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We've Got a Loooong Way To Go
Posted Jul 28, 2009 by Asher Miller
It's painful to follow the news these days, so I don't blame you if you haven't heard about the growing caucus of conservatives and conspiracy types--dubbed "birthers"--who think that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and therefore should be disqualified from being President. Um, yeah, you heard me right. And no, I'm not making this up.
The story has been gaining traction in recent weeks, fueled when a videotaped rant by a woman at Congressman Castle's townhall meeting in Delaware was made public (the scary thing is not so much her vitriol but the response of the audience around her). Network and cable news outlets have been pushing the story because they love controversy. But some, like CNN's Lou Dobbs, are actively trying to sow doubt about Obama's country of birth. And recently Republican Congressmen introduced a bill in the House of Representatives requiring future presidents to submit their birth certificates.
Leave it to The Daily Show to do the most honest, investigative debunking of this bizarre claim in the media. It says a lot about the state of mainstream media when a fake news show does the best job of real reporting. Jon Stewart also eviscerates Dobbs for fueling the debate (warning: may not be suitable for work).
Conspiracies are a part of the human condition. They've been with us, across continents and cultures, for millenia. And we've all been guilty of almost, almost buying into one. It makes you kind of wonder if we're genetically predisposed, some of us more than others.
When I was a teen, a favorite conspiracy among my friends was the theory that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by Billy Shears, a look/sound alike. Friends found elaborate clues on album covers or by playing records backwards (yes, I'm dating myself--this was in the days before CDs or mp3s, and before the web) to bolster the claim. My fifteen year old mind loved it.
Looking back, I suppose you could say that my friends and I should have done more constructive things with our time. But then again, that was all innocent. This is not, and that's why I find it news-worthy. No, not the "debate" about Obama's place of birth, but the fact that we're even having this discussion at all. And it reminds me, painfully, how long a way to go we have before we can have a real and honest discussion in this country about the state of the world. If we ever get there at all.
Those of us who are products of the Enlightenment (me included) tend to think that all we need is to make others aware of facts--that people will do the "right" thing and feel the same sense of urgency as we do once they are presented with irrefutable evidence. That may be how our minds work. But, for good or bad, we're likely the exception. The "birthers" are not necessarily stupid people, or ignorant, or crazy. They are angry, and they are scared, and so they bend facts to suit the story they've concocted, rather than the other way around.
The Obama birth story will likely die in the national news, leaving a cadre of angry souls out there while the rest of us find some other sensational story to obsess over. But just imagine the anger, the misguided blame that will be cast when the stakes are far, far higher.
Tragically, we've seen this again and again over the course of human history. One need not reach too far back in time and space to bear witness to what we're capable of when scared, hungry, angry, or baited into hatred. It's going on right now in Sudan--genocide largely related to scarce resources. And I don't have to travel far from where I live to visit the site of a Japanese American internment camp.
Sadly, this too we have in us, this kind of hate and fear.
As a kid growing up in Israel, I saw too much hate and too much fear, from both Israelis and Palestinians. My family left when it became clear that we'd have to choose to be victims or victimizers, or both. And my parents didn't want to have to make that kind of choice. A few months after we left, my best friend was kidnapped and killed.
After graduating college, I went to work at The Shoah Foundation, a project started by Steven Spielberg to document the stories of Holocaust survivors, witnesses, and rescuers all over the world. (We wound up interviewing over 52,000 people in 60 countries.) For a brief period of my life, I lived and breathed the Shoah--ingesting hundreds and hundreds of heart-rending stories of loss, suffering, and cruelty that would otherwise be simply unimaginable. I now know that humans are capable of anything. Anything.
So you'd think that I would expect truly dark days ahead, as economic, environmental, and energy crises hit and amplify. But I really don't. I fear them, but don't expect them, at least not with any sort of resignation. That's because the stories of the Shoah that stay with me most vividly after all these years are the ones of courage, of salvation, of peoples' better selves. We're capable of raw hatred and cruelty, but also great things. And that's all of us, even these so-called "birthers."
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8 comments
Bring in The Clowns
From: Bloomer, Aug 9, 2009 07:23 PM
With all the challenging issues facing the human race, todays' focus, is on a conspiracy theory that President Obama has no birth certificate. What a pathetic society we have become.
Thank you for sharing this
From: Anonymous, Aug 3, 2009 08:17 PM
Thank you for sharing this background, Seth. I also think you are eloquent about the reality that "facts alone" won't cut it. It would take a longer essay to fully respond but in a nutshell, the fears that you identify, contain the seeds of the response: namely materials on peak oil, climate destabilization, etc, need to not only be factual and not only well presented/engaging,but also need to address those fears. Make up your own list but included: how will I survive? Will the government exploit me? (this question should come much lower on the list than 'will corporations exploit me?' given the power realities but given the propaganda, for most people worries about 'government power' comes at or before the one about corporate control and corporate power)...an engaging and factual way showing a future in which local and regional networks not only enrich us but also give us more power and protection from centralized power/abuses, would be a good start.
