782 <strong>The</strong> <strong>N<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>. June 5. 1995Instead <strong>of</strong> challenging the conserv<strong>at</strong>ive line on the deficit,the Administr<strong>at</strong>ion has echoed it. Now Republicans are saying,Put up or shut up. Recently Laura Tyson, the President’schief economist, suggested th<strong>at</strong> elimin<strong>at</strong>ing the budget deficitmight not be such a gre<strong>at</strong> idea. But it was too l<strong>at</strong>e: <strong>The</strong> WhiteHouse had already set out the cutlery for the Republican feast.JEFF FAUXJeff Faux is presden f <strong>of</strong> the Economic Policy Institute.Usual SuspectsAnotherabout theweek <strong>of</strong> continued media handwringmggeneral racial divlde on 0. J.’s innocence.How ever could black people give such credenceto all this trumped-up consplracy stuff? (Blacksare rel<strong>at</strong>lvely less educ<strong>at</strong>ed and therefore possibly more gull-Ible, opined one jury expert.) Meanwhde, it was another interestingweek on the home front. Flfteen more <strong>of</strong>ficers wereindicted in the Bronx for corrupt~on and racketeering. InJersey City, a man died <strong>of</strong> a be<strong>at</strong>ing while in police custody.And Earl Graves Jr., senior vice president for advertising andmarketing <strong>at</strong> Black Enferprlse Magazrne, was stopped andfrisked “from top to bottom” on his way to work, reported<strong>The</strong> New York Times. Graves “asked the [Metro North police]<strong>of</strong>ficers wh<strong>at</strong> kind <strong>of</strong> man they were looking for and wastold a black man with short hair. ‘Well, th<strong>at</strong> narrows it downto about 6 million people,’ Graves replied.”Please don’t get me wrong. In the Simpson case, a policeconspiracy would have to have been a pretty intric<strong>at</strong>e m<strong>at</strong>terinvolvmg an unlikely number <strong>of</strong> people-the odds are againstit, I think. But one should not have to be black to be worriedth<strong>at</strong> serious abuses <strong>of</strong> st<strong>at</strong>e-sponsored force occur far too frequentlynot to have eroded some measure <strong>of</strong> institutlonal leg~tirnacy.One should not have to be black to be worried abouthaving cre<strong>at</strong>ed a vlrtual caste system in which civil societyis divided into racially and ethnically presumptlve “suspectpr<strong>of</strong>iles” on the one hand and those unexceptional “all-American types” (as the F.B.I. described Timothy McVeighafter the Oklahoma Clty bombing) on the other.<strong>The</strong> blindness <strong>of</strong> too many Americans to the long, long history<strong>of</strong> police abuses In black communities-such as thoseth<strong>at</strong> fueled the L.A. nots-has resulted In a remarkably undemocr<strong>at</strong>ictolerance for police violence and corruption. Butscandalous practices do not stay confined to racial or ideologicaltiers forever. <strong>The</strong> erosion <strong>of</strong> publlc trust in pol~ce andother institutions <strong>of</strong> law enforcement has repercussions <strong>at</strong>every level. If fear <strong>of</strong> the black bogyman makes Robocop ahero, then we can hardly be surprised when those same hightechcowboy tactics-guns a-blazing, wires a-tapping-preciplt<strong>at</strong>edisasters in which not only members <strong>of</strong> MOVE butalso Branch Davldians perish.<strong>The</strong> medla coverage following the arrest <strong>of</strong> McVeigh wasamazing for the backflips by comment<strong>at</strong>ors who had beenspeaking <strong>of</strong> “these Middle Easterners” and “those people”and “thuggish, terrorist types,” into flowery discussions <strong>of</strong>how careful we must be not to prejudge “indivlduals” orto “indict all militias.” This contrast in styles <strong>of</strong> discoursemight be underscored by the tongue-in-cheek convers<strong>at</strong>ionI had with a friend who was raised on a farm in the Midwest,shortly after the arrest <strong>of</strong> McVeigh’s alleged accomplice,Terry Nichols.“I hope you don’t think all farmers from the heartland arelike this,” he said.“Well, I don’t know,” I replied. “<strong>The</strong> F.B.I. says th<strong>at</strong> JohnDoe Number live is a Mlddle Western type, and your peoplewould seem to fit the bill.”“No, really!” he pleaded. “Not all Mlddle Westerners areterrorists.”“I know, I know,” I comforted him. “In fact I don’t eventhink <strong>of</strong> you as a Middle Westerner.”“You know, Middle Westerners share the same values andrespect for life as anyone else. We’re just the same as you.”