Isn’t that what we struggle to do, to write a republic? Aren’t the voices echoing now in our homes and offices the songs of democracy, including even the songs of a chorus that really doesn’t like democracy at all? Isn’t the word blog an ugly and unpoetic term for the place of the singing? Oh well.
I take as a symbol of the diverse, democratic voices a rather quiet photograph of the poet Carl Sandburg dancing with Marilyn Monroe. I’d like to see it on a stamp or the dollar bill. It is a very American image (you can find more in the series in a video here). I take the phrase, "to write a Republic," from the poet Charles Olson’s Maximus Poems.
Having descried the nation
to write a Republic
in gloom on Watch-House point
At least part of what Olson is getting at is the unease or uncertainty of a voice in solitude speaking for the millions outside the door, and the millions, maybe, speaking back. E pluribus unum, "out of many, one," was the widely accepted motto of the nation until 1956, when Congress made In God We Trust the official motto. I’ve always liked the "out of many" part. But isn’t there something like distrust of fellow citizens in the changeover to the new motto? In any case, both are all over our currency. Maybe, in the future, they’ll appear next to Monroe and Sandburg.
This is some responsibility we’ve taken on. If writing (or speaking, or singing) enacts democracy, we ought to be damn careful what we write. On the other hand, maybe the crude and the spontaneous help get the job done.
Among many of the nation’s established, corporate journalists there’s a maddening air of superiority. They pretend to a self-aggrandizing, above-the-fray neutrality. "Trust us," they say, "not that great, chaotic proliferation of crazy voices on the blogs." Their motto: "In Us We Trust. Them, we condemn."
The pretenders are tone deaf to democracy. Yea, it’s also self-promoting to claim that independent, blogging voices are engaged in the writing of the republic, but I mean it more inclusively – seasoned, experienced news gatherers and reporters are pointed to as well.
The declining old journalism business model requires attention to the new multiplication of voices in the public sphere. It also means that all involved must accept responsibility for the state of the national discourse. Democracy requires trust in one another. Destroy trust and the songs die.
I’ve just launched a new site, DogCanyon.org, that’s intended, in part, to help fill the void left by collapsing coverage of political matters, especially at the state level. There is a companion piece to this essay posted there today.
What I’m getting at is here is something going on at FireDogLake and elsewhere that is beyond the advancement of a particular issue agenda or ideology. It is an engaged America speaking out, and it should be regarded that way. I fully realize that it takes a good ear to find a national song of Democracy within the static of a million new websites. But it’s there, and the failure to hear it is the listener’s own.
If we listen, we can hear America singing. If we sing off key, fewer will tune in. Maybe if we remember that Marilyn Monroe and Carl Sandburg are dancing to the song, we might just write a republic after all, and, the nation might just hear it.
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“An engaged America speaking out”
What a great description.
Thank you for a wonderful article, Glenn.
What a wonderful idea: To write a republic. And a true one for such a long long time, from Jefferson to Dos Passos to Vonnegut to Atwood (and of course Sandberg and Hart Crane, Marilyn Monroe and Cagney and Preston Sturges and Trumbo) but now, with the corporate agenda having successfully displaced intellectual creativity, and transformed creative pursuit and expansion into actuaries and population control, perhaps the tragedies of Shakespeare (or James Cain) are more appropriate:
“Bloody instructions do return to plague the inventor.”
“An engaged America speaking out”
Interesting – those were the words I seized upon as well.
I think that the D.C. establishment might see “speaking out” as “talking back”.
We are demonized for failing to blindly accept the “wisdom” of the fatally-compromised insiders.
That’s what you’re doing, so the thanks goes to you.
You are exactly right. The powerful take it as back-talk, which just points to the creeping elitism of our time.
Wonderful post, Glenn. Think I will read it again.
And don’t forget the companion piece at DogCanyon.
Faulkner/Mississippi
My best friend is from Jackson, MS. When he first met my husband, Ron, he ask Ron if he liked Faulkner. Then said, “In Mississippi we consider him more of a reporter”. Of course, it was said with his beautiful, thick MS accent.
What made it even funnier was that we were all at a dinner where my very southern family was meeting Ron for the first time.
Well I’m not 5 years old, when my kindergarten teacher punished me for back-talk.
I’m so tired of being treated like a serf, dangerous rabble, a willful child or someone of lower class.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Glenn W. Smith:
Ah Brother Glenn, what an extra treat to get scripture of democracy accordin’ to the Rev. Smith AND a new “favorite” to gain surcease from the struggle when the blows of hate and fear threaten. I am SOOOOO happy you’ve put your writing out there for us…another act of citizenship and it provides us in the great unwashed masses an alternative to the condescending noblesse oblige of bourgeois pretenders like Max Bloomenthal.
The struggle for democracy is performance art, it is poetry that tries to find the truth in our experience and it makes the movement of history accessable to those who make it.
Thank you again, Brother Smith, you make Sunday mornings like a meeting of Unitarians who get together to talk while their kids can say they’ve been to Sunday school.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE STRUGGLE GOES ON AND ON AND…
What your said!
Politicians don’t listen because they only need to descend into their huddled constituency during the election cycle. How long has it been since voters voted for an individual as opposed voting against the opponent (this includes voting against McSame as I did). Campaign war chests brimming with PAC, soon straight Corporate cash, politicos need only garner a majority of the declining, disaffected voting population to go back to the Capitol to do their masters bidding.
