Loyalty: An Addendum
This is a follow-up to my April 15, 2024, post, Loyalty: To What and Why? and will be incorporated into that document, referencing this revision.
Here is a puzzle for you:
Many people I know, many since I was a kid, seem to live in two different worlds. They seem to have some sort of curtain separating portions of the brain from each other. Mostly kind, thoughtful, and generally well-informed people.
Many of these people enthusiastically sing or are inspired by John Lennon’s “Imagine” (Monday through Saturday, and perhaps Sunday afternoon or evening). I have joined them. They fly Rainbow Flags. They complain about the intolerance of the religious right. They put their hearts and spirits into trying to do good. And they talk about the light Jesus brought to the world.
The same people, as I did for almost two decades, go to church on Sunday morning and sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which is essentially Onward Christan Soldiers with the United States declaring those soldiers to be red-blooded Americans.
Marine Corps Choir singing it in Angelic fashion. The guys who brag about getting drunk and destroying things - when they’re not distributing '“Toys for Tots” at Christmastime. No empty stockings at Christmastime. Empty plates might be more of a concern, but we need to think of the economy. Maybe the kids could use some frankincense. I don’t think I would recommend eating it, though. I guess there are limits to what we can do. Back to the story.
I call it The Battle Hymn of the Republic brain syndrome, and it represents one of those “self-evident” and irrefutable foundations of American Exceptionalism in the minds of most Americans. At the subconscious if not the conscious level. Subconscious does the most “good.”
God and country - in that order. Both of those war marches can be found in the hymnal in the section titled “Patriotism,” and are most often sung during the Sunday services nearest the Fourth of July.
It allowed Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to claim Gandhi as his inspiration while at the same time righteously belting out the words to that violent battle hymn*.
*In a related note, slaves risked severe punishment if they tried to learn to read or write or get an education. As did those who aided them. When all you have is the promise of paradise after this “brief periods of hard times on earth…”
Maybe Ken Burns can tell us that part of the story. Maybe someone needs to mention it to him. Speaking of blind spots…
The same with Heather Cox Richardson in her Substack Letters from an American. I addressed this directly in my February 5, 2023, post Letters from a Blind Spot. Here’s a link: https://fredjohnson.substack.com/p/letters-from-a-blind-spot
I recall mentioning this matter to my brother, since we sang it in church for so many years, and he responded, “I guess I didn’t really think about the words.”
The American Revolution was supposedly fought by people who didn’t want a king and they didn’t want the feudalism that went with it. (Okay, some didn’t have a problem with that feudalism part. Apparently didn’t see the connection.) Many of their ancestors came to this land to escape religious persecution. The vast majority of the time, by the dominant Christian sect of the region they left.
In terms of the pecking order society we live in, we may end up with our all-American king of kings and pecker of peckers. Manly indeed. A round of Neugenics for everyone! Now turn on the big game. There’s always one on, and that’s what really matters in a healthy society. I learned that from reading the New York Times. Written a lot about that paper of record. Too often these days, unfortunately, a broken record.
Or we can Imagine another way. The path is there, but blind spots get in the way.
Fred