There are many things I really like about 70s culture: Outlaw Country, Shovelhead choppers, proto-Metal and Punk rock, Smokey and the Bandit and its predecessors, The Muppet Show (in spite of its periodic pretenses, which were at least fresh and not so exhausted then).
The above film from 1976 highlights some of the aspects I like a bit less. Still, it does demonstrate a way in which the Carter presidency allowed the left to embrace America in that era that is currently forbidden: if Kamala Harris had won the recent presidential election, I imagine we'd have a version of this today that was being pushed out by official channels. As this one was: this was a product of the US Information Agency. USIA would have been called the propaganda arm of the US government except that the US government formally defines propaganda as "enemy action to..." that the US itself, therefore by definition, can never perform.
Had Harris won, USAID probably would have funded the 2026 version of this instead.
The present administration has no such professionals on its side, and any remaining within the bureaucracy certainly wouldn't contribute to celebrating America as long as it is led by the enemy: indeed, I suppose that producing such a film now would satisfy their definition of 'propaganda.' So we'll have to make do with individual efforts from "X" instead.
Any of you seen any good ones? The day is almost upon us.
7 comments:
I am a bit disappointed in this admin and it's focus on shows and events, which are easily disrupted, and not enough on media and branding. I thought this video, while psychedelia (not something I support) was pretty good as an animation product, I thought, and some of the images would be absolutely verboten to the left today. We did see quite the eruption of patriotism among the left after Obama was elected- I hadn't seen so many American flags in my neighborhood (filled with communists now) since my childhood. That all reverted back when Trump was elected.
Grim, as I mentioned in a reply to a comment you made over at AVI's, your timing is off. Carter was not in office in 1976. He was elected in November 1976 and inaugurated in January 1977. Ford was actually polling ahead of Carter through the early part of the year though Carter did break out after the Democrat National Convention and peaked in popularity until late July before falling back to a quite close election victory over Ford. Given that many celebrations were planned well ahead of beginning of the year, I don't think the Carter campaign had much of anything to do with the attitude of Democrats towards the Bicentennial celebration. As your post points out, the most liberal were still the most negative towards the establishment of the United States.
Well, in fairness I was two that year. My memory is a little fuzzy.
I’m pretty sure that I remember that I liked the Muppet Show, though.
Northrop Grumman!
https://x.com/northropgrumman/status/2072440110147088642?s=46
I suppose they’ve gotten the good out of it.
I was fourteen, not quite interested in politics yet but as I recall the celebrations were largely apolitical in nature.
I don't disagree with your projections though, and I expect anything from a Harris administration for the 250th would have been even worse, ala the 1619 Project or some of the Obama's recent discourse. I couldn't find much info about the man who made that film, Vince Collins, but he appears to be from either the early Boom or possibly very late Silent Generation. I suspect, however, that USAID at the time wouldn't have released a stridently anti-American film though there are some images there that could be seen as anti-American with an ironic eye. The patriotic and pragmatic GI Generation and the compromise-minded Silents were still firmly in control. The Boom Generation was certainly exerting influence with the bulk of its members in their late 20s and early 30s (using Strauss-Howe's delineation of their birth years as 1943-1960) but I think their influence in the 1970s is sometimes overrated. While the prospect of a Democrat victory in the fall might have encouraged patriotic observances, I think it's more likely that they would have objected to participating in Ford's "Rose Garden" electoral strategy if they had viewed the Bicentennial as primarily the endorsement of his administration. Essentially, the times were different because people were different.
From the time of the Anti-Federalists and Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans there's been a element of US politics that is anti-Constitutional, and especially seeks to separate the principles of the Declaration of Independence from the implementation of the Constitution of 1787. This is for some people a means of proposing a course of pragmatic governance but is also used to discredit American governmental institutions. That was supercharged during the Progressive Era with its emphasis on scientific administration, and continuing through the expansions of Marxist-Leninist thought following the Second World War. Take the moral fervor of a Prophet/Idealist Generation, combine it with the vision-driven and team-oriented Hero/Civic generation (the Boom and Millennial Generations respectively, again per Strauss and Howe), and I think that is generating the latest iteration of that clash over governing principles we're living through. (We Gen-Xers, like the Lost Generation of WWI during the 1930s and 1940s, are somewhat stuck just riding the wave.)
What I recall was not political, but very loud and heartfelt. One clear memory is of ... large grey legs ending in hoofs. They belonged to oxen. The oxen pulled a replica Conestoga wagon and were part of the heritage and pomp of the festivities. Nebraska was on three trails, after all - Oregon, Mormon, and Pony Express.
LittleRed1
Post a Comment