Kumbaya Watch: Barbara Kingsolver’s America
The latest in foolish commentary.

By Ross Douthat
September 26, 2001 4:10 p.m.

riting in the San Francisco Chronicle, Barbara Kingsolver joins the chorus of pseudo-literati who just can't stomach America's response to the September Massacre. "Patriotism," she complains, "seems to be falling to whoever claims it loudest, and we're left struggling to find a definition in a clamor of reaction. This is what I'm hearing... Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth who've spent years learning our culture and contributing their talents to our economy. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder? Who are we calling terrorists here?"

There seems little point in rebutting such a stream of poisonous nonsense. Ms. Kingsolver — who has made a career writing novels about the perfidy and cruelty of the U.S. government, (male) Christian missionaries in Africa, and men in general — never bothers to tell us who, exactly, has "threatened free speech with death" (even Kumbaya Watch doesn't go that far), or attacked "people of foreign birth," or advocated "shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder." Nor does she explain why the unfortunate, hastily retracted, and widely condemned comments of Messrs. Falwell and Robertson, in which they blamed the tragedy on gays, feminists, and the ACLU, should be taken to accurately represent the national mood. "This is what I'm hearing," she insists. No doubt. But it's easy to hear incipient fascism — if it's the only thing you're listening for.

Her despicable distortions aside, however, we should spare a moment's pity for Barbara Kingsolver. This is a woman so preconditioned to fear, and so paranoid, that when her daughter announces that her schoolmates will all be wearing red, white, and blue to commemorate the victims, she hears "the sound of saber-rattling" and feels "dread that not just my taxes but even my children are being dragged to the cause of death in the wake of death." (Her daughter, one might add, is in kindergarten.) This is a woman for whom every argument for patriotism prompts the automatic rejoinder: "That kind of thinking let fascism grow out of the international depression of the 1930s." Her America is a dark and brutal place, a country one step away from authoritarianism, inhabited solely by xenophobes and bigots, proto-Nazis, and aspiring storm troopers. And however healthy and wealthy and successful she may become, she can never truly enjoy it — because the jackboots are always sounding on the street, and the Gestapo is always at the door. Frankly, it's amazing the poor woman can summon up the courage to leave her own home.