"I stop talking, realizing that everyone at the table is looking at me"
April 30, 2016 9:58 AM   Subscribe

Patrick Blanchfield writes for The Revealer: God And Guns
Setting aside both its lyrical merits and ideological upshot, of all responses to Obama’s remarks, Skynyrd’s song had the distinction of being perhaps the most honest – and, as a matter of simple description, the most analytically accurate. For the bare fact of the matter is that whatever you may think of God, or of guns, American history would be unrecognizable without the influence of both. God and machine, ever-in-tandem, producing a nation “strong” not just in the narrow sense of being powerful, but also in the etymological sense of resolute violence, of an abiding legacy of wreckage unparalleled by any other nation on Earth.

God and Guns Part II :
But – we always have been. From the start, our pursuit of territory and happiness has been inseparable from murder, from ethnic cleansing, from slavery, from rape. The earliest gunshot victim in the New World to have been discovered by archaeologists is an Inca man, shot clean through the back of the head by a Spanish musket and dumped unceremoniously in a mass grave sometime in the 1530s. Less than a century later, a teenage settler in Jamestown bled out and died within minutes after a musket ball fractured his tibia and ripped apart an artery. We do not know why he was shot; some speculate it may have been a duel. His skeleton, labeled JR102C, is on display in a museum in Jamestown, Virginia. You can still see the lead lodged in his shattered leg.
posted by the man of twists and turns (6 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think a lot of people have seen American prosperity as a sign from God that the US enjoyed Her favor. It seems more likely to me that it's a sign of a large continent rich in natural resources, ripe for exploitation and lightly populated by an indigenous people that was easy to oppress and/or dispose of.
posted by Flexagon at 10:21 AM on April 30, 2016 [4 favorites]


Second, [Fr. Junipero] Serra literally integrated the ceremonial brandishing and discharge of muskets into liturgical services
Hunh. I didn't know that, and I've visited lots of California missions.

The author isn't trying to doggedly prove a single thesis, so it's a bit of a hot mess of facts and incidents all related to a theme. Which is probably a better reflection of history and a kind of essay I very much enjoy reading. Thanks for posting this.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:47 AM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


It's interesting to read a nuanced take on guns and gun culture, especially given the fact that, as the author points out, opinions on guns have become catechisms for two sides in a culture war.

When I saw the title of his blog post, Campus Speech in the Crosshairs, I had a feeling I knew what was coming, especially after the first sentence: "Last night, Anita Sarkeesian cancelled a speaking event, scheduled for today, at Utah State University." But I guessed wrong. He loves guns and shooting, but he realizes that letting a bunch of people with guns come to a speech - after the speaker has received death threats - is stupid. He has a reasonable take on the issue.

That can be a lonely thing. Everybody is going to jump to conclusions, just like I did, just like everybody at that table who shut up and stared at him did. One's opinions on guns have become flags that let us know Which Side You're On, or at least make us wonder whether you're going to start sending us Stormfront links or hinting that Obama is a Muslim who wasn't born in America. It's always good to be confronted by someone who doesn't confirm our prejudices.
posted by clawsoon at 11:33 AM on April 30, 2016 [4 favorites]


These two maps are incredibly revealing about who’s voting for Trump, and why.

(It's Albion's Seed borderers; the whole thing fits in 5000 words or less.)
posted by bukvich at 12:13 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


First, if you can wade through Albion's Seed, then reading American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures Of North America by Colin Woodard should be a breeze. I also like it better than The Nine Nations of North America by Joel Garreau.

Second, blaming Borderers/Hillbillies/Rednecks seems distinctly unfair when your map shows areas of high support in regions founded by Tidewater Aristocrats, Yankees, Southern Slavedrivers/Owners, The Friends/Pennsylvania Dutch, etc. I get that we are othered here but damn, Trump ain't gonna be a threat just because, OMG Scotch-Irish.
posted by ridgerunner at 3:32 PM on April 30, 2016


Thanks for this.
posted by wuwei at 5:07 PM on May 1, 2016


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