Historical Blinders: The Roaring 20's Redux

America in the year 2012 resembles the America of the 1920's more than we realize or should accept. The revisionists have yet to take their first awkward steps on the slippery terrain of reexamining the historical paradigms. Today's political pundits and social trend watchers are recording their versions of eyewitness accounts as history unfolds. Logically they are not graced with the ability to reflect objectively on the aggregate of the events but they should delve into history for less prosaic insights than they are offering us now. Until an introspective glance into the past America will continue to be tethered to collective historical amnesia. The enigmatic quote from the Spanish born and American educated philosopher George Santayana sums it up best; “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

History is always subjective because it is always written by the victors. It usually is imbued with all the hallmarks of a winner's propaganda. The historiographies written long after the initial histories have been canonized illuminate the motivations and cultural ethos of that era. Those histories, much like mythologies, reveal a cultural and sociological necessity to support and legitimize the means employed in order to construct a historical paradigm. History isn't an exact science. It generally relies on other social sciences to construct parameters which can be quantified and mathematically fact-checked. In other words, the manufacture of history is characterized by the Machiavellian axiom “the end justifies the means.”

America during the antebellum of the 20^th century is referred to as The Roaring 20's. It is often seen as a boon period in modern US history. This era in America history was characterized by tremendous economic affluence and the burgeoning of a cultural transformation. Wall Street was alit with trading; jazz music had become a distinct American innovation; some of American's greatest literary figures were honing their craft; the Harlem Renaissance was hitting a critical mass; women were now a viable political force; yet there were discernible cracks in the foundation. To paint the Roaring 20's as a pax americana would be to fall prey to a rhetorically feeble semantics game. History is a classic exercise in cause and effect. The act of writing a history is contingent on realizing that events don't mysteriously appear in a vacuum.

Despite the demagogic rhetoric tossed back and forth between Republicans and Democrats as they play ideology “keep away” from other political third parties, the US of 2012 is still a world leader in key areas. The digital and nanotechnology industries in places like Silicon Valley almost singlehandedly dictate trends and innovation over the entire world. The film industry has been injected with new vigor from independent film makers. Coupled with that there is a resurgence of documentary films which are both culturally and economically relevant. Scientific and academic enterprise continue to be hallmarks of an elite educational system. However, we are all bitterly aware that the fabric of American society is becoming threadbare. Now that the combat portion of the war in Iraq has been quelled and America enters into a phase of introspection the cracks in foundation of modern America are more evident.

Here follows a short list of parallels between America of the Roaring 20's and America of 2012. The list is not meant to be exhaustive. Rather it's purpose lies more with culling examples from the past. Reflecting on and discussing those lessons from the past will ensure that we aren't repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again.

US: Roaring 20's                                           US: 2012

Segregation                                                    Immigration

ghetto forming upheld by the                          Show me you papers laws in Alabama and 

Supreme Court decision                                  Georgia

Corrigan v. Buckley(1926)

Poll Tax and Jim Crow Laws                      Voter Picture ID

24^th amendment ending poll tax                      Poll Tax

not until 1962

Americanism                                                  Americanism

militarized xenophobia                                    anti-LGBT marriage laws

the heyday of the modern                                (Defense of Marriage Act), anti-moslem

Klu Klux Klan. Anti-immigrant                       sentiment reflected in the                                               

zeitgeist typified in a mistrust                           ungrounded fear of Sharia Law

for anything divergent from

white anglo-saxon culture

Prohibition                                                    Prohibition

a costly and losing war primarily                   a costly and losing war on drugs, primarily

on alcohol. Repeal by congress                     marijuana. Federal crack down on  

with the 21st Amendment                              dispensaries at the State level                                               

Political Wizards Turn Immigration Reform into Racial Profiling

On 20 August the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruled that at least one derisive feature of the Georgia and Alabama illegal immigration laws will be left intact. The so called “show me your papers” provision is intended to allow law enforcement to more verdantly apprehend illegal immigrants who are suspected of a criminal wrongdoing. According to civil rights advocacy groups the “show me your papers” is at its core just a thinly veiled mechanism for wanton racial profiling.

