Ms Blee and Lady Jingoists

NMB, Florida January 26, 2002 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

MS. BLEE AND LADY JINGOISTS

"Jingoists", according to my Webster's Random House Dictionary, possess
"bellicose chauvinism." This merely means they can be violent in their
expressions of patriotism. They are extremists. This goes back to a song
popular in Britain in the late 19th Century when that nation owned almost
one fourth of our global land resources. Jingoists in that time thought it
natural and right for Anglo civilization to be extended to the barbaric
frontiers of Afghanistan particularly as a frustration to Russian ambitions
for extending their jingoists' call to get down closer into the Middle East
and the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.

But there is Ms Blee, a Sociologist, who has been examining the roots of
some of our best (or worst) jingoists. A report on her latest book appears
in today's NY Times Arts & Ideas section. She has studied people who live in
the United States and believe they are the best Americans there are. The
men show this by being racist or wearing costumes like the bedsheets worn by
the K.K.K. and the brown uniforms of the NAZIS. Sometimes they wear the fine
worsteds of suits sported by our elected representatives in our national
government. Ms Blee decided to study old women in rest homes for their
memories. She recoiled at the virulent hate that poured out of them. They
were the lady jingoists of their day. They hated Black people, Jews,
Catholics and immigrants from southern Europe. At their advanced ages they
still believe that they are the best Americans. Ms Blee did not attempt to
find out how the male jingoists learned their lessons of hate.

To be a jingoist means that you think your kind is better than any other
kind. This goes back to 19th Century thinking that took the ideas of Darwin
and his followers and extended the concept of survival of the fittest to
mean that there were contesting civilizations and the best won. This was
part of the "Pan" movement. It took the form of believing that wherever
members of our "race" (such as pan-German, Pan-Slavic or Pan-French) lived,
they were the best ever. The contest was not one in a quiz show but on the
military field where one of ours was worth at least ten of theirs. The
"natives" in places like Afghanistan were surely not the equal of the
well-equipped soldiers of the invincible British Army that spread and
maintained control of their far-flung imperial and colonial empire. We are
the latest replacement of the British in that part of the world - possibly
in the same cause.

Ms Blee has been studying the women in the K.K.K. and hate groups. She
assumed that the female gender would have been a moderating force behind the
testosterone driven male model of the Jingo who had the U.S. interests in
heart as he beat Jews, Catholics or lynched Negroes. Her original thesis was
wrong. She found that the ladies were just as bad as the men and believed
impossible things in order to bear the "White 'Persons' Burden."

It is not difficult to see how this should be. The ladies joined with
their men and supported them. This, among skinheads and bikers, despite
being the beneficiaries of regular beatings, was part of the rituals of
being bellicose chauvinists or "Real Americans." One wonders how they could
do this. But, this is only one of the ways we live as humans. We can suffer
beatings because we are female yet hate the offspring of others we consider
less human.

My thesis is that there had to be an equal belief between men and women
that was carried on to the next generation. It is a simple step to see that
the first lessons in hate and intolerance are learned at mother's knees.
You can teach your children to love books and fine classical music. You can
also teach them to be "mother's little haters". You have to be taught,
carefully taught, so you can make Mother proud. This is hard to research but
seems obvious to me.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.