April 28, 2008 at 13:36:04

America's Maoist-like Cultural Revolution

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By Stephen Pizzo (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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My wife, a nurse, worked at a local Catholic hospital. Another nurse, a local gal, protested to Sue one day that those folks in Washington think everyone in middle America was racist.

"I'm not a racist," she protested, " I just don't like n----rs." True story. That's when we figured we must be "elitists." since most of those "salt of the earth, Bible thumping, middle Americans" we met were indeed racists, and blissfully unaware of that fact.

I had a similar "awakening."

My wife and I were married in 1971 and, we were part of the great hippie diaspora that escaped the big city -- Berkeley in our case -- to returned to the land. We believed that country living would be a refuge from the insanity of a war that seemed like it would never end and a presidency -- Richard Nixon -- that had worn us down with its relentless anti-intellectualism and political crimes.

I took a job at Montgomery Wards in Grants Pass, Oregon. On my first week there an crusty old prospector type fellow struck up a conversation with me. He was something right out of novel, torn overalls, dirty, sweat-stained floppy hat, worn boots. In short, he embodied the earthy-truthiness I had come to the country to discover. We spoke for about ten minutes as he reeled off the ills he said were plauging America -- each of which I thoroughly and entirely agreed with. Sensing he had discovered a kindred soul, he leaned toward me as though about to reveal a great truth.

"You know what's at the heart of all these problems," he asked.

I held my breathe. Here it was, my first week in rural America and this high-priest of earth-saltiness was about to reveal to me the truth.

"What?" I asked.

"The damn Jews and n---gers," he said with squint and a nod.

I felt the blood drain out of my young, silly, naive head.

Sure, you can say, but that was way back in 1971. Things have changed. Oh yeah? Think again.

The war against elitists and intellectuals has never been stronger. Hell, they even have their own radio and TV programs today. America's own cultural revolution took to the airwaves in 1990s with the radio and TV ranting of the likes of Rush Limbaugh. The incredible success of such programs is all the evidence needed to prove that that the pool of anti-intellectuals had achieved marketing critical mass. Rush's anti-intellectual audience was electrified by "one of their own, in effect, "coming out of the closet" and giving voice to their beliefs, fears and frustrations. They were so enthusiastic that they even gave themselves their own gang sign --- "Ditto-heads."

Further evidence of the size and force of America's anti-intellectual movement was the ascent of FOX "News" and it's stable of knuckle-dragging, anti-intellectual commentators, like Bill O'Reilly.

And so here we are today, faced with another national election. And here they are again, America's own Red Guard in America's own cultural revolution.

Barack Obama is an "elitist" -- well-educated, articulate a complicated person. Therefore he must be defeated. John McCain, while definitely no Rhode Scholar, was a war hero, an uncomplicated person, a "straight-talker," who never makes complex, hard-to-grasp arguments. Therefore he must be elected.

Barack Obama's former pastor had the audacity to criticize American policy -- a bridge too far for anti-intellectuals who apparently believe that, "America right or wrong," is part of the US Constitution ... somewhere in the Second Amendment. So both Pastor Wright and his parishioner, Obama, are "elitists" and therefore "un-American."

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Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a (more...)

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