“Come now, let’s not get carried away,” I felt compelledto interject on behalf <strong>of</strong> scientific truth. “We New Yorkershave much higher I.Q.s, after all. Would the course <strong>of</strong> civiliz<strong>at</strong>ionhave veered so much as a hiccup if cornflakes had neverbeen invented? Face it, the Middle West has yet to produceits Tolstoy, its Mozart, its Brooke Astor. . . .”Wh<strong>at</strong> happens if the absurdity <strong>of</strong> this convers<strong>at</strong>ion becomesthe dominant mode <strong>of</strong> political speech? Wh<strong>at</strong> happens if Midwesternersbecome so mythologized and feared th<strong>at</strong> we juststop hiring them and arrest as many <strong>of</strong> them as we can andtie the tubes <strong>of</strong> their sturdy, too-fertile women, and cut <strong>of</strong>ftheir farm subsidles-they’re just sitting around stockpilingfertilizer with our tax dollars, after all-and build the kind<strong>of</strong> prisons where they will never again see the light <strong>of</strong> day?And surely wh<strong>at</strong>ever power on earth it would take to controlan evil like Midwesterners could never be called excesswe.Just think <strong>of</strong> how c<strong>at</strong>hartic it could be. Just think <strong>of</strong> howmany problems it would obliter<strong>at</strong>e. Just think <strong>of</strong> the jobs itwould cre<strong>at</strong>e. Just thmk . . . how simple, and how safe, theworld might be.PATRICIA J. WILLIAMS*BUSH, BACKSLID<strong>The</strong> N.R.A.’s so fevered rn rts talkTh<strong>at</strong> Bush the Elder sard he’d take a walk.Retired now, thrs Bush no longer needsTo cultiv<strong>at</strong>e fhe noxrous wacko weeds.Could this decrslon be the first small signTh<strong>at</strong> Bush, now th<strong>at</strong> he needn’t toe the he,WrIl be the Bush before his quo pro qwd-When he thought voodoo was as voodoo drd?WIN he become, whrle former foes rejoice,A man <strong>of</strong> rnoderairon-and pro-choice?Calvin Triflrn
June 5.1995 <strong>The</strong> <strong>N<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>. 783MINORITY REPORT.CHRISTOPHER HITCHENSReflections on Vzolence-to annex Sorel’s seductive tains the all-purpose word “healing,” and th<strong>at</strong> it was foundtitle-are sometimes just reflections on violence. either by a computer search or by a resort to Bartlett or Web-Lazy people, when impelled to pr<strong>of</strong>undity about ster. I can be sure <strong>of</strong> this because I received a call myself, aactual violence, have a tendency to quote from few days l<strong>at</strong>er, asking me to loc<strong>at</strong>e the lines “things fall apart,William Butler Ye<strong>at</strong>s. <strong>The</strong>re is probably a good subconsciousreason for this. In one <strong>of</strong> the few faultless sonnets ever written,Ye<strong>at</strong>s did say:I balanced all, brought all to mind,<strong>The</strong> years to come seemed waste <strong>of</strong> bre<strong>at</strong>h,A waste <strong>of</strong> bre<strong>at</strong>h the years behlndIn balance wlth thls life, thls de<strong>at</strong>h.Yet the ironic, melancholy stanzas <strong>of</strong> “An Irlsh Airman”are nothe lines preferred by enthusiasts in time <strong>of</strong> crisis. Moreavailable, and purchased <strong>at</strong> a cheaper price, are certain linesfrom “<strong>The</strong> Second Coming” and from “Easter, 1916,” whereYe<strong>at</strong>s appears to be elther more prescient or more promiscuous.Thus in the n<strong>at</strong>ional spin dryer, which whirls quot<strong>at</strong>ionsaround and around, one is as likely to hear people absentlysaying “wh<strong>at</strong> rough beast?” as “a terrible beauty is born” or“things fall apart” or “the center cannot hold.”In the days after the Oklahoma City <strong>at</strong>rocity, a rich choice<strong>of</strong> bad Ye<strong>at</strong>s was on <strong>of</strong>fer. George Will, th<strong>at</strong> gre<strong>at</strong> pseudointellectual<strong>of</strong> the right, employed the poet to deny any connectionbetween reactionary rhetoric and reactionary violence.Citing the following lines as composed by Ye<strong>at</strong>s “when hewrote this about the civil war in Ireland,” Will borrowedas follows:Dld th<strong>at</strong> play <strong>of</strong> mine send outCertaln men the English shot?Dld words <strong>of</strong> mine put too gre<strong>at</strong> strainOn th<strong>at</strong> woman’s reeling brain?Could my spoken words have checkedTh<strong>at</strong> whereby a house lay wrecked?Good questions, in their way, and conscientious questionseven if asked by Ye<strong>at</strong>s not about “the