{"id":12769,"date":"2015-09-29T08:08:04","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T13:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12769"},"modified":"2015-09-29T08:08:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T13:08:04","slug":"a-beacon-in-the-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12769","title":{"rendered":"A Beacon in the Sand"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Beacon in the Sand<\/a>\"Ansel_Adams_-_Farm_workers_and_Mt._Williamson\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

<\/span>We might begin<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>with the image of American history\u00a0<\/span>as a great\u00a0<\/span>tidal\u00a0<\/span>wave of\u00a0<\/span>progress<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>A<\/span>\u00a0wave<\/span>\u00a0launched with the appearance of the colonist<\/span>s;<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>a wave rolling<\/span>\u00a0with greater and greater momentum<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>westward\u00a0<\/span>across the\u00a0<\/span>continent<\/span>. It brushed aside everything that resisted it.<\/span>\u00a0It used covered wagons and steamships, h<\/span>omesteads and railroads<\/span>, guns and axes<\/span>; it<\/span>\u00a0used laws and politics,\u00a0<\/span>noble speeches and the\u00a0<\/span>rhetoric<\/span>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span>free enterprise<\/span>; it used\u00a0<\/span>corporate charters and city charters<\/span>\u00a0and civic pride<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0It<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>remade<\/span>\u00a0everyth<\/span>ing it touched.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is\u00a0<\/span>a rather<\/span>\u00a0unreconstr<\/span>ucted\u00a0<\/span>metaphor<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u2013<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>we are, for example, bypassing the question of what this wave might look like to a Native<\/span>\u00a0American standing in its way \u2013 b<\/span>ut<\/span>\u00a0it is<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>t the same time a useful<\/span>\u00a0one<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0It captures<\/span>\u00a0something of<\/span>\u00a0the old notion of Manifest Destiny, and a bit of the American view of its own history as one of a<\/span>n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>inevitable<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>necessary<\/span>\u00a0advancement.\u00a0<\/span>I<\/span>t<\/span>\u00a0captures something of the feeling of propulsion that can seem at times to\u00a0<\/span>occupy<\/span>\u00a0the heart of the so-called American experiment.\u00a0<\/span>But<\/span>\u00a0it is also useful because<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>of the questions it raises<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>If\u00a0<\/span>our history is to be seen<\/span>, metaphorically,<\/span>\u00a0as<\/span>\u00a0a wave of progress<\/span>\u00a0sweeping across the continent<\/span>, w<\/span>hat happens when that wave\u00a0<\/span>collides<\/span>\u00a0with the western wall of the Pacific<\/span>\u00a0Ocean<\/span>?<\/span>\u00a0That is, what happens when the wave runs out of land?<\/span><\/p>\n

At least<\/span>\u00a0two\u00a0<\/span>possibilities suggest themselves<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>It might be the case<\/span>, first,<\/span>\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the wave<\/span>\u00a0of progress (we might call it \u2018progress\u2019)<\/span>\u00a0cannot be stopped.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>We can imagine it<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>reaching<\/span>\u00a0the boundary of the Pacific and simply\u00a0<\/span>continuing to accelerate<\/span>, if not geographically, then into\u00a0<\/span>other<\/span>\u00a0realms.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>If we keep pushing on the image, we come\u00a0<\/span>to<\/span>\u00a0the image that the<\/span>\u00a0West Coast<\/span>, and California<\/span>\u00a0in particular<\/span>, often project: they are the furthest point of advancement,<\/span>\u00a0the tip of the<\/span>\u00a0still-<\/span>moving<\/span>\u00a0spear,<\/span>\u00a0the prow of the boat<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Beacon in the Sand We might begin\u00a0with the image of American history\u00a0as a great\u00a0tidal\u00a0wave of\u00a0progress.\u00a0A\u00a0wave\u00a0launched with the appearance of the colonists;\u00a0a wave rolling\u00a0with greater and greater momentum\u00a0westward\u00a0across the\u00a0continent. It brushed aside everything that resisted it.\u00a0It used covered wagons and steamships, homesteads and railroads, guns and axes; it\u00a0used laws and politics,\u00a0noble speeches and the\u00a0rhetoric\u00a0of\u00a0free enterprise; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9385,391,8977,1825,9384,827],"class_list":["post-12769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-dark-mountain-blog","tag-growth","tag-manifest-destiny","tag-progress","tag-tyler-sage","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12770,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12769\/revisions\/12770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}