Fry Bread and Politics

In which Trotsky's icepick fails to remove the final barrier to utopia, indigenous wisdom proves a disappointment, and history continues to be the most pessimistic of disciplines

Nothing creates skeptics like the study of history. By skeptics I don’t mean enemies to all supernatural claims, but people who are congenitally suspicious of just-so stories. A just-so story is a pat tale with appealing packaging that explains why things are the way they are. Women give birth in pain because that bitch Eve ate the fruit, men till the ground and suffer disease because that bitch Pandora opened the box—and so on. The study of history presents us with thousands of discarded just-so stories, but they all come in two major forms: Status-Quo Stories, and Solution Stories. Both of these forms emerge from an amusing historical truth: History is a record of human attempts to bring an end to history.

Status-Quo Stories try to stop history in its tracks by explaining why the current distribution of material wealth and social power is just and righteous, and thus why things should continue exactly as they are. The New Year festival of ancient Babylon culminated in a recitation of the Enuma Elish, the epic of creation in which Marduk kills the monstrous Tiamat, creates the world from her body, and assumes kingship over the gods. This recitation was accompanied by an elaborate pageant—viewed by the whole city—in which the Babylonian king played the role of Marduk. Kingship thus sank its roots into the very foundations of the world. The modern nation-state relies on historical rather than mythological events for its Status-Quo Stories, but the function is the same. As the WASP majority in the United States experiences its long awaited demographic eclipse at the hands of Hispanic Catholics et al., I’m sure we’ll be hearing quite a lot about the Intentions of the Founding Fathers. Across the pond, I’m sure we’ll be hearing quite a lot about the grand Secular Traditions of the European Enlightenment, as more North African Muslims start driving cabs and more Serbian Orthodox Christians are enrolled on the dole.

Solution Stories try to flip a switch and shift history onto a new and better track, one that will shortly bring it into the promised final station. Western civilization is especially fond of Solution Stories, largely because of the Judeo-Christian heritage, and they are usually calibrated according to the one-two apocalyptic punch. First you rail against the injustices of this world, a Fallen World, under the heel of the Prince of this World, Satan. Then you assure your listeners that Jesus has broken the power of the Prince of this World, and will shortly be coming in the clouds of heaven with power and with glory—so you had best get baptized and start looking busy. Soviet Communism and American Capitalism both operate on versions of this story. Qua Communism: “Our bourgeoisie enemies are everywhere scheming to stamp out the emerging Worker’s Paradise, but with two more show trials and one more Five Year Plan, we will soon reach the Truly Communist Society!” Qua Capitalism: “The disruptions caused by these scheming socialist scum continue to obstruct the beneficent operation of the Invisible Hand, but with a can-do attitude and one more round of deregulation, we will soon attain the Truly Capitalist Society!” 

The general attitude of this blog will remain skeptical towards just-so stories, because many have already come and gone, and history continues to barrel merrily onward. There is never anything inevitable about the current distribution of wealth and power, nor is there a wand in the fingers of the Invisible Hand, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, or Moore’s Law that is capable of waving away our workaday struggles and bringing history to an end. I am reminded of Alice Beck Kehoe’s comment on white scholars arriving at Native American reservations in search of Ancient Indigenous Wisdom only to find themselves confronted by “fry bread and politics.” This blog seeks to point out the key and continuing role of Status-Quo Stories and Solution Stories in human society, while maintaining its allegiance to the real substance of history: the messy realities of Fry Bread and Politics.