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Published on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
The People Speak: When Television Makes History
On December 13th, a date I’ve basically had tattooed on my arm like
the guy from Memento, The People Speak finally makes its debut on the
History Channel. This is more than just must-see-TV. It is nothing
less than the life's work of “people’s historian” Howard Zinn brought
to life by some of the most talented actors, musicians, and poets in
the country. Howard Zinn and his partner Anthony Arnove chose the most
stirring political passages in Zinn's classic A People's History of
the United States, creating a written anthology called Voices of a
People's History of the United States. Those "voices" have now been
fully resurrected by a collection of performers ranging from Matt
Damon to hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco to poet Staceyann Chin.
The People Speak also showcases John Legend reading the words of Muhammad Ali, Kerry Washington as Sojourner Truth, David Strathairn's take on the soaring oratory of Eugene Debs, and Morgan Freeman as Frederick Douglass asking, "What is the 4th of July to the American Slave?" There are also the words of women factory workers read by Marisa Tomei, rebellious farmers personified by Viggo Mortensen, and escaped slaves voiced by Benjamin Bratt.
Certainly the lunatic right will howl to the heavens after seeing "liberal Hollywood" perform the words of labor radicals, anti-racists, feminists, and socialists. In fact, aided by the craven Matt Drudge, they are already in full froth, campaigning online to get the History Channel to drop The People Speak before its air-date. If it weren’t so contemptible, their actions would be almost quaint, like a virtual book burning.
But beneath the bombast, their hostile aversion “a people’s history” speaks volumes about why we need to support this project. This is a country dedicated to historical amnesia. Our radical past holds dangers for both those in power and those threatened by progressive change. We need to rescue the great battles for social justice from becoming either co-opted or simply erased from the history books. Our children don't learn about the people who made the Civil Rights movement. Instead we get Dr. Martin Luther King on a McDonald's commemorative cup. Because of our country’s organized ignorance, endless hours are wasted in every generation reinventing the wheel and relearning lessons already taught.
One reason Barack Obama made so many of us feel “hopey” during the 2008 election season is that he seemed to understand and even take inspiration from our “people’s history”. Candidate Obama would invoke the odysseys of abolitionists, suffragettes, freedom riders, and Stonewall rioters. He linked his campaign to this history with a slogan from today's immigrant rights and union struggles: Si Se Puede, Yes We Can.
And yet this Presidency in practice has been like watching George W. Bush with a working cerebellum. Send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan? Say nothing in the face of racist rallies held outside the capitol? Tell LGBT people to shut up and wait for their civil rights? All in a year's work. The Obama administration is now counting upon the American people, to once again, quietly go with the flow all while pretending we never saw this movie before. This is why The People Speak matters. It's aimed at reclaiming our hallowed history from all who would profane it: to resurrect our past as a guide to fight for the future.
There are those who will wrongly see The People Speak as a kind of "spoonful of sugar" approach to education. Get a celebrity to recite the words of Susan B. Anthony and all of a sudden, we'll all want to be history buffs. But this isn’t Hollywood "slumming" in the land of radical chic. It is instead a bracing spectacle where our sacred history is reimagined by performance artists of tremendous craft. Consider the dramatic task at hand: they are attempting nothing less than turning politics into art. If Zinn and co-producers Arnove, Damon, Josh Brolin and Chris Moore pull this off, it holds the potential to introduce a new generation to Sojourner Truth, Eugene Debs, and perhaps most importantly of all, to the works of Howard Zinn.
As Zinn himself once said, "Knowing history is less about understanding the past than changing the future." This is the grand adventure of Howard Zinn's life. I encourage everyone to come along for the ride. Get your friends and family together on Sunday night and experience the People Speak. Then take them by the hand and pledge to be heard.
