David Seaton's picture

    America and the "tragic sense"

    LBJ and MLK

    Nothing is more foreign to most Americans than the idea that we struggle in vain and that the struggle itself is the meaning of life.

    "My religion is to seek for truth in life and for life in truth, even knowing that I shall not find them while I live." Miguel de Unamuno

    The above quote is from one of Spain's greatest literary and intellectual figures, Miguel de Unamuno. Unamuno is perhaps best known for his book, "Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida" (The Tragic Sense of Life).

    Richard L. Rubens, Ph.D. wrote of Unamuno's philosophy,

    The central, defining characteristic of the tragic sense of life is its insistence on the balance between the striving for rationality on the one hand, and the recognition of the underlying irrationality of existence on the other.

    I put this post under a photo of LBJ and MLK because I think that somehow they illustrate both Unamuno's philosophy and the tragedy of the American left: how justice defeated justice... how basic decency and democratic values condemned millions of Americans of all colors to poverty, substandard education and illness.

    Hegel wrote:

    "The heroes of ancient classical tragedy encounter situations in which, if they firmly decide in favor of the one ethical pathos that alone suits their finished character, they must necessarily come into conflict with the equally justified ethical power that confronts them."

    Making equal citizens of the descendants of slavery: descendants of both master and slave, was the inescapable duty, dharma, of American progressives. This situation made and still makes a mockery of the Declaration of Independence, which was written by a slaveholder and seconded by slaveholders... This injustice could not be allowed to stand

    Lyndon Johnson, perhaps the closest thing to a man of the left that has ever sat in the White House, knew that this was his duty and although a southerner carried out that duty unflinchingly.

    Master politician and rural southern, white male that he was, I'm sure he knew what was to follow: Nixon's "Southern Strategy" that opened the door to Reagan, Bush-I and Bush-II, a movement that strived mightily to undo all that Johnson tried to achieve with his "Great Society"... and largely succeeded in destroying it and gave a wide, populist political base to all those whose philosophy has deprived generations of Americans of decent public health care and decent public schools.

    This contradiction is America's original sin and its tragedy, perhaps its eternal fate.

    Comments

    LBJ did know.  He remarked at the time that civil rights for blacks would lead to a Republican takeover of the South. 

    It does pain me a little, David, to push back a bit on your highly resilient sense of inevitable doom.  Please forgive me.  :<)  Please know that I would put my darkest side up against your darkest side in a dark side mud-wrestling match any day.  

    But.  We did after all elect a person with dark skin as our President.  I don't think it was foreordained how that was going to play out, and I don't think it is foreordained what the future holds.  Things might, some of us believe, have gone better than they have so far, had some different choices been made.  And that's a real source of frustration.  But I don't think this book is finished yet. 

    I think a whole lot depends on what the people who see clearly what the backlash forces are about decide to do, or not do, about it.

    If the essence of what you are saying is that public officials and movements which succeed in doing a hard and controversial and unpopular thing pay a political price for that, sometimes a severe one, and one that may even do a lot of damage to a society in other ways, I think that is obviously true. 

    I think it would be even more tragic a statement and truism about the human condition if, knowing that, those who are fighting the right fights decided to throw up their hands and check out.  Hope, too, is resilient. Despite everything.  And I think that's better than if it were not.  Things could be worse.

    The Republicans these days seem to feel the need to go for the trifecta--coded anti-black messages now must be supplemented with anti-immigrant and anti-gay and lesbian messages.  I think that is significant "improvement" in the utterly warped sense that no longer is simply being anti-black enough, all by itself, to win you a national election.  If you are a reactionary you now need a coalition of unpopular out groups to scapegoat, villify and demonize if you are going to win some elections.   

    And that may not even be a sure thing as the country's demographics continue to change rapidly.  Even complete cynics like Rove understand this, given that the younger generations are just not sufficiently socialized like they were in the old days to hate or fear gays and lesbians enough, and given as well the rapid growth in the Latino share of the population.  

    Which I think is the point Colbert is snarking about with his Keep Fear Alive rally in DC coming up soon.  You could make a case it's getting harder for those folks, too, just as progressives have not been able to get over the hump to the point of being able to get policy measures adopted which are strong enough to actually begin to address serious problems to the degree needed. 

    As popular as it seems to be these days to think we progressives have a corner on the market of insuperable obstacles to overcome, I don't think that's true.  If a gloomy-minded progressive just happened to get confused and adopt reactionary beliefs, I think she would probably find ways to be just as pessimistic about the prospects for her side.  

