A first look at 'Erasing America'
Article by Kris Larsen in "The American Thinker":
"Progressives"
throughout the West seem eager to erase our history and impugn our
civilization, with ample blowback from those beastly "deplorables." You
know, those horrid patriotic people who hang out at Dunkin Donuts and
live on farms or in small towns, or who serve(d) in the military, or who
are blue collar. Thankfully, James S. Robbins, Ph.D, formerly a
professor, journalist, and special assistant in the Office of the
Secretary of Defense, now a senior fellow at the American Foreign
Council, has effectively researched this phenomenon from an American
perspective. His recent book, Erasing America: Losing our Future by Destroying Our Past (2018), is
clear, well written and well researched, without getting bogged down in
esoteric jargon. Nor is much spared as the falsehoods of sacred cows
are exposed.
Robbins
reminds us that America's first and third presidents, both southerners,
are impugned as slave owners, which we know is evil, thanks in no small
measure to the history we have been taught. There have been demands to
remove their statues as well as their names from schools, government
buildings, streets, etc. But should this be the sole basis for judging
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson? Slavery was commonplace in their
era, especially in the South, and it is not fair to completely judge
those of a bygone era by contemporary standards (here's looking at you,
Halifax).
Fairness demands a balanced portrayal, not just a negative
one, which means the greatness of Washington and Jefferson must also be acknowledged. Besides, these America and western civilization hating "progressives" might want to grudgingly concede
that Great Britain and her Commonwealth were first to abolish slavery,
a worldwide blight hardly unique to the English speaking world. And
while the United States followed suit a few decades later, it was still
long before many anti-Christian, non-Christian, or non-western
societies; the ones romanticized
by the politically correct postmodernist left.
Sadly,
even Abraham Lincoln is skewered. In 2016, Wunk Sheek, an indigenous
student organization at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), staged a
"die-in" to protest the mass execution of thirty-eight Dakota men under
Lincoln's watch. One Wunk Sheek member even falsely accused Lincoln of
owning slaves and described his campus statue as "belittling."
Actually,
the executed Dakotas participated in the 1862 Sioux Uprising, which
left approximately eight hundred settlers dead. Why let the truth get in
the way of an agenda? Also, of the three hundred three indigenous men
captured, two hundred sixty-four were pardoned by Lincoln and another
was later reprieved.
A
year earlier, a Black Lives Matter affiliated group at the same campus
suggested that Lincoln's statue be removed. Reasons were either not
provided or Robbins is unaware of them. Nevertheless, a few pages prior,
Robbins references a book where the author, Lerone Bennett Jr, (2000)
made a wild and unsubstantiated claim that Lincoln was a white
supremacist who only wanted to free the slaves so he could deport them
to Africa or the Caribbean. Who knew? By 2017, and true to form, a
sycophantic student government at UM (Madison) caved by approving "a
resolution to educate the community about 'Lincoln's oppression'
"(p.69).
Adding
insult to injury, objections to the Confederate flag, believed by some
to represent slavery and subsequent Jim Crow laws, reached ridiculous
extremes, with the toy version of The General Lee, the Duke boys' magnificent 1969 Dodge Charger, taken off the market because said flag was emblazoned on its roof. The old Dukes of Hazard reruns were also cancelled and I loved that show(!!).
Even NASCAR got into the politically correct virtue signaling game, although, to their credit, they merely asked, not demanded, that
fans not bring Confederate flags to their events. But kudos to many
NASCAR fans who dance to their own drum and ignored the plea by bringing
these hated flags en masse to races.
Actually,
Confederate flags represent southern pride, not slavery, to many. It's
too bad that Robbins doesn't extend this argument by noting that the
flag symbolizes "states' rights," which, like Canadian provincial
rights, has considerable merit, when not used as cover to justify
slavery or Jim Crow. After all, states, like provinces, are closer to
the people and more sensitive to local needs than are distant
out-of-touch centralized federal governments, which may be more inclined
to default to one-size-fits all approaches, which are wildly
inappropriate for geographically large countries.
