Battle Lines
I've been reading Karen Armstrong's masterful work "The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism." She describes how the mass immigrations in the 1880's through to the early 1900's into New York caused a paranoia amongst the majority Protestant populace. This paranoia, in turn, created animosity and religious persecution toward the increasing Catholic populace. Armstrong comments that it is times such as these, when there is a seemingly overwhelming change to the way of life, that the ability to mold the majority's cognitive thinking occurs. It becomes an opportunity to define themselves anew against the image of their newly seen nemesis. Armstrong writes:
"[T]he quest for a distinct identity often goes hand-in-hand with the development of a terror of the stereotyped 'other' against whom people measure themselves. A paranoid fear of conspiracy would continue to characterize the response to [this threat], and...would cultivate a distorted and often pernicious image of their enemies, who were sometimes depicted as satanically evil. American Protestants had long hated Roman Catholics...who were...believed to be undermining the Christian fabric of society....In 1887, the American Protective Association was formed and became the nation's largest anti-Catholic body, with a membership that may have reached 2,250,000. It forged 'pastoral letters,' supposedly from American Catholic bishops, urging their flocks to murder all Protestants and overthrow the heretical government of the United States. In 1885, Josiah Strong published Our Country:Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis, which listed the 'Catholic threat' as the most destructive danger faced by the nation. [Strong contended that] giving Catholics the vote would make America vulnerable to satanic influence...."(page 146).
Armstrong sees this same response in the Nationalism/"scientific racism" movement of Europe. "As the new nations redefined themselves, they needed an 'other' against whom they could determine their new selves, and 'the Jew' was conveniently at hand" (page 147).
The animosity toward the Jews would become so severe that it "yearned to eliminate Jews from society as a gardener would root out weeds or a surgeon cut out a cancer." They legitimized their racism along the lines of science, "a form of social engineering, which sprang from a conviction that some people could not be improved or controlled. It drew upon centuries of Christian religious prejudice, and gave it a scientific rationale"(page147).
The social behaviour or characteristics described by Armstrong lend insight to post 9/11 America. Our fear and frustration regarding immigration are the fruits of paranoia-- in regards to Middle Eastern immigrants, we have read that 9/11 wouldn't have occurred if we were more exclusive; in regards to the increase in Latinos, we have heard many argue that we are losing our jobs to them. <More on this later.> Both of these scenarios can be debated.
On another note, September 11th has given the Bushies an opportunity to manipulate the nation's concept of itself, creating a public sense of insecurity and a paranoia that blurs our focus away from the ultra-conservative agenda they have attempted to activate and from their war on terrorism, in general. <Definitely more on this later.>
Moreover, the Christian political force behind this presidency has drawn the battle lines against secularism in America. If gone unchecked, I hate to think of what might become. These are spurious times.
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