How we get our Country back from the Government/Corporate Complex is anyone’s guess, especially as the Supremes are in the main, Corporatists and are set to tip the balance even more in favor of Corporations.
there should be 45,000 songs for the americans who die each year due to lack of basic health care in this country.
…the condescending noblesse oblige of bourgeois pretenders like Max Bloomenthal.
heh. I thought that it was pretty fucking glaring that Max was refusing to answer questions from you – or me.
So how did we fail to get the memo that only “rah-rah – Go Max” comments would be addressed?
Hell – I give Tom Ridge more credit, just for showing up, than I give Max for yesterday’s performance.
Perhaps the further decline of our rights by the supreme court will be a populist tipping point.
My fear is that the powerful of the world are positioning themselves for basic survival during the next ten to fifteen years. Too many people, too little time. They know it. We know it. It is not just about power and money any longer.
It is about the power to survive.
Citizen neill:
“There should be 45,000 songs for the Americans who die each year due to the lack of basic health care…”
The songs ARE being sung by the millions who stand with you fighting for public health care and basic justice…it’s called “democracy”.
NorskeF, you and yours, from the Lake and the Canyon, are the inspiring ones. Thanks.
That’s a beautiful idea. There are, of course, 45,000 songs. They just need singing.
glen, a terrific piece, it’s interesting how the neo-cons have co-opted the republican party, whence there was once a few republicans who actually had our best interest in mind, now they are all intending on giving our country to the wealthiest
there are a few concervatives who now call themselves democrats thanx to rush limbaugh chasing them from their party, at times I call rush a secret democrat for what he’s done to swell our numbers.
there are common goals for both cocervative and progressive aren’t there and maybe, just maybe, in the learning we take from each other what’s good, shed what’s bad and perfect those issues that are not yet understood how to deal
We are turning to our neighbors and singing. Our neighbors are responding with compassion and their own democratic melody. Most Americans are fatigued by witnessing their families, neighbors, friends sicken and, perhaps, die from murder by spreadsheet. How is this travesty any different than murder by war, famine, or prejudice?
Citizen jayt:
Yeah, I noticed that you and I think it was Brother SouthernDragon who also got the nose in the air treatment…but that’s what makes FDL great, the lack of response to questions and critiques is a deafening silence. I thought, however, that calling Maddow’s guest list a “mafia” was a pathetic lie about the most fearless commentator and questioner in the media who would rather get Tom Ridge on to defend the indefensable than play patticake with a lounge lizzard from the Manhatten salons.
Rachel can smell bullshit a continent away.
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” — George Orwell
Let the revolution begin….
Citizen marymccumin:
Heh-heh, yes she surely does have a real bullshit detector, doesn’t she!! Poor Max has been left in the dust with the other “intellectuals” who got used-up and then dumped by the Clintons…but I will never forgive the smarmy bastard Blumenthal for tryin’ ta put the heat on her ta get face time for his pathetic book.
Wouldn’t she be a great guest here?
(am I subtle or what?)
yep, i do think that democracy is the natural evolution of sustained care and concern for all others with whom we are related. and the good hard thing is to spread one’s self into relationship with as many people as we can.
It is not different. It’s just slower and more preventable.
And thus infinitely more enraging that a great nation can’t, or won’t, pool together its resources and provide universal health care, for the common good.
We voted for someone who said he believed as we did. We got taken.
Citizen jayt:
She (Maddow) would be a great Senator or Congress person from New York.
A healthy, viable democracy ought to be one of those shared goals you speak of. And I think the further to the right the authoritarians the the nuts try to take it, the better chance there is of the rest of us finding common ground.
geez – hadn’t thought of that.
Though I am now – and liking it a lot.
I fear that many actually hate the concept of “common good”. There are many angry mentally ill people out there.
Uh, Marilyn Monroe died in August, 1962.
I would add that singing off key can become the unintended focus of whatever messages we’d like to be heard and answered. For example, this morning I saw Frank Luntz on C-Span. A caller made reference to an earlier caller and called him an “idiot” for espousing that conservatives don’t want government-run health care, when the real issue is conservatives are supporting the obscene profit-taking of health insurance companies.
So, how did Luntz respond? You guessed it. He diverted attention away from the caller’s point and focused on how bad the discourse has become and why did the caller feel it necessary to use the term “idiot”? Diversion is one of the many manipulation tactics I’ll be writing about.
Singing out of tune creates an opening for manipulators to divert attention away from the real problems at hand.
- Tom
The late Mary Travers could get the song started, This Land would do for opening refrain. And get rid of that ugly piece that is used as a national anthem, militaristic and unsingable, America the Beautiful once reflected the nation so much better.
Can we get a fact check here?
Good morning, Mr. Smith.
The blogs are the town square, where we used to gather to discuss the state of the union. We can’t do that anymore, there’s no time between TV and church, keeping up with the Jones’ love of Chinese merchandise or fearing our darker brothers/sisters.
Used to be, there were no J schools and reporters were mostly people with open minds, an active curiosity about the world and the critial thinking skills needed to sort out reality from fiction then explain it to us. Now they go to school intending to be superstars and don’t want to rock any boats by (gasp) thinking!critically! We need FDL and DogCanyon and Driftglass, among a host of others, to keep it real.
Told you it was a special dance.
Typo corrected.
You’ve made a good start at DogCanyon of reminding and/or introducing us to these songs. I can’t wait for more!
Thanks so much!