Issues of xenophobia, racism, etc, can likewise be addressed not by confronting them "in your face" in every peakoil etc piece but rather indirectly but a vision that shows win-win or win-win-win so clearly that it demolishes much of the paranoid "THOSE people will get our jobs!"etc that fosters hate.
That's a skeletal outline, of some of the ways of using the very good point you made as a springboard for countering this problem.
I didn't know you were from Israel...I am too and want to put one more idea in your ear...remember Greening the Desert? Ideas pop up in one's mind about working for peace/justice while working to address peak oil and resource depletion (e.g. water) at the same time...don't you think that's worth PCI getting at least a bit involved in? Just imagine Jewish and Palestinian people working together on permaculture type peak-oil-prep projects! If you don't have contacts, I suspect the good folks at gush-shalom.org can put PCI in contact with people (after all Jewish peace groups have worked to help Palestinians whose olive groves were destroyed by IDF to re-built...that is one example of a natural place to look for people who might be interested in 2-for-1 peace-and-peak-oil-prep (or postcarbon-world-prep)projects...I hope PCI can run with this idea..?!
Peace,
Harel B (will try without signing in since that's been buggy for me in the past..)
This article is dangerously
From: David S, Aug 1, 2009 11:22 AM
This article is dangerously misguided.
Asher, have you done any actual research on this subject?
It does not seem that you have, based on the content of your article.
Obama Berg would be good starting search terms on the internet.
You seem to think that if something seems unlikely to be true, that it does not make sense to find out whether it is or not. You seem to suggest we all go back to sleep, rather than become informed. This is a dangerous idea, a poison to our democracy.
Please take the time to find out the known facts about the birth certificate issue, and then write an article that performs some kind of public benefit.
I guess I'm more cynical
From: Anonymous, Aug 1, 2009 07:57 AM
I guess I'm more cynical than Asher is, because I have to say I think these people are actually stupid, ignorant and/or crazy. Why else would they come up with these hairbrained ideas?
re: A place to turn.
From: Phyllis Sladek, Jul 31, 2009 10:56 PM
Thanks for sharing a little of your personal history, Asher. It sounds like your parents made a choice for values of integrity and peace. It's so terrible your friend was killed.
re: "But just imagine the anger, the misguided blame that will be cast when the stakes are far, far higher."
This is one reason we are promoting an immediate scientific investigation of "peak oil" - to include impacts and policy advice - by the National Academy of Sciences. (Please see our petition for further information: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Understanding-Peak-Oil).
The Academies reason to exist is to provide our country with impartial and objective scientific information. (Check out the FAQ on their website: http://www.nationalacademies.org/).
The last comprehensive NAS energy study, in 1982, specifically mentions "peak." (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11771).
I'd encourage everyone interested in energy issues to read it, especially the commentary by the late economist Kenneth Boulding, which can be found in Appendix A. It's quite prophetic.
We believe that the panel that will be established by the Academies can be convened on a regular basis to update the country and offer guidance. This will give people a place to turn.
Kenneth Boulding's comments speak directly to us:
"To face a winding down of the extraordinary explosion of economic development that followed the rise of science and the discovery of fossil fuels would require extraordinary courage and sense of community on the part of the human race, which we could develop perhaps only under conditions of high perception of extreme challenge."
Americans should really grow up
From: Anonymous, Jul 31, 2009 05:42 PM
How this is an issue in what was once a super-power nation is beyond me. "Birthers" - what will be the next gong-show that you will display for the world to see?
At least there are some Americans that still have a conscience and moral backbone - and can deal with this as adults. And calmly do the research to determine the truth. Are these "birthers" so ignorant of American legal and political processes to think that this wasn't checked. Come on.
I for one could care less if your president was from Mars. You picked him (thankfully over the nut jobs that the republicans put forward) - now knuckle down, and get on with the job of figuring out your new place in this shrinking world. Stop being whiny, over-fed, bigoted clowns!
Obamas birth certificate
From: Anonymous, Jul 31, 2009 03:51 PM
Nice article that did nothing whatsoever to dispell the controversy over Obamas citizenship other than to label those who question it a bunch of nuts.All he has to do is produce a valid birth certificate and i do not know of any natural born citizen of the united states that could not do so....except the president.To many credible people are behind the questioning of the presidents origins for you to turn on the manure spreader but I guess its designed to obliterate the obvious. I want an honest government irregardless of the party and we havent approached that ideal for years...so please....spare me the Bush comments....i know he was a crook too.