The People Speak also showcases John Legend reading the words of Muhammad Ali, Kerry Washington as Sojourner Truth, David Strathairn's take on the soaring oratory of Eugene Debs, and Morgan Freeman as Frederick Douglass asking, "What is the 4th of July to the American Slave?" There are also the words of women factory workers read by Marisa Tomei, rebellious farmers personified by Viggo Mortensen, and escaped slaves voiced by Benjamin Bratt.
Certainly the lunatic right will howl to the heavens after seeing "liberal Hollywood" perform the words of labor radicals, anti-racists, feminists, and socialists. In fact, aided by the craven Matt Drudge, they are already in full froth, campaigning online to get the History Channel to drop The People Speak before its air-date. If it weren’t so contemptible, their actions would be almost quaint, like a virtual book burning.
But beneath the bombast, their hostile aversion “a people’s history” speaks volumes about why we need to support this project. This is a country dedicated to historical amnesia. Our radical past holds dangers for both those in power and those threatened by progressive change. We need to rescue the great battles for social justice from becoming either co-opted or simply erased from the history books. Our children don't learn about the people who made the Civil Rights movement. Instead we get Dr. Martin Luther King on a McDonald's commemorative cup. Because of our country’s organized ignorance, endless hours are wasted in every generation reinventing the wheel and relearning lessons already taught.
One reason Barack Obama made so many of us feel “hopey” during the 2008 election season is that he seemed to understand and even take inspiration from our “people’s history”. Candidate Obama would invoke the odysseys of abolitionists, suffragettes, freedom riders, and Stonewall rioters. He linked his campaign to this history with a slogan from today's immigrant rights and union struggles: Si Se Puede, Yes We Can.
And yet this Presidency in practice has been like watching George W. Bush with a working cerebellum. Send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan? Say nothing in the face of racist rallies held outside the capitol? Tell LGBT people to shut up and wait for their civil rights? All in a year's work. The Obama administration is now counting upon the American people, to once again, quietly go with the flow all while pretending we never saw this movie before. This is why The People Speak matters. It's aimed at reclaiming our hallowed history from all who would profane it: to resurrect our past as a guide to fight for the future.
There are those who will wrongly see The People Speak as a kind of "spoonful of sugar" approach to education. Get a celebrity to recite the words of Susan B. Anthony and all of a sudden, we'll all want to be history buffs. But this isn’t Hollywood "slumming" in the land of radical chic. It is instead a bracing spectacle where our sacred history is reimagined by performance artists of tremendous craft. Consider the dramatic task at hand: they are attempting nothing less than turning politics into art. If Zinn and co-producers Arnove, Damon, Josh Brolin and Chris Moore pull this off, it holds the potential to introduce a new generation to Sojourner Truth, Eugene Debs, and perhaps most importantly of all, to the works of Howard Zinn.
As Zinn himself once said, "Knowing history is less about understanding the past than changing the future." This is the grand adventure of Howard Zinn's life. I encourage everyone to come along for the ride. Get your friends and family together on Sunday night and experience the People Speak. Then take them by the hand and pledge to be heard.
Comments are closed
28 Comments so far
Show Alli 'blame' the american people, not obama.
obama is just one person.
be the change you want to see in the world.
Let's apply that logic to some other situations:
If a company president lays off workers even when he gives himself a raise, do you blame the workers for being lazy?
If the police abuse protesters with preemptive arrests, do you blame the protesters for thoughtcrime?
If a mob boss/War Secretary (let's be honest about what the DoD really is) demands death against innocents, do you blame the hired guns/field operatives?
Personal and collective responsibility are fine, but as long as power is unequal in society, the powerful are always the most responsible for societal harm, if not by greed, then by negligence.
False analogies. The workers do not vote for their lay-offs. The protesters do not vote for police brutality. On the last point, yes, I do lay some of the blame on the hired guns. So I do blame the American people for the choices they make at the voting booth.
If we had a functional democracy, then yes, the people, being the ultimate leaders, would be fully responsible. Unfortunately, on how many issues today do you see public leaders addressing public demands?
Not on healthcare.
Not on the Afghanistan or Iraq War.
