Author Information
Being American Again
Today we seldom hear the expression, "He's 100-percent American," or, "She's a red-blooded American." As victors and vanquished consort and foes become friends, and as our nation of immigrants grows in number and complexity, being American, being a citizen, being a patriot, has come to mean less and less, for being American depends for its definition on being foreign or un-American, a definition usually forged by conflict. We love our own kind however it may be defined and we hate the enemy whom we believe is most unkind, hence patriotic love is all too often hate-based love, as if Hate and Love were perpetually brawling identical twins. Despite our differences or because of them, Americans are a more or less homogeneous people until a new enemy appears within or without to threaten the working consensus with violent overthrow. We prefer domestic news to foreign affairs, and mass production and consumption is our daily business. If we have the means and are curious, we will go abroad at least once - foreigners know what kind of people Americans are, but we are not so sure until we arrive in their midst. For many of us who stick close to home, being American means we are citizens of a nation geographically confined to that part of the continent of America called the United States of America plus the group of islands in the Pacific Ocean called Hawaii. As citizens we have the right to come and go almost as we please, and we have duty to obey the laws. Some people opine that the citizen has two fundamental or traditional duties: to pay taxes and to render military service as a patriot. Patriotism for many people simply means citizens are expected to kill designated enemies on command.
However, the last subject, that of patriotism, has once again led many Americans to question what being American means. People who object to the Bush Administration's rush to war on Iraq to make the world safe for its definition of democracy are once again being called traitors, seditious cowards, unpatriotic, and un-American, while those who urge war call themselves pro-American, patriotic, responsible citizens, and the like. Of course Business must wave the flag for profits, for who wants to buy products from an un-American business? especially after the heart of the American military-industrial complex has been attacked? The media takes the lead, for what major network would alienate its advertisers or consumers by being anti-American? And what employee or would-be employee opposed to war would speak out against being a good American citizen? Yes, both Business and Labor must get on the patriotic American track, and the rest of the world better get on track too, as the United States, the leader of civilization upon whom an attack is an attack on civilization itself, creates the world in its own image, for the American track happens to be the best track and therefore the one and only legitimate path for the entire world.
Now that hundreds of thousands of troops are amassed for combat, perhaps we should once again define what is required for being American. Are not a few unpatriotic people misinterpreting our Constitution? Are they not uttering sedition all over the country? During war the sedition law on the books applies, and perhaps it is high time for a few prosecutions to remind people what being American is all about. Already people are calling the commander-in-chief a fool, Hitler on a horse, a moron, a mass-murderer, a racist, a fascist, et cetera. Under the old Common Law, to call the king a "fool" was the crime of Uttering Sedition, punishable by beheading. Who would want to serve a commander if he were a fool or moron or fascist or mass-murderer? Almost every red-blooded American, but never mind.
Pending criminal prosecution, maybe something should be done about people uttering sedition or otherwise engaging in un-American activities lest the un-American venereal disease spreads and infects other people. Of course we would not propose that seditious people or other un-American people be rounded up and shot without a trial, but we might suggest that they be exposed to public scorn and ridicule: that would help define in the public eye what being American is all about so everybody would know what line to toe. Un-American citizens would then get what they deserve from employers both present and prospective - they would be fired or not hired in the first place. If they refused to cooperate, they would be jailed for contempt. Once they are exposed, the prosecutors would wise up and obtain the necessary indictments. Why let sedition and other un-American behavior spread during times of war? And even in peacetime, why should we permit any sort of un-American propaganda to disturb our domestic tranquility? We have our precedents to fall back on. Take the Dies Committee, for instance, which was formed to protect Americans from un-American attacks on the godly principle of the form of American government. Fortunately for our research into the meaning of being American, the Dies Committee officially defined Americanism. On July 21, 1937, Congressman Martin Dies of Texas introduced in the House of Representatives a resolution to form a Special Committee for the Investigation of Un-American Propaganda in the United States. Ten months later he called for the immediate consideration of House Resolution 282, reading in part as follows:
"Resolved, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives be, and is hereby, authorized to appoint a special committee to be composed of seven members for the purpose of conducting an investigation of (1) the extent, character, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States, (2) the diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American propaganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution, and (3) all other questions in relation thereto that would aid Congress in any necessary remedial legislation.
"That said special committee, or any subcommittee thereof is hereby authorized to sit and act during the present Congress at such times and places within the United States, whether or not the House is sitting, has recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, to require the attendance of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents, by subpoena or otherwise, and to take such testimony as it deems necessary. Subpoenas shall be issued under the signature of the chairman and shall be served by any person designated by him. The chairman of the committee or any member thereof may administer oaths to witnesses. Every person who, having been summoned as a witness by authority of said committee, or any subcommittee thereof, willfully makes default, or who, having appeared, refused to answer any question pertinent to the investigation heretofore authorized, shall be held to the penalties provided by section 102 of the Revised Statutes of the United States."
