Liam Rectorexcerpt from The Culture Wars in a Time of War
Ezra Pound, that great cultural warrior, thought the culture wars were winnable. Pound longed to be an artist at the heart of empire, whispering into Mussolini's ear about poetry, the arts, and state policy, and that is part of what undid Pound, part of an epic and grandiose ambition that would not, towards any end, cohere. That, and the anti-Semitism that accompanied it, was among the tragic -mistakes of one of the great poets of the twentieth century.Now we are asked how our own culture wars will play out in a time of war, and what role poetry will play. I've come to think the culture wars are never truly, finally won, but that the important thing is to preserve the spirit and the letter of the First Amendment as the great circulatory system that should and by law does run through any conflicts of values, at least in America. The culture wars and the arguments of freedom and suppression contained in them are an eternal verity to be fought, won, lost, fought, and won again. It's strictly a case of ever-vigilant.
A few of my friends have said to me recently that our freedoms of speech and expression will be (and even should be) trumped now by the needs and prerogatives of safety and what's called "national security" during a time of war. Given the Nixon years, I'm so cynical about the abuses that the term "national security" has been put to that I'm ever-wary of that rationale, especially issuing from the Executive office. Perhaps I'm too cynical. Perhaps about this one can never be too cynical. In any case, my version of not giving the terrorists what they came for, my way of conducting business as usual, will be to continue to make freedom of speech and expression the central thing about America, indeed the very lynchpin of the country as I know it and love it. As Benjamin Franklin said, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."Possible suspensions of civil liberties are something we should all be keeping an eye on now, watchdogs among the dogs of war. There's been plenty of talk lately, and already a shifting body of law, about suspending habeas corpus, extensive access to private student records, banning coverage of enemy announcements, new wiretapping and surveillance laws that go to our phones, cell phones, computers, Internet, e-mail, and the like. Some organizations from the left and the right are making common cause to keep our freedoms of speech alive in such a context. I hope they prevail.
It's been noted that the first casualty of any war is the truth, as both sides, as all sides seek to propagandize, to naively and deceptively see their side as valiant and the repository of all virtue while the other side is sheer, unadulterated evil. As Paul Fussell has noted, in war it's right to remember always that all sides are criminal, that war is itself essentially a criminal act.I accept that we are now in a time of war again. I don't think we can let stand the killing of some 5,000 civilians and military personnel--all of whom were friends, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters to someone--without a military response. I remember (and my conscience remembers) when I was in favor of pacifism and non-violent resistance as a response to the Vietnam War, but the situation is different and such a stance now requires an innocence I no longer have nor want, if I am able to remain faithful to something as real and as truth-bearing as Auden's revision of a single word in "September 1, 1939." I don't think we can let the September 11th killings stand by turning the other cheek, forgiving, merely negotiating, or by any simple-headed reading of the commandment, Thou Shalt Not Kill. I don't think we can let this slaughter stand.
It's said that this war will mainly be fought in the shadows. If there's anyone who's expert in the shadows, that would be the poets. September 11th started in the morning on the corridor, and now it seems everywhere.
I do believe in reality there is such a thing as national security and a need for secrecy in the deployment of war, but where mistakes are made I hope writers and the press will be erring on the side of the First Amendment, wherever freedom travels in this conflict, wherever history is revising even a single word.
Liam Rector's books of poems are American Prodigal and The Sorrow of Architecture. He has administered literary programs at Associated Writing Programs, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. He now directs the graduate Writing Seminars at Bennington College.