Yet
Robbins doesn't limit his thesis to history. His is a staunch defense
of liberty, tradition, freedoms of speech and religion, individualism,
personal responsibility, and patriotism vis a vis an onslaught of group grievance mongering, victimhood (and entitlement) culture, multiculturalism, diversity, (sans the diversity
of ideas), open borders, censorship, political correctness with its
totalitarian intolerance and persecution of those who don't share its
worldview, plus an education system teaching that America is a racist,
xenophobic, genocidal country rooted in slavery.
Robbins
nevertheless concludes on an optimistic note, citing polls suggesting
that patriotism remains strong, which implies that large swathes of the
population may have at least a rudimentary knowledge of America's
historical accomplishments, which, as Robbins correctly notes, is bad
news for authoritarians (not to mention totalitarians) seeking to
destroy our civilization. They prefer history that erases the triumphs
and emphasizes the bad, so as to better socialize people to hate their
country, their culture, their civilization, and perhaps even hate
themselves. These manipulated, psychologically "broken," folks are then
more susceptible to radical ideas and radical change, which, within the
western democratic context, is what the authoritarian or totalitarian is
promoting. Organized religion and the family also compete with the
despot for loyalty and must be quashed.
Indeed,
Robbins stresses how important parents can be if they intellectually
challenge children who spout the anti-American propaganda they learn in
school, on television, or on the internet. Emphasis may be placed on a
can-do attitude that has made America a leader in finance, industry,
technology, and information. Other accomplishments include, but are not
limited to, the First Amendment, which is freedom's gold standard, the
rule of law, and the abolition of slavery before most other countries
and civilizations. And let's not forget America's instrumental role (to
put it bluntly!) in helping defeat the twentieth century's evil twins,
Nazism and communism. But unfortunately, this otherwise good idea only
works if parents haven't succumbed to the same politically correct dogma
as their kids.
Although Robbins doesn't mention it, there is also considerable pushback from Fox News and magazines such as National Review, plus
YouTube presentations from intelligent and articulate people like
Dennis Prager and Dave Rubin (once a man of the left). Accessing these
sources and their biases can help balance the equation. And in
Canada, we have Rebel Media, True North, and individuals like Barbara
Kay, Rex Murphy and Spencer Fernando, fighting the good fight. God
willing, they will never be "deplatformed" by the likes of Senator
Elizabeth Warren stateside or by Canada's pro-censorship Trudeau
Liberals, who want to ban internet sites and persecute/ prosecute people
for writing unflattering books.
Another
potential solution (albeit, easier said than done) is the philosophy,
"say whatever you like, just let me do likewise and leave me to my own
devices (and while you're at it, don't take or destroy my stuff!)." One
must be free to have a particular point of view, a specific religion or
lack thereof, and a freedom to avoid what offends them. They must also
have every right to speak out against what they dislike or
disagree with, but not to censor or deprive others of their freedoms. If
they don't like Christmas, they need not celebrate it. If they don't
like a particular, book, movie, television program, news network,
newspaper or magazine, they need not read, watch, or listen to it. If
they virulently hate American history and culture, or western
civilization generally, they should consider emigrating to a country
that rejects these worldviews and more closely approximates their notion
of an ideal society. At the very least, they shouldn't deny others
their history, the good as well as the bad, as this prevents people from
better understanding who they are and what their country or
civilization represents, as well as what it has overcome. Knowing our
history's virtues tells us what we ought to continue emulating, while
being aware of our history's vices hopefully encourages and better
enables us to avoid mistakes from the past. In essence, the solution is
not to erase or fabricate history, but to factually supplement what is
already there, while exposing genuine falsehoods.
With Erasing America, James
Robbins effectively confronts the destructive, paternalistic and even
totalitarian impulses battering America (and Western civilization) and,
as such, joins a formidable list of those speaking out against the
tyranny that not only seeks to erase history, but celebrates cancel
culture and political correctness.
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