Art and politics

[avram]

Yet more hanging out at Ground; it’s almost like having a social life. Today I walked in on a political discussion and was immediately asked who my favorite communist was. I gave Trotsky, not having the presence of mind to answer with Ken MacLeod or Steven Brust.

I sketched a couple of people while I was there (the cute woman on the left with glasses was playing Scrabble, the guy on the right is James, my chess partner from the other day), but my main reason for being there was to brainstorm ideas for the webcomic somewhere I wouldn’t be distracted by the temptation of a handy net connection. I picked up three cheap notebooks for a buck at a nearby 99¢ store, and, well, I didn’t actually get to the point of scripting out anything, but I got a few more ideas. I seem to be asymptotically approaching the point of writing an actual script. Maybe I can get there by rounding.

James, who’s in highschool, was complaining about his excessively conservative social studies textbook. It assigned the fault for the Seattle WTO riots to anarchist protesters, which didn’t strike me so much as conservative bias as a bias towards the mainstream view that police can be trusted not to start riots. (I suppose that’s conservative in the traditional meaning of the word, but not in its modern political meaning.) But when he got to the point where the book criticized liberals as inconsistent for advocating regulation by the state, but not advocating state regulation of abortion, well, that pretty much tore it.

First, the claim that liberalism is an ideology defined by commitment to government regulation is something that can only be honestly said with a straight face by those ignorant of the actual history of liberalism, conservatism, and government power. Liberalism is characterized by a belief in the autonomy of individuals, and advocates the use of state power to protect civil rights and improve individual autonomy by acting as a counterweight to the excesses of the market and of corporate power. The other definition is a bit of propaganda invented by modern pseudo-conservatives (who aren’t actually interested in conserving anything but their own wealth and power) to turn pro-business libertarians against their natural allies on the left.

A far better example would have been gun control. One of the mysteries (to me) of modern politics is the fact that people who are otherwise committed to individual autonomy nonetheless advocate turning the power of individual defense over to the state. (Yes, I’m an unabashed pro-gun-rights liberal.)

Comments

[redbird]

What that textbook author is trying to hide is that liberals want to regulate abortion the same way they (we? I'm a socialist, can I play?) want to regulate other medical procedures: that is, to ensure that the people performing the procedure are trained, and that the clinics are clean. Because the alternative is back-alley abortions and dead women.

[avram]

Yeah, I made that same point to James.

[scottbateman.livejournal.com]

Is Ground that coffee shop in Jersey City?

[avram]

Yup.

[scottbateman.livejournal.com]

I like that place--it's great for people-watching, and especially good for eavesdropping on goofily pretentious conversations. Though it seemed to be open somewhat irregularly...

[cheshyre]

Who are the authors and publisher of this textbook? Complaints should be sent to those who approved it and those who created it.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Here is the Terrible Secret of High School Textbooks:
They are written to play in Texas, Topeka, and Dogpatch.

With few exceptions, Bio books skirt evolution, History books, though they now admit the existence of the First Nations, still ignore them post 1776 except where they massacre some white folk and get punished. Similarly African-Americans from 1776 (where they mention 3/5) to Lincoln/Douglass, where they make a play to be nicey nice to the slaveholder, and again from reconstruction to Brown v. Board, and Hispanics/Latinos straight through. (And anyone who's met me probably knows how I feel about the great treason, so should know that I'm very unhappy about how that period is treated in all but a very few textbooks. W. T. Sherman and John Brown were two of the greatest patriots and heroes our country has seen.)

This is yet another secret of the conservative movement: While they scream about leftist ideas infecting their schools, it is really rightist ideas that have infected ours. (This is the inverse of the tax law: that progressive states lose money in federal taxes, and conservative states collect.)

[avram]

I thought the shmoos make textbooks for Dogpatch.

Lots of common right-wing arguments are actually up-is-downisms. womzilla has pointed out that the Civil War really was fought over states’ rights — the right of the free states to not have to enforce pro-slavery laws.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Nah, much as the North hated the Fugitive Slave Act, it wasn't the immediate cause of the war. It was really over the right of the Southern states to reject Presidential election results they didn't like. (Gee, how times have changed...)