Great literature can leave warnings for future generations.
Of course, it is up to them whether or not they need it.
For example, Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, is great literature.
He used the journey of Carol Milford to let us look into the barren soul of small-town America.
The Irish equivalent would be The Valley of the Squinting Windows by Brinsley MacNamara (John Weldon).
Published two years before Main Street it bleakly evoked the same small-minded viciousness that was extant in rural Ireland.
Indeed, the lynch mob reaction to his 1918 novel in his native Westmeath indicated that there was nothing new about the censoriousness of the Free State.
This is very much the book of the book by Padraic O’Farrell, and I often take it from my shelf to re-visit that place and time.
I put a scene into my play Rebellion where an Irish Citizen Army veteran Jack Brophy is in Frongoch with a young Irish Volunteer Tom Murphy.
Brophy gleefully tells the younger internee about the plot about the novel he is reading.
He doesn’t mention the title, but it is Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Young Tom Murphy is horrified than any mind could invent such unholy filth!
He confidently assures Brophy that once Ireland is free such books will be banned.
Moreover, only works by Irish writers will be allowed in this brave new Ireland.
He is shocked when Brophy tells him that the writer is indeed Irish.
Brinsley MacNamara’s novel was burned, and his schoolteacher father boycotted and driven into exile.
The good folk of Westmeath didn’t like it when a mirror was held up to them by one of their own.
Full disclosure, there is a fair bit of the Midlander in me from both sides of the house.
Consequently, I am often drawn to literature from that part of my island.
Perhaps because I am a writer that literature often guides me to any place, people or period in history.
Sinclair Lewis’s dystopian 1935 novel “It can’t happen here” tells the story of Senator Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip.
He wins the White House on a populist platform and promises to…well…make America great again!
President Windrip isn’t long in the Oval Office when political opponents are rounded up and placed in Concentration Camps.
He has his own paramilitary militia the “Minute Men”.
The novel was intended as a clear warning to the American people that they were not immune to the virus of Fascism that was sweeping Europe at the time.
There is a famous quote that is attributed to Sinclair Lewis about the rise of the far-right in the USA:
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
Despite the widespread belief, he didn’t write it or say it.
However, he certainly DID believe it, and that is the impulse that is central to his 1935 novel.
The enlightenment revolutionaries, who founded the United States of America, drafted and re-drafted their Constitution to guard against what they called “a mad king”.
It was the prospect of living under such an omnipotent ruler that drive Thomas Jefferson and his co-conspirators to create constitutional safeguards for future generations of free Americans.
I can highly recommend this short work by Christopher Hitchens on the brilliant mind that made America a beacon of Enlightenment values.
Well, at least for some of the people.
Of course, the new state had a birth defect.
It was coyly referred to as “the three-fifths compromise”.
A century later there was the Civil War, then Jim Crow, followed by the long walk from Selma.
Now in Trump’s USA, there is a tragic litany of African American men routinely killed by the police.
Their crimes appear to be the following:
- Being black.
- See (1)
Folks within that community can reasonably state that this is the America that their ancestors have had to deal with.
The difference now is that the rest of us can see it.
You could layout a reasonably forensic history of popular revolutions based on the accessibility of information.
Certainly, the printing press was vital to the secessionist movement in the 13 colonies as it was to regicide France and the United Irishmen here in Ireland during the same period.
Today the smartphone is an essential tool of the citizen revolutionary.
The footage of 46-year-old George Floyd being pinned to the ground by a member of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is out there.
The man is clearly no threat and says that he cannot breathe.
He died there and then.
The shocking video evidence is inconvertible.
I will not publish it here, but you are free to find it elsewhere.
Many in that community have self-evidently reached their breaking point.
Over the last few days, the city has been the location of a future Netflix documentary “Minneapolis Burning”.
Then there was the arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez.
It has already been seen around the planet.
A free press is a sine qua non of a functioning democracy.
