Josey Wales and Me
By Callimachus | Related entries in General Politics, Ideas
When I get exasperated trying to explain my country to well-meaning but clueless European friends, I often suggest, as an alternate starting point, that they read de Tocqueville and watch “Outlaw Josey Wales.”
There’s a great scene in the movie that comes to my mind lately. Wales has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with an old Indian chief, Lone Watie, who first tries to capture him, then follows him around to learn his gunfighting tricks. At one point, Wales comes out of a country store, arms laden with parcels, and walks right into four bounty hunters. Lone Watie is watching from the street. Wales manages to out-draw them, gunning down three, while the Indian shoots the fourth. This exchange follows:
Lone Watie: How did you know which one was goin’ to shoot first?
Josey Wales: Well, that one in the center: he had a flap holster and he was in no itchin’ hurry. And the one second from the left: he had scared eyes, he wasn’t gonna do nothin’. But that one on the far left: he had crazy eyes. Figured him to make the first move.
Lone Watie: How ’bout the one on the right?
Josey Wales: Never paid him no mind; you were there.
I think of that lately when I visit the different political camps in the American landscape, and see in each a flagpole full of causes promoted or defended, each of which is held up as quinessentially American, patriotic, and good for all. And in each camp, the other side is scorned for failing to join in upholding these causes.
F’rinstance? At random, there’s the fight to keep church and state from seeping into one another. I’m inherently sympathetic to this, and when the fight gets particularly close to home (creationism in schools) or seriously hot (“America is a Christian nation” Constitutional amendment proposals), I’ll rush to the barricades.
But I no longer belong to the ACLU or Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I have watched them at close range. I think they pick their fights based on media exposure and fund-raising expectations. I’ve seen them step in to local communities where a flap over a manger scene display on a town square was on the verge of being amicably settled, and swoop down with lawyers and injunctions and just uglify the whole situation, then tout it as a victory in their next month’s fundraising letter.
I’ve seen them go after the most harmless symbols — little crosses in the city seals of old Hispanic southwestern cities, for instance — in ways that seem to confirm the criticism that they want to erase religion, not separate it.
In an abstract way, I understand the business of fundraising. And I know all sorts of groups from all sorts of political agendas behave this way. I just choose to keep my distance from that.
Same with gun-owners’ rights. Generally, I’m for the right of lawful hunting and shooting enthusiasts to carry on as they see fit. I’m not a gun owner, but I can find no argument that works against the Second Amendment that also doesn’t entangle the first. Yet many of the defenders of this right do so too shrilly or absolutely for my taste.
I know they’re out there, protecting this or that, defending what needs to be defended. They’ve got me covered, even if I don’t link arms with them. I work for certain causes that I care passionately about. If, say, protecting federal lands from overgrazing isn’t one of them, it doesn’t mean I don’t care about it. Don’t try to load me with that guilt. It means I trust you’ve got my back on it. I don’t like the extremists, and I trust the common sense contingent to be in charge.
Isn’t this the most quintessentially American cause of all? The Madison ideal? The fragmented culture, the diverse nation of sects and minorities competing for individual goals and selfish ends, becomes, on the large scale, a balanced and protected system of jealously guarded rights and equalities. Each, in protecting what is most precious to him or her, preserves it for all.
As Wales walks away from the gunfight, Lone Watie mutters, “I could have missed.”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2005 and is filed under General Politics, Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 13th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
Great post! Thanks. Going to look for that movie.
July 14th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
Some good points, but perhaps the best is somewhat unsaid. Maybe local matters should just be local matters. There seems to be an awful lot of hypocrites out there. Lot’s of people who were, rightly, appalled at the Feds swooping into the Schiavo nightmare are clapping when the ACLU strongarms some little burg into spending the budget replacing all the logos because of that itty-bitty cross.
And weren’t a lot of those people asking Congress to get involved in the Schiavo horror the same ones who got all exercised when the SCOTUS said you can’t ban buggery in the bedroom becuase it’s a privacy issue? Weren’t those people saying it was a State issue?
I think the most powerful government should be the one down the street from your house. That’s pretty extreme but we should all take heed that the Federal Government is an equal opportunity screwer. It’s power needs to be carefully controlled and sparingly used. Its intervention reserved for the really awful things that local governmetn can’t seem to get past.
Just like the old saying…”Jeez…don’t make a federal case out of it.”…maybe we should try local solutions; but with so many opportunities to take even a Dog Barking violation to the Circuit Court it’s easier said than done.
July 14th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
The most quintessentially American line in the movie, though, comes Josey stares down the Union soldier who recognizes him, and says, with his hand full of packages, “Ya gonna pull those pistols, or whistle Dixie?”
July 14th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
LOL, Stuart. But there’s a haunting quality to “Doin’ right ain’t got no end.” It taps into one of our national weaknesses.
And when I am flipping through the Internet and come across another picture of the melting towers of 9/11, and the smug celebration of Osama and friends, sometimes I hear this:
And yet, just a few scenes before: “I ain’t promising you nothing extra. I’m just giving you life and you’re giving me life. And I’m saying that men can live together without butchering one another.”
And after that, and after the ferryman’s “You know in my line of work, you gotta be able either to sing ‘The Battle Hymn Of The Republic’ or ‘Dixie’ with equal enthusiasm,” the end comes:
Like I said, American history on the couch, disguised as Hollywood.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:13 pm
There’s also the confounding factor of media magnification of an issue, just for the sake of magnification. When a local issue can be (artificially) made to appear national, or global, in scope, then coverage becomes much more saleable, generating advertising revenue and in some cases influence, in the process. I have my doubts whether the feds would have jumped into Schiavo, for instance, if the media feeding frenzy over the issue had never happened.
Conversely, when an issue is truly of national importance, then it’s hard to say the feds shouldn’t get involved – especially if they perceive and can demonstrate that the locals may not be playing by the rules.
July 14th, 2005 at 11:02 pm
[...] Pop culture by John Behan @ 12:02 am
I don’t know that I entirely agree with this analysis, but I encourage all political blogs to make their points using Clint Eastwood movies as exa [...]
July 15th, 2005 at 8:28 am
I think the exchange in the movie that best highlihgts our current situation in the world today goes like this …..Wales says something like….”I notice that it seems as soon as I start liking people they ain’t around much anymore”….and Wati says back….”I notice as soon as you start disliking people they ain’t around much anymore, neither…”
July 15th, 2005 at 9:12 am
I’ve always been partial to the Magnificent Seven, especially when Calvera comes back to town after the Seven first arrive:
Calvera: Somehow I don’t think you’ve solved my problem.
Chris: Solving your problems isn’t our line.
Vin: We deal in lead, friend.
Now that’s America.
July 15th, 2005 at 9:17 pm
The Magnificent Seven – the first Special Forces movie. Josie Wales is one of the greatest movies ever. For many years, and maybe still, it was Eastwood’s favorite.
And sometimes, just plain folks are greater than the movies – Remember Fabrizio Quattrocchi!
July 15th, 2005 at 9:39 pm
How could I forget Fabrizio Quattrocchi? His last words ought to be engraved on a stele in Rome. But I don’t know how much of Italy is interested in living up to his example.
By the way, for the most overlooked and under-rated “Americans at war” movie, my vote goes to “Battleground.”
July 17th, 2005 at 8:51 pm
Don’t know that I fully agree with everything you said, but I damn sure like the way you said it. Michael Totten was right ~ you write good! I’ll be back for more!
July 19th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
*applause*