Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Ward keeps giving
Via NRO: Ward Churchill's only written credential of Ind'n People Authenticity has been destroyed by the Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, based in Tahlequah.
---
The chief said his tribe had decided to honor
Churchill with the associate membership because
Churchill had promised to write the tribe's
history and had pledged "to help and honor the UKB."
"To date Mr. Churchill has done nothing in regards
to his promise and pledge."
---
Surprise, surprise.
This tribal group is interesting in itself. Most North American tribes have either assimilated or stayed on the reservation; in Oklahoma, as I've observed before, Cherokees have done a better job of assuming middle-class values than the Appalachian white folks.
The Keetoowah Band is different. At some point they decided to de-assimilate and go back to the old ways, something like Tridentine Catholics rejecting modernity. So the self-Constructed Ward must have felt a certain affinity, but the tribe seems to have understood him better than his colleagues did.
My picture, of course, is not Ward. It's Kate Smith, proudly showing off her honorary chief headgear while she endorses a 1934 Studebaker Dictator Regal, at a time when honorary chiefdoms (along with just about everything!) were less fraught with Identity Politics and Subjectivism. Pretty good Rohrschach test, I think. If your eyes start rolling and your brain fills with thoughts of evil God-Bless-AmeriKKKa fat broad, wearing Endangered Feathers and Fur, daring to assume the role of Noble Savage while endorsing a Polluting, Gas-Wasting product of KKKapitalism ... Oops, can't call her fat unless she's an Authentic member of the Fat Acceptance Movement, in which case she's privileged to call herself Fat .... Well, if you're in the middle of that confusion, I'll just let you boil over. It'll be fun to watch.
-----
For completeness, I should 'key' the other end of the Rohrschach spectrum. Above I listed the response of a modern leftist, whose lifetime mission is to be offended at words, songs, and symbols. (We used to describe this species as a Victorian Bluenosed Prude.) The opposite response is to look at the picture and see consequences, not symbols. I see a big solid woman who gave lots of enjoyment to lots of Americans, and kept up their morale in wartime. She's standing next to a big solid car that gave good service to Americans, made by a company that gave secure employment to six generations of craftsmen and paid secure dividends to many others. If your response comes from this angle, you're either a GWB-era conservative or an FDR-era leftist. (Not really different types.)
¶ 7:59 AM
Via NRO: Ward Churchill's only written credential of Ind'n People Authenticity has been destroyed by the Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, based in Tahlequah.
---
The chief said his tribe had decided to honor
Churchill with the associate membership because
Churchill had promised to write the tribe's
history and had pledged "to help and honor the UKB."
"To date Mr. Churchill has done nothing in regards
to his promise and pledge."
---
Surprise, surprise.
This tribal group is interesting in itself. Most North American tribes have either assimilated or stayed on the reservation; in Oklahoma, as I've observed before, Cherokees have done a better job of assuming middle-class values than the Appalachian white folks.
The Keetoowah Band is different. At some point they decided to de-assimilate and go back to the old ways, something like Tridentine Catholics rejecting modernity. So the self-Constructed Ward must have felt a certain affinity, but the tribe seems to have understood him better than his colleagues did.
My picture, of course, is not Ward. It's Kate Smith, proudly showing off her honorary chief headgear while she endorses a 1934 Studebaker Dictator Regal, at a time when honorary chiefdoms (along with just about everything!) were less fraught with Identity Politics and Subjectivism. Pretty good Rohrschach test, I think. If your eyes start rolling and your brain fills with thoughts of evil God-Bless-AmeriKKKa fat broad, wearing Endangered Feathers and Fur, daring to assume the role of Noble Savage while endorsing a Polluting, Gas-Wasting product of KKKapitalism ... Oops, can't call her fat unless she's an Authentic member of the Fat Acceptance Movement, in which case she's privileged to call herself Fat .... Well, if you're in the middle of that confusion, I'll just let you boil over. It'll be fun to watch.
-----
For completeness, I should 'key' the other end of the Rohrschach spectrum. Above I listed the response of a modern leftist, whose lifetime mission is to be offended at words, songs, and symbols. (We used to describe this species as a Victorian Bluenosed Prude.) The opposite response is to look at the picture and see consequences, not symbols. I see a big solid woman who gave lots of enjoyment to lots of Americans, and kept up their morale in wartime. She's standing next to a big solid car that gave good service to Americans, made by a company that gave secure employment to six generations of craftsmen and paid secure dividends to many others. If your response comes from this angle, you're either a GWB-era conservative or an FDR-era leftist. (Not really different types.)
¶ 7:59 AM