Indeed, I cannot think of any authoritarian regime that can tolerate proper journalistic scrutiny for any length of time.
This is the back of my NUJ Press Card.
It tells law enforcement personnel on the ground that the holder, in this case, your humble correspondent, has a legitimate reason to be in a place where there is widespread civil unrest.
President Trump has made a point of repeatedly stating at White House Pressers that he does not care much for CNN.
The term “fake news” is the mantra of his supporters.
It is the Lügenpresse for the Twitter age.
This is USA 2020, and the First Amendment is still ostensibly in force.
Sinclair Lewis warned of this, and the vista is as bleak of the Westmeath of John Weldon’s youth.
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How does Trump fit into this crime? If you look at the stats the racist narrative of Donald Trump crumbles. Passed prison reform lowest minority unemployment in history Trump is the best president ever in terms of the black community. Statistics also show cops kill white americans more then any other race look it up
Completely off topic but relevant, nonetheless in the grand scheme of things, Just heard that Johnny Hayes won’t be at Celtic for ten-in-a-row (whenever that will take place). A one year contract (virus permitting) was all it would have taken to reward someone who came on, when required, and gave his, not inconsiderable, all. Don’t know who is to blame but they should take a good look at themselves. The guy must be heartbroken and yes there is a place at a football club for such considerations.
Your point is taken Charlie, but it remains to be seen where he goes next. Perhaps a 2 or 3 year contact at another premiership club might be a much better option for him. Regular game time, longer term security and possibly a coaching role too. Who knows? Maybe better than a one year deal at Celtic.
Still think he’d jump at the chance.
A frightening time politically,We have a narcissistic and erratic President in the White House and a mixture of right wing fanatics and inadequates fronted by a showman Premier in the UK.To think these people are in such powerful positions at this important time in history is really worrying.
Different country, different time, different laws …Yet, why does the memory of Tianamen square still keep coming into my mind?
It’s a known fact the the police in the US have been ‘militarised’ and that personnel are increasingly drawn from veterans of the many imperialist wars that that ‘exceptional’ country perpetrates around the globe. It ‘s also a known fact that the Israeli model of policing as practised against Palestinians is being adopted. Not surprising then that “Black Lives DON’T Matter.
Every life matters, not just black ones. The riots
And rioters have nothing to do with the guys death, any excuse for a good loot and burning everything they see. As Mike Tyson said yesterday. If white people rioted every time a black man murdered one, there would never be peace. Sick of all this minority we are the oppressed shit. Blame the media. More blacks kill WHITES AND BLACKS every year in America. FACT! Blacks are killing whites every single day in America, but the media don’t report it, because they are RACIST Murders. When do you ever see WHITES rioting and looting?
Civil war is on it’s way in America and the lefty liberal media are the ones who will cause it, no one else.Report the feckin truth both ways.
Growing up in Glasgow in the 1950s, I do not remember the word ‘journalist’ being commonly used. Instead, the word used was ‘reporter’; as in ‘He’s a reporter for the Express’. (It is the word you use to describe the CNN employee arrested, though he was soon released and got an apology from the police)
Reporters were viewed as slightly disreputable but also as men – it was overwhelmingly male then – who were brave enough to take on corrupt local councillors.
My feeling is that we have too many journalists and too few reporters.
There is so much can be said about America. For example most of the signatories to the Constitution were slave owners—-including Washington . But while I revile the notion of American ‘exceptionalism’ I praise the Lord that Trump is in the Whitehouse. Had it been the psychopath Hillary Clinton. (se what SHE did in Libya ) we would have come face to face with Russia in Syria and would be engaged in WW3.
Hilary Clinton is a psychopathic killer. Trump is a buffoon who wants to end stupid US wars abroad—which means he will either be deposed—-or worse.
Just fuck right off you monumental prick. Trump has always been a complete waste of space but when he’s in a position that carries true responsibilities he’s really dangerous.
