Beck rally is symbolic violence on King

Alan Boraas   Published: September 3rd, 2010 09:38 PM

Glenn Beck's assertion that it was mere coincidence the "Restore America" rally fell on the 47th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is pure fabrication. In fact, the Restore America event is a textbook case of symbolic violence.

Symbolic violence is a technique of dominance. Sometimes it is unintentional, but increasingly it is part of a concerted effort to manipulate public opinion. Karl Rove-style political operatives are expert at this type of manipulation. Symbolic violence is not simply attacking another group's symbols like defacing a church or mosque. Symbolic violence is much more subtle and occurs when one faction adopts the symbols of another faction, recontextualizes them, makes them their own and therefore robs them of their original meaning marginalizing the original owners for their own gain.

At the Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin Restore America rally, the tea party attempted to recontextualize King's "I Have a Dream" speech, one of the most dramatic and meaningful speeches in American history. Speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, King eloquently defined human rights and the need for social justice to fulfill the promise of the American Constitution. Both King and the "I Have a Dream" speech are icons of progressive liberalism and thus a target for extreme right wing symbolic violence.

In her Restore America speech, Palin unashamedly associated the tea party movement with the soul of the civil rights movement saying, "We feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who on this very day, two score and seven years ago, gave voice to a dream." Some consider invoking King's spirit at a tea party rally as political blasphemy.

Palin's use of the phrase "two score and seven" associates her words, of course, with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address which he opened with "Four score and seven years ago ..." and with King who used the same archaic numerology in his "I Have a Dream" speech when he said "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation." Note that Palin also used the same "we stand today" terminology as King.

As a deeply religious Baptist minister, King invoked divine justice in his "I Have a Dream" speech. The title phrase is drawn from Isaiah 40:4-5 which King recited in his speech-- "I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted ...." King repeated the "I have a dream" phrase eight times boldly making the case that his dream for racial equality is a morally correct dream for racial equality.

King also drew from religious authority the principle that social injustice cannot be tolerated. From Amos 5:24, King states, "No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." In these and other passages, King appealed to moral authority to try to right the wrong of institutionalized bigotry and racial hatred in America.

In his Restoring America speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Beck, too, appealed to religious authority just a few steps from where King had stood in 1963. But Beck's message was far different from King's. Beck urged the crowd to "Realize that he (God) is our king. He is the one who guides and directs our life." He further stated that through correct behavior God will not be on our side but we (the Tea Party faithful) will be on God's side. Beck's not so subtle message is clear: the tea party agenda is God's agenda, oppose the tea party and you're opposing God.

The difference between the civil rights and tea party appeal to religion is apparent. King derived his moral authority from religious thought. Beck merely associates his tea party ideas with the divine to give them legitimacy. It's a practice that has been going on since Hammurabi. I'm surprised God tolerates such exploitation.

The Beck/Palin Restore America rally was a classic act of symbolic violence capturing the spirit and rhetoric of King at the very place he spoke and recontextualizing the civil rights movement in a tea party framework trying to give the latter the same legitimacy as the former.

Whether or not it works depends on the critical thinking skills of the American public.

Alan Boraas is a professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/09/03/1438786/beck-rally-is-symbolic-violence.html#ixzz0ya2zrWuL