Commentary: Truth blown away in sugarcoated 'Gone With the Wind'

sacbee ^ | 11-13-04

[LouAvul]

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Based on Margaret Mitchell's hugely popular novel, producer David O. Selznick's four-hour epic tale of the American South during slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction is the all-time box-office champion.

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Considering its financial success and critical acclaim, "Gone With the Wind" may be the most famous movie ever made.

It's also a lie.

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Along with D.W. Griffith's technically innovative but ethically reprehensible "The Birth of a Nation" (from 1915), which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroic, "GWTW" presents a picture of the pre-Civil War South in which slavery is a noble institution and slaves are content with their status.

Furthermore, it puts forth an image of Reconstruction as one in which freed blacks, the occupying Union army, Southern "scalawags" and Northern "carpetbaggers" inflict great harm on the defeated South, which is saved - along with the honor of Southern womanhood - by the bravery of KKK-like vigilantes.

To his credit, Selznick did eliminate some of the most egregious racism in Mitchell's novel, including the frequent use of the N-word, and downplayed the role of the KKK, compared with "Birth of a Nation," by showing no hooded vigilantes.

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One can say that "GWTW" was a product of its times, when racial segregation was still the law of the South and a common practice in the North, and shouldn't be judged by today's political and moral standards. And it's true that most historical scholarship prior to the 1950s, like the movie, also portrayed slavery as a relatively benign institution and Reconstruction as unequivocally evil.

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Or as William L. Patterson of the Chicago Defender succinctly wrote: "('Gone With the Wind' is a) weapon of terror against black America."

[Gianni]

There were no conditional ratifications of the proposed Constitution of 1787.

Agreed, Madison indicated that the secession clauses were implicit in the document itself, and could not be considered conditions. Hamilton was forced to accept this if he wanted the Constitution.

He did.

[nolu chan]

[justshutupandfakeit] You have been offered the opportunity to show us some high civilizations created without benefit of a city. Of course, being unable to do so, you prefer to rant and rave and attempt to deceive.

While I understand your now desperate need to change what you said, you are stuck with your actual illogical Lincolnpimp bullcrap. What you said was "Civilization is a product of the cities." And you said the "RAT party has controlled them almost the entire history of our nation, they are the epitome of democracy."

[jsuati] Civilization is a product of the cities.

You may take your place in the civilized culture of San Francisdo.

[jsuati] The conservative movement must find a way to gain political control of the cities.

You and your rants are too powerful. It is better to just export you to Canada or France or something.

[jsuati] Your RAT party has controlled them almost the entire history of our nation, they are the epitome of democracy.

YOU live there by choice, not I.

YOU assert that civilization is a product of your RAT controlled cities.

YOU assert your RATS have controlled the cities almost the entire history of the nation.

YOU therefore assert that U.S. CIVILIZATION is a product of your RATS.

Why do you post to FR when you assert that U.S. CIVILIZATION is a product of your RAT cities, dominated by your RATS almost the entire history of the nation???

Why do you not go post on DU where you can wallow in what you perceive as U.S. CIVILIZATION, i.e. your RAT CULTURE.

[GOPcapitalist]

You have been offered the opportunity to show us some high civilizations created without benefit of a city.

Why don't you show us some cities that have been created without the benefit of an agricultural base to feed them?

[nolu chan]

[justshutupandfakeit] This set of insane raving comes from the same kind of mindset which claims Hamilton was queer because he wrote that he loved his best friend. Good thing you are not a prosecutor.

There civilized term these days is "gay" as someone from civilized Illinois, of all places, should know.

And if you want to paraphrase what Hamilton wrote, why not just quote it?

