Saturday, September 08, 2007
'Buckskin bravado'
Hub Blog didn't think it was possible to outdo my Chiang Kai-shek and Chinese civil war analogy. But Susan Faludi has done it. Not only that, Sept. 11 and its aftermath "exactly duplicated the terms" of King Philip's War, she asserts. ... Not a parallel-like historical analogy, mind you. But an exactly duplicated one. ... Seriously, I was all set to blast every inch of this pompous piece -- its PC use of "Metacom’s Rebellion," the alleged male "shame" for not protecting women and children during King Philip's War and how it shaped the nation, the condescending references ("given the historical forgetfulness of Americans"), the obligatory mention of John Wayne, the mere use of the grandiose "on a deep cultural and psychological level," etc., etc., etc. But then she mentioned "buckskin bravado." That stopped me. I thought, "Hmmm. Maybe she has a slight point here." There was indeed an awful lot of swaggering before and after the Iraq invasion, not to mention references to Andrew Jackson, Irish-Scot fighting prowess, American warriors, the Anglosphere, Munich, Churchill, Lincoln. Then there was John "Reporting for Duty" Kerry's DNC salute and our wartime president in a fighter-pilot jump suit with a "mission accomplished" banner in the background. ... OK, so guys were acting like guys. ... But I still believe her King Philip's War analogy is bogus, as are most historical analogies these days. She could have at least explained why the last pre-9/11 surprise attack against America by a non-Christian enemy did or didn't fit into her gender-analysis "narrative," i.e., Pearl Harbor. ... FYI: Faludi is author of a book about another war, albeit an apparently undeclared one. ...
Update 9.09.07 -- I've added the above image of Metacom, aka King Philip. I didn't know Paul Revere did an engraving of him. ...
Hub Blog didn't think it was possible to outdo my Chiang Kai-shek and Chinese civil war analogy. But Susan Faludi has done it. Not only that, Sept. 11 and its aftermath "exactly duplicated the terms" of King Philip's War, she asserts. ... Not a parallel-like historical analogy, mind you. But an exactly duplicated one. ... Seriously, I was all set to blast every inch of this pompous piece -- its PC use of "Metacom’s Rebellion," the alleged male "shame" for not protecting women and children during King Philip's War and how it shaped the nation, the condescending references ("given the historical forgetfulness of Americans"), the obligatory mention of John Wayne, the mere use of the grandiose "on a deep cultural and psychological level," etc., etc., etc. But then she mentioned "buckskin bravado." That stopped me. I thought, "Hmmm. Maybe she has a slight point here." There was indeed an awful lot of swaggering before and after the Iraq invasion, not to mention references to Andrew Jackson, Irish-Scot fighting prowess, American warriors, the Anglosphere, Munich, Churchill, Lincoln. Then there was John "Reporting for Duty" Kerry's DNC salute and our wartime president in a fighter-pilot jump suit with a "mission accomplished" banner in the background. ... OK, so guys were acting like guys. ... But I still believe her King Philip's War analogy is bogus, as are most historical analogies these days. She could have at least explained why the last pre-9/11 surprise attack against America by a non-Christian enemy did or didn't fit into her gender-analysis "narrative," i.e., Pearl Harbor. ... FYI: Faludi is author of a book about another war, albeit an apparently undeclared one. ...
Update 9.09.07 -- I've added the above image of Metacom, aka King Philip. I didn't know Paul Revere did an engraving of him. ...