civil war in Ireland” butabout the rising against British Imperialism in the previousdecade. With this limp grasp on history and poetry, Will hadno difficulty in blaming Oklahoma City on John Brown andother heroes <strong>of</strong> a revolutionary past he is glad he missed.And then the President chimed in, or perhaps his poetryconsultants did. Searching for a sign-<strong>of</strong>f to his insufferablypious speech <strong>at</strong> the White House Correspondents’ Associ<strong>at</strong>ion,Clinton dragged this <strong>of</strong>f the auto-cue in the husky mannerto which we have grown accustomed:In the deserts <strong>of</strong> the heartLet the healing fountam start,In the prison <strong>of</strong> hls daysTeach the free man how to pralseTh<strong>at</strong> is the peror<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> Auden’s farewell to Ye<strong>at</strong>s. (“W.H.Auden’s poem about Ye<strong>at</strong>s,” as <strong>The</strong> New Yorker phrased It,before going on to say p<strong>at</strong>hetically th<strong>at</strong> “It’s not every Presidentwho can quote Auden and make you think he might haveactually heard <strong>of</strong> him.” Depends how gullible the “YOU”is, doesn’t it, buster?) Actually, it’s a moral certainty th<strong>at</strong> thepoem was handed to Clinton merely because its last verse con-the center cannot hold.” I was able to furnish the relevantclichCs to the blameless <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> George Stephanopoulos,who l<strong>at</strong>er told me th<strong>at</strong> he needed them for the Hellenic-American Bankers’ Associ<strong>at</strong>ion. I wish I’d been <strong>at</strong> the dmner,because then I could have emphasized the l<strong>at</strong>er lines:<strong>The</strong> best lack all convlction, whde the worstAre full <strong>of</strong> passlon<strong>at</strong>e Intensity.If Ye<strong>at</strong>s had written nothing else he would deserve to beimmortal for th<strong>at</strong> observ<strong>at</strong>ion alone. A very double-edged observ<strong>at</strong>ion,too, because, as <strong>The</strong> New Yorker’s sycophants hadnot bothered to establish, Ye<strong>at</strong>s spent his poetic and politicalIf \ life oscill<strong>at</strong>ing between populismand fascism. He supported theDublin workers in the gre<strong>at</strong> strike<strong>of</strong> 1913, and he gave a verse formto the incho<strong>at</strong>e mix <strong>of</strong> n<strong>at</strong>ionaland popular feeling th<strong>at</strong> issummarized in the title “Easter,1916” and th<strong>at</strong> comminglesChristian, Gaelic and insurgentemotions. But he also welcomedthe rise <strong>of</strong> Mussollni, approved<strong>of</strong> the cruelty with which thevictors <strong>of</strong> the Irish civil war putdown the Republicans, yearned for a despotism <strong>of</strong> the richelite and <strong>of</strong>fered his literary services to the “Blue Shirt” rnovementth<strong>at</strong> was the Irish contribution to fascism and th<strong>at</strong>,under the grotesque leadership <strong>of</strong> General O’Duffy, sent Irishvolunteers to fight in Spain on Franco’s side. <strong>The</strong> entire point<strong>of</strong> Auden’s valediction to Ye<strong>at</strong>s was to assert, with gre<strong>at</strong> aestheticgenerosity, th<strong>at</strong> a dangerous man like Ye<strong>at</strong>s could stillbe an imperishable poet:Tlme with which thls strange excusePardons Klpllng and hls viewsAnd will pardon Paul Claude1Pardon him for writing well.Time, as Auden so beautifully put it, “worships languageand forgives/everyone by whom It lives.” If this were not so,Ye<strong>at</strong>s’s reflections on courage and violence would not haveto be handled like plutonium; would not need to be employedcarefully and in some context; would not still have the powerto stir people who are as unquallfled as George Will or B~llClinton to mangle a quot<strong>at</strong>ion. So afrald was Ye<strong>at</strong>s <strong>of</strong> theconsequences <strong>of</strong> his poem on the Easter Rising th<strong>at</strong> he didn’tpublish it until 1920 (in a special issue <strong>of</strong> our sister weekly<strong>The</strong> New St<strong>at</strong>esman, devoted to a protest against the dirtywar in Ireland). He may have overestim<strong>at</strong>ed the power <strong>of</strong>words, but not in the clumsy way <strong>of</strong> those who, even now, look<strong>at</strong> populism and fascism and claim to see-to the benefit<strong>of</strong> the fascists, not the popullsts-no difference worth fightingabout.
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