The following letter, which will be quoted in pertinent part, was written by Hamilton when he was twenty-two years of age. It was written to his friend Colonel John Laurens, who was a few years older than Hamilton. Laurens was the son of the President of the Continental congress, Henry Laurens, the dating of the letter was made by scholars, based on internal evidence: April, 1779:

Cold in my professions, warm in my friendships, I wish, my Dear Laurens, it might be in my power, by action rather than words to convince you that I love you. I shall only tell you that 'til you bade us Adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to set upon you. Indeed, my friend, it was not well done. You know the opinion I entertain of mankind, and how much it is my desire to preserve myself free from particular attachments, and to keep my happiness independent of the caprice of others. You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent. But as you have done it,and as we are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed, on condition that for my sake, if not for your own, you will always continue to merit the partiality, which you have artfully instilled into me.(Pages 192-3)

[capitan_refugio]

I appreciate your new-found skill, but what point are you trying to make?

[capitan_refugio]

Your attempts to disassociate Taney from Maryland, and Balitmore in particular, are comical! He was born and Maryland and he is planted in Maryland. He lived there almost his whole life.

Your so-called "refutation" fails.

[justshutupandtakeit]

He states that the industries expanded prior to the tariffs due to the effects of war and embargo which were protectionist in the highest degree. Thus, the effect of the tariffs was more maintenance than infant industry protection.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Those disruptions led to a rapid expansion in import competing industry because they were the equivalent of protective tariffs.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Still peddling this misleading statement and trying to pretend it showed Jefferson a secessionist? When it is clear he is NOT speaking of states in existence but possible future states. After all we could have sold that land to Canada had we wished without affecting the Union.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Someone getting rich is no indication of abuse except to a commie. Protectionism was a way of clearing the hurdles erected by the British Empire which had repressed manufacturing in this country. What better way to encourage those industries purposely destroyed by Imperial policy than through tariffs and bounties.

Defense was of an overriding importance to Hamilton.

[justshutupandtakeit]

I never said they would win the division but they could have beaten Minn in that first game with a break or two.
There could have been three division teams in the playoffs had the Bears retained a modicum of offense. Even with none we played the Eagles tough and barely lost to the Skins.

But a new savior has arrived and thus the rest of our opponents are DOOMED, DOOMED I say. You better be rooting for da Bears on 1/2/05 otherwise the Vikes might be looking up at the Pack.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Actually you should know that the earliest cities had the fields protected by the city wall so there was not the great division between urban and rural which resulted from the cities' growth.

Barring times of famine providing a society with food is not the greatest problem it faces. Without the arsenal and leadership of the city the countryside was regularly looted by invaders. Without the technology and knowledge base of the city the agricultural regions are sinks of poverty and ignorance. Their productivity explodes only when that knowledge is applied to the farm without this it remains subsistence and poor.

[justshutupandtakeit]

So you are saying that you don't know of any civilization or culture created without a city at the helm? OK.

[capitan_refugio]

Madison, Hamilton, and the federalists equated conditional ratification with rejection. As did the 1st Congress. No state offered a conditional ratification, nor did any state retain the right to unilateral secession. Several states made recommendations for amendments, or a bill of rights, and some states repeated revolutionary rhetoric in their ratifications, but none made ratification conditional.

"Agreed, Madison indicated that the secession clauses were implicit in the document itself, and could not be considered conditions."

Your reference here is ambiguous. Do you refer to the Constitution of 1787, the Virginia ratification documentation, or the New York ratification documentation?

[justshutupandtakeit]

Why would I want to quote twenty lines when I can sum it up in a couple of words? I don't believe more verbiage is always superior as do you.

Laurens was the best friend Hamilton ever had and he loved him but not in the manner of the queer. There is nothing "gay" in queerness quite the opposite thus I don't use the vocabulary of my enemies.

[justshutupandtakeit]

With the same pistol, too.

[capitan_refugio]

Okay. What point are you trying to make?

[Gianni]

Remove the clause altogether:

"little, if any thing, was gained by the protection which the United States maintained in the first part of this [the nineteenth] century."

The phrase if any thing is adding emphasis, not detracting.