Patriotism

"Dissent is patriotic too," says a button handed out by activists during the Washington D.C. demonstrations this April. To claim the right of dissent seems to have become a central problem for activists in the United Stated today. One wonders how it is possible that the in a nation which beliefs itself to be the most free democracy of the world, this fear of publicly challenging the establishment is to be explained. Some say that the excellence of the United States lies in the possibility of transparency and critique, the publicness of documentation. But what is kept public and what is not? Is the Pentagon's public withdrawal of its plans to establish a permanent "Office of Strategic Influence" in which the spread of "strategic lies" was suggested a lie or not? The culture of American patriotism in which public dissent is to be feared borders a type of nationalism that flies in the face of what a real democracy ought to stand for.

I draw this from the hate mail which I get plenty," said Catherine Lutz says. Lutz, a Professor of Anthropology and ethnographer of military culture in the United States, who spoke at a recent forum called "Can you say that on Campus? Perspectives on the Limits of Free Speech at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." She continued: "You eventually encounter intimidation and even death threats. This is very disturbing. I hate to pass on the bad news, but… " she pauses, visibly emotional, "somebody might call you up and say there's an assassination squad heading for your office."

Lutz, a progressive faculty member, was one of dozens of professors nationwide singled out in a February 2002 report "Defending Civilization: How Our Universities are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It" (http://www.goacta.org/Reports/defciv.pdf) published by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a group founded by Lynn Cheney, wife of vice-president Cheney. Through a long list of campus quotes, the report called into question higher education's response to the Sept. 11 attacks: "Even as many institutions enhanced security and many student exhibited American flags, professors across the county sponsored teach-ins that typically ranged from moral equivocation to explicit condemnations of America."

In the Middle Ages the University was linked to the church. As a consequence, the lectures had to be savvy and careful to not pay the price of questioning the ruling orthodoxy. Today, critical debate in US higher education appears stifled by an increasingly militant nationalism and educational privatization. As hesitation to speak out on behave of faculty and students increases, the model of democracy which is represented by the University itself erodes away. "Dissent is patriotic too," says a button handed out by student activists during the Washington D.C. demonstrations April 20. May I second that.

Danny de Vries

Doctoral Student in Anthropology

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill