The more I reflect on the passing of this man, the more I realize what a loss it is. One of the many things our documentary made me realize is that there are so many people with inconsistent (if not downright incoherent) political beliefs. Howard Zinn was definitely not one of them. He knew what he believed and fought steadily for it until the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy1ZJYimyHo
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
the passing of Howard Zinn
From today's New York Times, quoting Professor Zinn:
“I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president — which means, in our time, a dangerous president — unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."
It occurs to me this summarizes in a nutshell the danger of "the great man" theory of history that Dr. Zinn wrote so eloquently against. We think that all we have to do is elect the right politician, and then we can go back to our lives. I understand the desire to believe this, as most of our lives are busy enough as is. However, it's simply not the way things work. Yesterday I was at a lecture about urban agriculture, where the presenters touched on issues of better food, the need to combat childhood obesity, the need to reduce farm subsidies etc. One of them said a colleague had actually been able to talk to the President. Obama told the man that he agreed with him completely. But he added "I won't do anything about it until you show me there's a social movement that will make me". I've had several people tell me that they were really active politically during the campaign, but are no longer. As Professor Zinn worked so hard to make us understand, if we want any sort of "change" to happen, we can't get it just by electing a politician who promises it.
We consider ourselves deeply fortunate to have Dr. Zinn participate in our film.
“I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president — which means, in our time, a dangerous president — unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."
It occurs to me this summarizes in a nutshell the danger of "the great man" theory of history that Dr. Zinn wrote so eloquently against. We think that all we have to do is elect the right politician, and then we can go back to our lives. I understand the desire to believe this, as most of our lives are busy enough as is. However, it's simply not the way things work. Yesterday I was at a lecture about urban agriculture, where the presenters touched on issues of better food, the need to combat childhood obesity, the need to reduce farm subsidies etc. One of them said a colleague had actually been able to talk to the President. Obama told the man that he agreed with him completely. But he added "I won't do anything about it until you show me there's a social movement that will make me". I've had several people tell me that they were really active politically during the campaign, but are no longer. As Professor Zinn worked so hard to make us understand, if we want any sort of "change" to happen, we can't get it just by electing a politician who promises it.
We consider ourselves deeply fortunate to have Dr. Zinn participate in our film.
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