The massacre in Tucson, Arizona, is a worrying indication of fundamental problems in American society and in American political life. The overheated rhetoric of the right, with its violent imagery is the least of the problems, though much debated in the past 24 hours. I think that Vince Carducci presciently got to the heart of the matter in his reply to Martin Plot’s latest post. Vince agreed with Martin that the pursuit of complete security presents a fundamental challenge to democracy in America. I also agree, perhaps contrary to Martin’s expectation. Vince cites Orwell as one of the author’s who illuminated the problem. I believe that Orwell also reveals a connection between this general problem and the assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six others.
Orwell in 1984 imagined in his dystopia a never ending war, such as the one in which we are now engaged, “the war on terrorism.” He depicted a language, newspeak, which concealed and manipulated, rather than revealed, such as the language we use. This kind of language is now broadly applied. On the legislative agenda this week is the bill to kill “Obamacare,” actually formally named ‘‘Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.’’ Newspeak is not only used to defend against hidden villains, foreign and domestic, but also political opponents who propose modest social reforms.
And as I am struggling to write this most difficult week in review, I came across a story that compactly indicates how bad things are. Two members of the House of Representatives, one Republican, Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, one Democrat, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, told Politico that they will be carrying guns to protect themselves in their districts. “You never think something like this will happen, but then it does,” Shuler said “After the elections, I let my guard down. Now I know I need to have [my gun] on me. We’re going to need to do a much better job with security at these events.”
Gun toting Congressmen meeting gun toting constituents at public rallies. Is that what democracy in America has come to?
While I agree that there’s some danger in becoming too complacent in accepting more and more surveillance in the name of security, and other measures that forgo due process of the law for the sake of reducing the risk of terrorism, we need to look no further than our ridiculous gun laws to where we can make headway towards a safer society. Gail Collins says it best in her column today called “A Right to Bear Glocks?” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/opinion/10collins.html?_r=1&hp Usually funny and to the point, today she appropriately does not use humor. My hope is for Congresswoman Giffords to recover and amend her pro-gun stance to eliminate the easy sale of the kind of gun used against her, which made it more likely that those around her were killed.
I agree that the ‘total security’ fears together with concealing newspeak are at the heart of the problem with Giffords assasination attempt. I do wish, though, for a symbolic text from the suspected Mr. Loughner and/or online communities he was part of on the web to show the relations between hateful ideology, craziness and killing more explicitly. If not for people like us, for those who don’t see and fear the danger in such times, which is sometimes picked up by lunatics, but is almost always deadly. I say this with the Rabin assassination in mind.
This type of senseless violence always sickens me. Except in high profile cases like this, many of us just tend to ignore them. Total security is an illusion. It never has existed and never will. As for newspeak, I suspect that it is a tool of our times practiced by all parties and ideologies. It loses its power if we recognize how widely it is practiced, and by all of us choosing not to use it. All too often we ignore the hyperbole when “our” side uses it. I’m as much concerned about how disturbed individuals like this killer are ignored until they commit some kind of an atrocity. I suspect it a failing of our society to recognize disturbed people and intercede before they commit horrible acts. Many people are time bombs waiting to explode. I would hope that an act like this doesn’t threaten our democratic practices, but I fear that it will