and religion to justify inequality and how they behave toward those who aren’t like them?

    Yes, mistreated groups often respond to their mistreatment by being divisive themselves, but it does no good to expect them to sit down and take what they’re given or to act like they are at just as much at fault.

    “we don’t teach our children how those achievements came to be through a new understanding of liberty and the realization that our rights are not bestowed upon us by some monarch or government, but rather we are endowed with them by our Creator.”

    I’m glad that we don’t teach our children that rights come from God–sorry, I mean “our Creator.” Religious teachings like that have no place in our public schools. Perhaps more importantly, we shouldn’t be teaching children ideas that make no sense. No evidence and no reasoning can prove that rights are things that we “just have” through divinity or nature. A right is only really a right as long as it is consistently respected and protected, i.e. by law. It is otherwise just a concept, an ideal perhaps worth fighting for but not yet realized.

    But forget about the origin of rights. Believing that they are God-given hasn’t stopped people from taking them away and believing that they are conceptual and government-protected hasn’t stopped people from caring about and protecting them, so I don’t see the practical value of teaching what you want–except, of course, as religious indoctrination.

    “If we do not return to instructing our children on American values, American Exceptionalism, rugged individualism that asserts and defends our liberties bestowed upon us by the Author of the Universe, then we can only expect to see more such horrific scenes as some of our children seek to find a belief in something, anything, — some ideology – however heinous it may be – to fill that vacuum.”

    What vacuum? Being neither Christian nor conservative has not led me to desperately seek some alternative ideology for comfort. I certainly haven’t felt a desire to adopt radical Islam and I don’t know anyone who has. Most of us value all sorts of things from self-preservation to family to justice and have been educated about how and why to behave peacefully and reasonably, so it’s not at all easy for us to be indoctrinated into a violent, self-destructive belief system.

    In any case, it is far too early to be talking about an epidemic or coming epidemic of homegrown Islamic terrorists. This sort of thing is just not common. And just because Mateen was unable or unwilling to internalize the reasoning and values that our education system continues to try to instill in our children does not mean that our system is failing us. There are many other factors behind an individual’s beliefs and behavior.

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