On Monday, Newsday published an Op-Ed piece written by Professor of American Studies Richard Slotkin. In his article, entitled “Myths of the Moment,” Slotkin discussed the U.S. Presidential race and its relation to his ideas about perceiving history through myth.
“Myths are bits of history that become code words used to analyze a situation,” Slotkin said in an interview. “It’s using history as a precedent for solving problems. The thing that 9/11 reminded us of, and especially reminded the Bush administration of, was Pearl Harbor. Once you invoke that code word, you have a World War II scenario, a ‘Good War’ scenario, in which you have a conflict that requires a military response and also a liberation of oppressed people.”
Slotkin also explained that President Bush adopted the “Good War” myth to interpret the war in Iraq while Senator Kerry sees the war in terms of Vietnam, a historical event that does not readily lend itself to explanation through myth. Slotkin said he believes that this view could be troublesome for Kerry.
“Kerry takes no definite stance…If the audience demands a script, he can’t deliver. The hero in the myth represents the inherent problem with the myth,” Slotkin said. “Kerry represents our ambivalence about Vietnam. He fought in the war and didn’t like it, didn’t agree with it. Bush, on the other hand, was all for the war but managed to get away with not fighting. Bush offers a much easier myth to believe in.”
Though he spoke more objectively in his Newsday piece, Slotkin personally believes that Bush’s more easily digestible view of the situation in Iraq does not hold up.
“The advantage of myth is that you can immediately get a handle on a crisis. You have something to compare it with. The problem is that there’s a mismatch between your model and the actual scenario. They’re not the same thing and so the myth ends up breaking down… If Kerry can expose Bush’s story as false, he can win, but if he is asked to provide an alternative myth, he will fail.”
Eliot Fisher ’05 took Slotkin’s “Westerns: Ideology, Myth and Genre” class two years ago and says that it still affects his political views, especially concerning the Bush administration.
“What’s great about Slotkin’s class is it changes the way you think about how policies work,” Fisher said. Our government doesn’t function in some sort of cultural vacuum. All of our culture, especially movies, affects the way we make decisions. The Western is still a very potent force in our daily actions and how our country forms its identity…I think George W. Bush definitely capitalizes on the mythical icon of the ‘ go-it-alone’ gunfighter.“
Slotkin has been teaching at Wesleyan since 1966. He enjoys the freedom here to incorporate his own research with his teaching. According to him, much of his drafting is done in classroom discussion while bouncing ideas off his students.
”I figure if the people in English 203 can understand what I’m saying, than I’m doing okay,“ he said.
Slotkin has written three books on the mythology of the American frontier and an historical novel about the life of Abraham Lincoln. He won the Albert J. Beveridge Award from the American Historical Association and has been nominated for the National Book Award. He is currently researching his next book, ”Lost Battalions.“ The book is about two World War I platoons, one comprised of black men from Harlem and one comprised of Lower East Side Jews and European immigrants. The book describes how the platoons proved their loyalty to their country in battle, their return home to remain victims of discrimination and the long civil rights struggle that ensued.
Slotkin’s Newsday piece is available at www.wesleyan.edu.
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