Much like the a priori green light given to Alabama and Georgia to racially profile, a smoke and mirrors game is being played in the public arena while debating the efficacy of social justices like gay rights, equal pay for woman, economic imperialism and the dominion over ones body. One could go so far as to say that most politicians represent their particular constituents and electorate by agreeing that racial equality as expressed in the civil rights movement was and is a non negotiable steadfast given. Why are we still debating the minutiae of civil unions, LGBT marriages and the traditional Judeo Christian marriages? Of course, there are those who genuinely believe these are topics which need to be debated above others because of a perceived moral decay that they feel must be abated.

Whatever their motivation is behind the tactics the fact remains that our congress and the media as a whole are engaged in discussing these topics while avoiding other more pressing topics like economic woes.

Let's shift gears to consider what some see as an almost repressive economic hegemony imposed by the US on Mexico. What is at the crux of the fear-mongering which is fueling an inhumane and malicious idea about building electric fences along the Arizona boarder with Mexico? Presumably it's to keep the undesirables out. Yet I see it missing the mark on a few fundamental points. The most glaring point is the notion that these economic and political refugees are sneaking through our porous national boarder to parasitically dine on America's bevy of good fortune. The fact that America has been transforming herself into a 2^nd world country with it's chasmic separation of the have's and have not's would seem like a fools errand to those el sud emigre’s. The wealth in the US is not being distributed equally as bared out in the appalling employment and job indices. This is not meant to ignore nor forget the rapid decay of relative buying power compared to the inflationary index. We all experience the price of goods and services as it goes through roof contrasted to the money most Americans are taking in each month.

Let's pause and remember that our militant nostalgia for an agrarian economy is in reality run by gigantic agribusinesses. Nonetheless, this nostalgia is firmly rooted in the realm of “invented tradition”, which was espoused by the Marxist historian Eric J.Hobsbawm, and won't be dissipating anytime soon. These mammoth corporations, like all corporations, are intrinsically psychopathic in their behavioral patterns. They have a singular myopic drive to maximize profits which logically entails minimizing costs. One of the biggest costs to agribusiness is labor. As the statistical trend continues less Americans are willing to engage in these horrendous working conditions for meager pay, marginal job security and negligible health benefits. These emigre's from Mexico primarily have filled those employment gabs which Americans are reluctant to do.

Perhaps if we didn't have the political talking point of a tidal wave of economic refugees flooding the American labor force, then Americans might be lulled back into those jobs which would ipso facto be vacated by the Mexicans.

Of course, I think that might be a jolly mental exercise which may even bear fruit; albeit bitter fruit. The logical overarching question to ask then becomes; why would the Mexicans want to stay in Mexico?” More to the point; “how can we keep them there because they want to be there?” I don't mean to be derisive or flippant nor denigrating. Simply how can America foster a love affair between Mexico and Mexicans? Before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) the US mounted several overt military filibusters throughout Latin America in order to pave the way for more favorable American investment. NAFTA has covertly and overtly assisted large and influential American businesses to kept a bulwark of research and development in America while shifting the manufacturing jobs to Mexico. The reasoning is a 1-2-3 police line up of all the usual suspects: favorable tax breaks for investment, tax reduction being paid in America and cheap cheap cheap labor.

If Mexico could garner some long term economic boon coupled with modern manufacturing for herself, publicly and privately owned and run, wouldn't that be at least a motivating factor to stay put and reap some of the economic bounty? America has to rethink and retool it's economic/political/social ideologies and policies. The quick fix to a symptom doesn't heal the disease. Maybe someone will have the moral fortitude to touch on some of these realistic North American problematics at the upcoming political party conventions. Let's hope so.