Clinton lost the election, try dealing with the massive orange cockwomble that won and the never ending river of shit that has flown from the whitehouse since that fateful day.
There isn’t any need for the ad hominem abuse.
Yellow card.
The language may have been a tad flowery but I can’t argue with the sentiment of his post.
Clinton actually won the popular vote. The American political system elected Trump, not the American people.
The popular vote is an excuse used by many out here for the loss of the election
The electoral college is there to protect the people in smaller less populated states from domination (tyranny?) of larger states with big populations IE; the coastal cities
Hilary won the mainly the denser populated states, Trump won the majority ( 30 – 20) and the popular vote was 62+ million versus 65+
The writers of the constitution weren’t stupid – one man one vote was perceived as risk of rule by the mob, hence the Electoral college and the “system”
So Trump won fair and square
That election was one of the toughest for the United States as it was basically a lose-lose situation, do you vote for continuity of the ineptitude and corruption of the Obama/Clinton regime or vote for a wild card – Trump, so it was a tough call for all
FYI I am not a US citizen therefore cannot vote
You sir are a numpty
Always wonder what Obama did for the poor black people in his 2 terms in office apart from taking about hope and can we do it, yes we can retoric, tell the masses want they want to hear while milking it for all it’s worth, Trump at least says it like he sees it which makes him less of a liar than Obama and who can forget Bill Clinton and his deeds supported fully by his wife who lied as much as him. Unpleasent truths or convenient lies
Spot on Phil 100%
I am wary of your press card. It suggests anyone not in the club cannot be a journalist. While the National Union of Journalists probably do not intend it that way there is a mountain of evidence that suggests the thugs in uniform believe you need accreditation to be a member of the press. Even in the US where there is no NUJ they cannot accept or understand citizen journalism.
Someone with an NUJ card has no more right to be answered, allowed into places or left unmolested by the police than any other citizen (subject). A free press is essential, but we should never forget that we are all press if we choose to be.
Only those opposed to a free press should be “wary” of an NUJ Press Card.
Educate me here please Phil. I’ve seen you mention your NUJ press card on numerous occasions. I’ve also read in umpteen other places the term “press card” with no mention of the NUJ. Is this the same thing or is their another form of card simply stating who you work for? If there is, how do freelance journalists operate?
The Press Card is issued by the NUJ.
It is the property of the union not the holder-in this case myself.
Freelance and staff journalists have the same press card.
There is a different NUJ Press card for student journalists-it is a signified by the colour.
Thanks Phil.
I have to say the NUJ suggests nothing of the sort. Just as any Engineers’ Union does not prevent anyone being an engineer, workers, including journalists, are entitled to organise themselves as a union (not a club) that allows its members to collectively bargain for the rights and conditions necessary to allow them to do their work in safety and without fear or predjudice and to receive proper benefit from that work. The members of the NUJ in Ireland have made those important agreements with the organisations stated on the card. On mine it states that The National Police Chiefs’ Council recognise me as a bone fide newsgatherer. There is nothing to stop any journalist working outside the NUJ. However, they simply won’t be recognised by such organisations as named above unless they are part of the collective bargaining process. It is simply beneficial for any journalist to join the union and have those protections. If the NUJ did not exist, those rights, conditions and benefits would simply not exist.
The word “journalist” covers a lot of different ground. I do/did not generally write for newspapers – I’m much too prone to hyperbole, I think . ;-D
I am retired now, but I retain my NUJ membership and crucially my Card.
Quite so.
Phil I believe in that democratic right. However, those same journalists stood by or even indulged in the destruction of Jeremy Corbyn and gave the right wing a free pass to take the UK out of Europe. You cant give the Uk Journalists a free pass when they sold their integrity to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, those same Journalists residing in Scotland have started their attack on Scottish independence. Please explain what constitutes a free press and a bought PR guru. Journalists only have them selves to blame.
Wake up Everyone. It’s happening all over!!!
Wake up America !
‘1984’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ are not instruction manuals. They are a warning.