Important book: American Midnight, by Adam Hochschild

Finished it a coupla days ago. Excellent to the end.

Very little of this was taught in school when I was growing up, and I doubt much of that has changed. It needs to be, but that’s less and less likely with each passing month. In states like Florida, they’re going from a baseline of an already white-washed pseudo-history, to an even more absurd, pro-movement-conservative vision of a world that never was.

Anyway, some more key takeaways. Emma Goldman and Kate Richards O’Hare were American heroes, despite being treated like shit during this era. Jailed for merely voicing their dissent against the war, they both worked hard to improve prison conditions, which were nightmarish at the time — and still are in too many places. The author also does well with Eugene V Debs, another American hero, who stuck to his beliefs despite being jailed; again, for saying America should not enter WWI. One of the most concise descriptions of WWI comes from him (to paraphrase): It was a war of industrial and commercial rivals, nothing more. No one should die for that.

For me, this is a must-read, especially the emphasis on the (successful) state-backed destruction of an American political party, the socialists, in just a few short years. Not to mention the IWW (the Wobblies), and the ongoing escalation of attacks, lynchings, jailings, etc. of Black and Brown peoples.

Connecting the dots, this period seems all too close to what soon happened across the pond in Germany. That’s not hyperbole. Hitler is quoted as being an admirer of certain American policies of that time frame. Ironically, one of main reasons that’s not the historical consensus today in America is the very success of the gaslighting and info-suppression of 1917-1921. The lies carry on.

wv wrote:

Yeah, the ‘why didnt socialism grow in the US?’ question has a three-part answer, it would seem:

1. The massive violent suppression by the powers-that-still-be.
2. Massive, never-ending, 24/7, birth-to-death, pro-capitalist propaganda.
3. Capitalism itself causes citizens to have little time/energy for study.

w v

Very well put, WV. Concise, dead-on, and tragically true.

Fast forward to today, and the odious immorality behind the continued campaign of lies about “socialism.” I was disgusted by the recent GOP resolution to condemn it in “all of its forms,” and by 109 Dems voting along with every Republican. Cowards.

It’s made me also think about the completely asymmetrical “scorecard” of sorts for atrocities committed by this or that system. We both know that the USSR, for example, wasn’t actually a “socialist” nation, but if we accept that premise, capitalism has to take the hit for the atrocities on its watch too. Not to mention that the internal mechanics and incentives of capitalism naturally lead to those atrocities, which do not exist in socialist theory, at all:

The genocide of hundreds of millions of native peoples, the theft of their lands and resources; slavery; the endless famines, including in 18th century Nepal which left tens of millions dead, and the Late Victorian Holocaust of the late 19th, early 20th centuries in India, China, and Nepal again. The Irish Famine, etc.  WWI and most wars in the modern era were/are capitalist wars to extend its plunder and control, to compete for colonies, etc. etc. More than a hundred million dead for that too.

Congress needs to condemn capitalism in all its forms. Of course, that will happen when the sun falls from the sky.