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Harper Lee and Politics

I have just finished 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Brilliant and powerful book. There are not many books I feel deserve the prizes they receive (sort of like Obama's Nobel, but I digress), but this one does. It is rightly held as an example of the unjustness of prejudice, but it is much more than that. The religious women in town are roasted for their hypocrisy. The low values of the poor whites are quietly and devastatingly contrasted with the 'niggers', whose values are better than theirs.

What touched me most was that even Atticus Finch is not spared. In the denouement of the book, he is willing to put his own children through a legal process. It is the sheriff who ends this. Atticus Finch is, in his own way, as blind and prejudiced as the other characters, only his blindness is in favor of 'fairness' and law.

Lee uses Hitler rightly to contrast the opposition to Hitler's persecution of Jews with the casual assumption that 'niggers' are inferior in every way. The people saying that do not recognize their own built in oppression. The other value of Hitler as an example is that sometimes it really is OK to use violence to oppose violence and oppression. While violence is a tool of oppression, the opposition of oppression often requires use of the same tactics. Like the fist fights the children get into with some regularity, if someone hits you, it is OK to hit them back.

It is easy to attack the values of the extreme right. Religion is used to justify condemnation of others socially and politically. It is easy to miss the oppressive values of the left. Like Atticus Finch, their mania for 'fairness' results in legally and socially justified unfairness. The simplest example is overtaxation of 'the rich', when 'the rich' already pay, depending on the definition of 'rich', 50-65% of all income tax. Another is legal protection of unions. In the name of 'fairness', one group is given preferential treatment over another.

Pacifist objection to war is a noble idea, but raises the question 'what will a person or nation fight for'? Like the children of the book, starting a fight over pride or for fun is wrong. But, like the book, sometimes what seems wrong and unfair is just. I always want to ask pacifists if they feel the US involvement in WW2 was just.

Peace, equality, fairness all sound desirable. We all want them. Like chocolate cake, which so many people want, too much cake is a bad thing, and so is the acceptance of injustice in the name of fairness.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 9, 2010 at 2:53 PM

    I've read "To Kill A Mockingbird" a couple of times and enjoyed it tremendously. I think southerners would especially enjoy the flavor of the book. It is funny, sobering, and stimulating. It did indeed deserve the Pulitzer.

    David Graham

    ReplyDelete

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