Overcoming Obstacles

Overcoming Obstacles by Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn delivers this talk at the University of Colorado at Boulder on November 30, 2006, arguing that the obstacles to political change lie not in human nature but in cultural ideas people are taught. He opens by describing a sense of living in an occupied country, contrasting the "aliens" who he says have taken over the government with the Mexican migrants crossing into Arizona and California, noting the irony of building a wall on land taken from Mexico in the 1846-48 war. He identifies several ideological obstacles. The first is the belief in neutrality or professional objectivity — the idea that businessmen, lawyers, professors, or journalists needn't take a stand. Zinn argues neutrality on a "moving train" is impossible and undesirable, since it amounts to collaboration with whatever is already happening, including with the selective, point-of-view-driven nature of historical writing. The second obstacle is unexamined faith in American democracy. He recounts psychologist Gustav Gilbert's Nuremberg Diary, quoting Hermann Göring's explanation that ordinary people can always be led into war by leaders who claim the country is under attack and brand pacifists unpatriotic — "it works the same way in any country." Zinn uses this to argue the US sits somewhere on a spectrum between democracy and totalitarianism, not at the democratic extreme. He then criticizes the media, saying it is controlled by a small number of corporations that fail to inform the public — for instance, never noting that the Iraq invasion violated the UN Charter or that Bush administration officials might be guilty of the same "aggressive war" crimes for which Nuremberg defendants were hanged. He cites Colin Powell's UN speech on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as an example, quoting the New York Times and Washington Post's uncritical praise, and mentions Democracy Now! and David Barsamian's Alternative Radio in Boulder as alternative sources. He notes the absence of a real opposition party, citing a 100-0 Senate vote for a $500 billion military appropriations bill, with Barbara Lee of California as a rare dissenting voice. Zinn stresses the necessity of learning history, criticizing the veneration of "founding fathers" and presidents like Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, detailing Wilson's bombardment of Mexico and occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He notes how little Americans know of events like the My Lai Massacre, and lists a history of governmental lies from World War I through the Gulf of Tonkin, Panama, and Grenada. Another obstacle is "American exceptionalism," traced from the Puritans' "city on a hill" through "manifest destiny" to Bush, including an anecdote from Ha'aretz about Bush telling a Palestinian leader that God directed his actions. He quotes Langston Hughes's poem "Columbia" to puncture this self-image. Zinn then challenges the notion of a common national interest, arguing the Constitution served slaveowners and merchants rather than "we the people," and that American legislative history mostly benefits the wealthy, with exceptions during the 1930s and 1960s that produced Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. He redefines patriotism as loyalty to the principles of the Declaration of Independence rather than to government, and calls the "war on terrorism" a scam, arguing government terrorism vastly outscales that of groups like al-Qaeda or the IRA. Drawing on his own experience as a World War II bombardier who came to see even the "best" of wars as morally compromised — citing Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Tokyo firebombing — he calls for abolishing war altogether and envisions a global society without borders, invoking the Paris Commune's 1871 leaflets telling peasants "our interests are the same." He closes by arguing that concentrations of power are fragile because they depend on popular obedience, citing Vietnam, George Wallace's reversal on segregation, and labor victories over Ford, General Motors, and California fruit growers via boycott, before reading Marge Piercy's poem "The Low Road" on how collective action grows from small acts.

By Howard Zinn · Genre: Political Speech, Political Philosophy, Social Commentary · 7,488 words

First lines

University of Colorado at Boulder, November 30, 2006.

In 2006, many felt despair over the direction of US and global politics. The "war on terror" had contributed to a widespread sense of powerlessness. But Zinn remained hopeful that people could challenge those in power and open up new possibilities for change.

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history · social justice · activism · perseverance · resilience · self-improvement · motivation · civil rights · political change · grassroots · empowerment · struggle

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