I recently finished reading A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I picked it up and put it down about a decade ago. That seems unfathomable now, but I think I wasn’t mature enough, or lacked the context, to appreciate it then. I guess books find you when you need them.
There are certain books that make you want to change the world, and A People’s History is just that type of book. What struck me most as I was reading was how contemporary it felt. Even after civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and environmental awareness we’re still living in a patriarchy. There may be a few more women or people of color in the mix, but the same old powerful are still in power. Their interests are still inflicted on the rest of us, and we all just take it. Half the country did, after all, vote to “make America great again,” which is both terrifying and maddening.
Zinn points out that real change won’t come from the two archaic political parties, but from, well, the people. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the divisiveness that permeates our culture. Sure, 2016 was a master class in partisan pettiness, but it didn’t spring fully formed just in time for the election. For as long as I can remember there has been a bottomless chasm between the liberal and conservative ideologies, one that isn’t just philosophical, but visceral.
Here’s a Zinn-ian idea—what if the powers that be want it that way? If we’re all squabbling about guns, taxes, and abortion then we don’t have time to see what we all have in common. We certainly won’t realize that we’re all suffering from the inaction in our democracy.
While I’ll never understand why folks who live paycheck to paycheck are voting for billionaires who represent everything that’s working against them, why is the other side losing so badly? Are conservatives just marketing geniuses who brainwash people into voting against their interests? I’m beginning to think Mad Men is 21st century civil life. But, like Zinn, I don’t want to let the other side off the hook. Where are the programs for the poor? Why isn’t anyone protecting the vulnerable? Who could be against that?
Will the people rise up? Are we capable of that? Or will we snuggle into the comfort of Netflix and fake news on Facebook? The pundits talk about how the election in November was a sort of revolution, a rejection of the status quo. Maybe that’s true, but it feels false. Instead, I can’t shake the sense that just under half the country was conned, and now we all have to pay for it.
Readerish 