Paradigmatic change

Burglar captured in
victim’s garage, dressed
only in her underwear.

There is much more to what is happening in America at the moment than plain old racism, although that is the featured theme. The election of Barack Obama carries with it a much more profound message than mere racism, and the success of Sonia Sotomayor reinforces it. While even those currently overwhelmed with their hard to understand rage may not be able to explain it, what is happening is the most important change to occur in hundreds of years. We are witnessing a basic paradigm change. The traditional underlying paradigm of Western-European thought, certainly from the 15th century until the present, has always included the belief that there has been a kind of evolution (or change), both physical and cultural, that resulted in a great Chain of Being with white people (especially men) at the very apex of this creation. You did not have to actually even believe in the process of evolution itself to know that this was supposedly true. White men were regarded as superior to all others, just as Christianity was superior to all other religions. Extreme forms of this saw Black people at the very bottom of the chain, Asians a bit higher on the scale, along with certain others like Hispanics, but with whites unquestionably at the very top. This was just understood by all who were fortunate enough to have been born and raised as white. It is built into our language, permeates our literature, and has been the foundation stone of our civilization for a very long time. The election of Obama, far from being merely the election of a Black man as President, has shattered this paradigm (indeed, the very fact that we describe him as black is itself a result of this way of thinking, logically he could just as well be described as white, or at least black and white, or even white and black). The selection of a female Hispanic for the Supreme Court rubs further salt into the wounds of the whites in the process of being dethroned. The recognition of the overwhelming, even monumental change involved did not occur instantly, but is now slowly manifesting itself as whites are beginning to understand and rage against it. Paradigmatic change does not come easily, as the cases of Galileo and others have repeatedly demonstrated. While the hatred, prejudice, and violence we are witnessing can be and is mostly described as racism, it goes far deeper than mere racism. It is the desperation of those who see their most cherished beliefs violated with no way to strike back short of intimidation and threats of violence, the last gasps of those whose priviledged positions are slowly slipping away from them, while they are helpless to prevent it. It is a perfect and predictable, if magnified example of the frustration-aggression hypothesis being played out in front of a worldwide audience. It is potentially as dangerous as the American Revolution or the Civil War (and perhaps not surprising that it appears to be more intense in the Southern States, and it has given rise to more and more militia activity).

I suspect the “birther” phenomenon is probably a rather piteous way of attempting to deny the reality of what has happened. If Obama can be shown to be not truly President, his Presidency is simply a temporary mistake, a fraud, and the whole thing did not truly happen, then nothing has really changed. If it could be shown that he is from another planet entirely, that would be even better. It is going to be most interesting, and probably very frightening, to see how this plays itself out.

LKBIQ:
“Do not go gentle into that good night, rage, rage, against the dying of the light.”
Dylan Thomas

TILT:
The harvesting of salt dates back at least 6000 years.