    Not that I feel optimistic, either.  I think the outcomes are indeterminate and I'm not feeling particularly upbeat at the moment, though slightly better than a month ago.  I have some hope that the progressives' despair hit its nadir a month or two ago, that enough of us will find a way to overcome it enough to not sit this one out, and that the results in November won't be quite the catastrophe some of us fear. 

    My greater worry is that a common and understandable reaction to a felt and advertised and reinforced (as intellectuals are sometimes wont to do) sense that struggles for justice and truth are ultimately Sisyphian is to discourage not a few people from making the effort.  Which can easily lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.  At that point we really are completely screwed. 

    Maybe we have to have some sense that something called "progress" is possible for enough of us to make the effort.  I agree with sociologist Peter Berger (whose book In Praise of Doubt I finished over the weekend) that there has not been overall progress in human history, but that there has been progress in some areas, progress which is neither permanent nor necessarily pervasive.

    Barbara Ehrenreich, in Bright-Sided, apparently thinks that Americans disadvantage ourselves in important ways on account of our excessive optimism (or maybe just delusions?).  I'm looking forward to reading what she has to say.  Although perhaps that is overly optimistic of me.

    Would it be "tragic" if we don't do what needs to be done, not because there is something inherent in today's human condition that means we could not have done so, but because we talked ourselves out of it?  Or would it just be unspeakably sad, and kind of pathetic as well? 


    Another great Spanish poet and contemporary of Unamuno's, Antonio Machado, wrote perhaps the best explanation of the tragic sense and I'll make a clumsy attempt to translate one his most famous verses:

    Caminante son tus huellas
    Traveler the path is your footprints and nothing more
    El camino nada más;
    caminante no hay camino
    Traveller, there is no path
    se hace camino al andar.
    You make the path by walking
    Al andar se hace camino
    y al volver la vista atrás
    se ve la senda que nunca
    se ha de volver a pisar.
    When walking you make the path
    And when you turn to look back
    You see the path that you will never trod again

    Caminante, no hay camino
    sino estelas sobre el mar.
    Traveler, there is no path
    Only sparkling reflections on the sea

    ¿Para que llamar caminos
    A los surcos del azar...?
    Why call paths,
    That which are only the furrows of fortune

    Todo el que camina anda,
    Como Jesús sobre el mar.
    Every traveler walks,
    Like Jesus walked on the sea

    I read something like that once:

    Mi El Camino no va más

    Es una tragedia

    No tengo dinero para el gasolinera


     

    Great piece David . . .

    As Hegel recognized, although it was the Greek tragedies, even way before that, whoever the scribe or scribes were that placed the first cuneiform stylus to clay of the traditional oral tale of Gilgamesh were the first in recorded history to convey "The Tragic Sense of Life."

    Everything since has been a re-hash of man's destiny from cradle to grave.

    Basically it's the Monomyth.

    Journey of the Hero.

    ~OGD~


    Maybe John Edwards was right about there being two Americas.  One of those is overwhelmed by their tragic sense if anti-depressant sales are any indication. Can you sense the tragic in this comedy? 

    6-year-old takes family car after missing bus

    WICOMICO CHURCH, Va. – A 6-year-old Virginia boy who missed his bus tried to drive to school in his family's sedan — and crashed. His parents were charged with child endangerment. State police said the boy suffered only minor injuries and authorities drove him to school after he was evaluated at a local hospital for a bump on his head. He arrived shortly after lunch, Sgt. Tom Cunningham said.

    It happened around 7:40 a.m. Monday on Route 360, about 61 miles east of Richmond.

    The boy, whose name wasn't released, missed the bus, took the keys to his family's 2005 Ford Taurus and drove nearly six miles toward school while his mother was asleep, police said.

    He made at least two 90-degree turns, passed several cars and ran off the rural two-lane road several times before hitting an embankment and utility pole about a mile and a half from school.

    The boy told police he learned to drive playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam video games.

    "He was very intent on getting to school," said Northumberland County Sheriff Chuck Wilkins. "When he got out of the car, he started walking to school. He did not want to miss breakfast and PE."

    His parents, Jacqulyn Deana Waltman, 26, and David Eugene Dodson, 40, are each charged with child endangerment, Wilkins said. Waltman is being held without bond. Dodson was released on a $5,000 bond.

    It was not clear if they had attorneys.

    The boy and his 4-year-old brother were placed in protective custody.

    "This really is a story of miracles," Wilkins said. "The Lord was with him, along with everybody else on the highway."

     

    Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

     

    Now any sense of a heroic character?  I hope he manages to keep it. :)


    I hope he gets an education, he certainly seems to want one!


    Or at least breakfast.


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