On January 3, 1939, in its report to the Seventy-sixth Congress, the Dies Committee defined Americanism as the "recognition that the inherent and fundamental rights of man are derived from God and not from governments, kings, and majorities.... It is as un-American to hate one's neighbor because he has more of this world's material goods as it is to hate him because he was born into another race of worships God according to a different faith.... Americanism is a philosophy of government based on the belief in God as the Supreme Ruler of the Universe."
Moreover, according to the statements and conduct of the committee, you are un-American if you believe in democratic majority rule. You are un-American if you are an atheist or believe in a non-Christian faith - Christian sects are tolerated. You are un-American if you believe in social and racial equality: everyone is not equal in God's eyes, at least not after they are born, but one should not hate his inferiors or superiors. You are un-American if you want to abolish inheritance - God wants people to inherit property they have not worked for. And if you want to substitute communal ownership for private ownership of property, you are un-American - Americanism's god denies people their right to dispose of their property if they want to own it jointly; even Jesus and his disciples would be barred from communal ownership of a few things. If you believe it is the duty of the government to support needy people, you are definitely un-American - it is un-American to provide for the welfare of people as the People see fit, and God will consider that not only un-American but sinful. Wanting to plan the economy is un-American - God will guide the welfare of all with his invisible hand. Of course "collectivist philosophy" is un-American - we may assume that socialism or any other 'ism" that seeks social justice is against God's will. You are un-American if you believe declarations of war or peace should be subject to referendum. Finally, anyone who wants to destroy the checks and balances of the independent branches of government is un-American - then Jefferson, who tried to stifle the budding judiciary branch in its crib, was un-American, and so was Congressman Martin Dies, for he intended to use and did use the Committee as a precedent to prosecute, judge and punish un-American people who disobeyed the Old Testament god who presided back home in his Texas district.
As for the purpose of the committee, according to its 1939 annual report, "the purpose of this committee [was] the task of protecting our constitutional democracy by turning the light of pitiless publicity on the activities of organizations seeking to work the will of foreign dictators in the United States, or to destroy our constitutional democracy and set up a totalitarian regime of some sort in its place." Pitiless indeed was the exposure that followed, much to the benefit of the demagogues who set themselves up as unprincipled arbiters of principle.
Thus did the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Propaganda in the United States take God's name in vain for its reactionary pursuit of all those who sought social justice on earth, especially those workers who organized themselves to obtain better working conditions and pay. Martin Dies identified the oppressed who wanted a better deal as materialists, and adjured them to "turn away from the graven images of materialism." There is only one place to turn in troubled times. "In every national crisis that has confronted our country in the past, our leaders and people have turned to God for help," he reminded Americans in a radio broadcast on June 3, 1939. "At Valley Forge, Washington and his ragged followers were threatened with certain defeat. At that critical moment, they knelt upon the snow and ice and prayed for deliverance."
Now many of us know that prayers do work - if they do not work, it is our faulty formula or God's will. Even devout atheists have confessed that they secretly prayed when in dire straits. The most charitable people are willing to pray not only for their own salvation but for ours when we need help. We appreciate their prayers; however, in our time of need, we would like to have a bowl of soup and a place to sleep, if not one-hundred dollars on Earth for every prayer to God in Heaven. We recognize in Dies's definition of Americanism the usual illiberal worship of Mammon, just as today we recognize the hypocrisy of the pseudoconservative who would lay us off in the name of God and send us to the Salvation Army soup kitchen for pseudoconservative compassion. Materialism, indeed! It's the pot calling the kettle black again. The devotion of the rich to preserving their material wealth in the name of an unseen god is all too obvious as they denounce other materialists and imply that the will of the majority and the organization for material improvement is anti-Christian and un-American.
Still, it is not a bad idea to investigate propaganda that "attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution", for the advocacy of a violent overthrow of government is definitely seditious. We only beg to differ on the matter of principle, or at least on who is to be the Prophet and High Priest of Americanism. In any case, rest assured that if the witnesses cooperate, they will not be prosecuted. We just want the facts, ma'am, about yourself, your friends, your neighbors, the members of your organization, the people on your mailing and email lists, and any other data you might have about potentially un-American people. During the course of the investigations we will expose un-American propaganda and people so we may take remedial steps to thwart the vast conspiracy against America. After all, we are at war, and, as Martin Dies wrote in his book The Trojan Horse in America (1940):
"Every advance in our industrial and mechanized civilization has served to magnify the menace of treason, to a country that is under attack. A single hand to throw a switch in a great power plant, a lone telegraph operator to send out a false order or to withhold a bona fide command, a radio announcer to create a panic among the populace, a mechanic to loosen a bolt in an airplane, a lone hand (like that of Sinon's in Troy) to open a door which bars the way of the attacker, or a seaman to put the vast and intricate mechanism out of commission - any one of these acts, if treasonably performed at a critical place and time, may be enough to cost a people it liberties. These are a few of the thousands of ways in which traitors, single-handed, may seal the doom of their countries."
Martin Dies was writing about the Communists, but the advice applies to any enemy. The chapter's title is 'Treason is a Virtue.' Let none be traitors to being American again.
