Good books, lately? Or, Elvis is not a clerk at an adult bookstore in Hattiesburg

Well, robot readers  and actual people, I've had the good fortune to read some good stuff so far this summer. There have been more, and will be more, but these are all worth the effort to toddle on over to the local book store or hit the Amazon key and order.

Let’s begin with the history. An excerpt from S.C. Gwynne Empire of the Summer Moon appeared in the June issue of Texas Monthly, chronicling the initial raid of the Fourth Cavalry under Randal MacKenzie into the Commancheria, the Illano Escondido to attempt to capture the band of Commanche lead by Quanah Paker.  After reading the chapter, I immediately ordered the book – fascinating study of the campaigns of someone we don’t hear that much about, the “Anti-Custer”, Randal Slade MacKenzie.  MacKenzie is referred to as the anti-Custer for a number of reasons – one, of course, being that he avoided last stands and vainglory, focusing with a laser like intensity on the mission. MacKenzie is a tragic figure, but he won his insurgency through a combination of annihilation and negotiation.  The book discusses the Commanche nation with a great deal of insight and sympathy.  Since most people reading this are probably John Wayne fans and have seen The Searchers several times, the story of the Commanche is largely told through the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, the most famous of the captive whites brought into the tribe and her son Quanah, who ultimately became the first and basically last Commanche chief of the entire tribe after being defeated by MacKenzie and brought to the reservation.  Quanah seems like a sort of Hamid Karzai figure at the end, while Cynthia is very much a tragic figure.  It’s worth noting that the war between Texas and the Commanche continues in some ways because of the bloody nature of that conflict. The Commanche Wars created much of the myth surrounding the Texas Rangers; in Mike Cox’s second volume of the history of the Rangers, Time of the Rangers , he describes a meeting between a Ranger and a tribal educator in the 90s, where he was introduced as a “Ranger” and the woman responded, “The Enemy.” When he said, “No, ma’am, not anymore.” She scowled and walked away. There is no peace between the Rangers and the Commanche, Walker-Texas Ranger to the contrary.

Now, Custer is a poster child for the way PR and bullshit can make a reputation. Custer was a brave man, a fantastic horseman, and a charismatic figure.  He was also a lousy officer and a not terribly effective commander. Custer made his bones at Gettysburg, taking a squadron of Michigan Volunteer Cavalry into action against Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry Division while Stuart was in column and not deployed. Why the rebel cavalry didn’t move from column to line, surround the Michiganders and save  Crazy Horse the trouble twelve years later is another of the missed opportunities during that oh so decisive battle. However, they didn’t; as more Union cavalry joined the battle, Stuart was stopped and forced to retreat, thus unable to link up with Pickett at the top of Cemetery Ridge and guaranteeing defeat for the South.  Nathaniel Philbrick's The Last Stand details the road to Little Bighorn.  In turns philosophical, exciting, and intriguing, Philbrick puts the battle in context of the time, the leaders, the men and their histories. He says, “We interact with one another s individuals responding to a complex haze of factors:  professional responsibilities, personal likes and dislikes, ambition, jealousy, self-interest, and, in at least some instances, genuine altruism.  Living in the here and now, we are awash with sensations of the present, memories of the past, and expectations and fears for the future. Our actions are not determined by any one cause; they are the fulfillment of who we are at that particular moment.”

Turning now to contemporary affairs, Charles P. Pierce has an interesting cover which, in light of the Dodge Challenger commercial showing Washington charging the British line in muscle cars abreast, is kind of funny.  Idiot America features Washington riding a T-Rex, and begins with a discussion of Pierce’s visit to the Creation Museum, where visitors are greeted with a dinosaur wearing an English saddle. Hilarity should ensue, but doesn’t.  Pierce’s book is thoughtful, provocative and kind of scary for those of us with a classic liberal twist to our thinking. Pierce identifies three premises that seem to underlie Fox News, the Tea Party Movement, Sarah Palin and the National Enquirer.  They are:               

Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units.              

Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.               

Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.

The whole Vietnam Veteran as crazy person is a good example of this thinking. Crazy John Rambo and his bros sold a lot of books and moved a lot of units – movie tickets, posters, Rambo knives.  Everybody knows that Vietnam Vets, no, wait, all Veterans except those from WWII because they were the greatest, are PTSD-engorged psychopaths.  We all know this. The data that statistically, the average Viet Veteran is healthier, more successful , more stable and more grounded than the general population from the same era is impossible to believe, because it makes sense to blow up a Hind-D with a LAW fired from the front seat of a Huey, through the canopy, at basically point blank range. We saw it in the movie, it must be the way it is.

David Aaronovitch’s Voodoo History : The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History covers some of the same turf but focuses on the paranoid. Aaronovich draws some inspiration from the classic by Richard Hofsteader, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” but takes it deeper and makes a lot of it more relevant to today, when the John Birch Society is now seen by the Conservative Movement as kind of mainstream.  Aaronovitch points out that Hofsteader focused mainly on the right, while the conspiracy minded came from all dimensions. Back in college,  I recall listening to reasoned discussions about how the killing of buffalo – bison in North America, water buffalo in SE Asia – was a strategy to exterminate indigenous populations.  After a few seconds consideration, I figured out that these people were crazy. The author explains and documents that conspiracy theories generally fail to approach reality because they don’t apply Occam’s razor, the philosophical principle of simplicity. While stated many ways, this tool is pretty simple – given the situation and the known facts, the best explanation is the simplest in accordance to the facts. Don’t make it complicated. Unnecessary complication leads to bullshit thinking.  Dick Cheney is not an evil Cyborg from another dimension; he’s a very sick man with obvious delusions. Barak Obama was not born in Kenya but in Hawaii – why create the paper trail for a baby? Elvis is not a clerk in a 7/11 in Hattiesburg.

Comments

[coach purses]

Take a moment to let the goodness of life touch your spirit and calm your thoughts. Then,share your good fortune with another. By coach purses

[Crusader.AXE.ofthe.Lost.Causes]

Coach purses, please go the fuck somewhere else and bother them. Seriously. I strongly recommend The Guys from Area 51, who will respond oh so positively to this kind of crap. Or, go visit Shakesville -- the blogmeister there really can use your insights. But as far as I'm concerned, go the fuck away with this sort of tripe and bulldicking nonsense. I don't accept it from the Buddha, and you're not the goddamn Buddha.