Not on prosecuting war criminals.
Not on standing up to economic extortion.
Did the average citizen truly know what he was voting for? He probably thought an Obama vote was one to end the Iraq war and restore America's economy. Yes, he's at fault for not doing research, not comparing actions with emotional rhetoric, and not pausing for a moment to reflect on the entire campaign season, but once he does that (like many are doing now), he becomes more resistant to the next lie (hence why this society tries with all the might of media to prevent thought). On the other hand, the professional politician, the deliberate and heartless liar, is far more at fault for exploiting the hopes and fears of the people, only to cause the pain of betrayal.
Of course, with our votes, we collectively allowed further crimes in our name. Of course, with our actions, we collectively are the only ones able to stop it. But this does not mean every terrible and criminal decision made by an elected official was also a "public mandate" and thus shows how inherently shameful or immoral the people are at large.
@ tailfeather December 9th, 2009 2:37 pm: That's not quite true:
"Not on healthcare."
In just the past week I have heard Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alan Grayson, Rep. Anthony Weiner, et al, stand up for true health care reform.
"Not on the Afghanistan or Iraq War."
I have also heard Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Kuchinich, Sen. Sanders and others in Congress criticize Obama's stand on the Afghanistan War.
"Not on prosecuting war criminals."
In the past, many of aforementioned people have advocated holding those who committed war crimes accountable.
"Not on standing up to economic extortion."
There is a bill making its way through Congress right now to strengthen regulations to prevent future bailouts of banks and Wall Street, that has been called the "biggest overhaul of laws covering banks and other financial institutions since the New Deal." As an AP story on the bill stresses: "The legislation creates a Consumer Finance Protection Agency that would oversee consumer lending — mortgages, credit cards, payday loans and terms on savings accounts. It would take consumer regulation and enforcement powers away from bank regulators." It would also bring "the unregulated $600 trillion derivatives market under government oversight," and regulate hedge funds as well. Of course, the Republicans and their lobbyists are fighting this tooth and nail but, nevertheless, this is substantial regulation of the financial and banking industries and would go far to prevent future economic extortion. (Read more here: "Questions, answers on Wall Street regulation bill," AP, Dec. 11, 2009. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9UE4Ip_QNvHp43cXXo1HQzApRngD9CH04580 )
So the problem is not that there are no public leaders addressing these issues, just that there are not enough of them.
Sioux Rose
TAILFEATHER: Well-stated!
sure why not.
There are many who feel betrayed by Obama. Lesson learned: Great, inspiring speeches full of yearned for rhetoric, at a time when the people are desperate for change, hitting all the notes, rallying the people with huge crowds, but without pin-point specifics = little actual changes, expect nothing but lies. If that's all the fault of the people, then what isn't?
@ lucky December 9th, 2009 9:48 pm: What you say is undeniably true, but the disappointment felt by many on the left over Obama is having some consequences -- there will be many Blue Dog and waffling Dems who will be challenged by real progressives in 2010 and 2012, and the political career of Joe Lieberman is thankfully finished. Anger stirs people to action, and Obama has struck a hornet's nest on the left. Like Junior Bush's horrible presidency that ruined the Republican Party, and Sarah Palin's arrogant vacuity that will put a stake in the GOP after her likely 2012 presidential nomination, we may one day thank Obama's 'centrism' for invigorating a progressive movement that has been nearly dormant since Ronald Reagan took office. History works in strange ways.
"We need to rescue the great battles for social justice from becoming either co-opted or simply erased from the history books."
Couldn't this project be another example of Hollywood and other media insiders co-opting the brilliant ideas (and charisma) of the lower classes for their own gain?
"Well" (to quote Reagan), how is this NOT Hollywood slumming (at best) and more fighting for the funds of it (at worst). Couldn't common Americans have been sought to utter these historic words of inspiration to a country of their peers. We've certainly heard enough from idols on high!
boysgramps, when I first read your post, I thought, just more negativity. Then I read it again. You make a great point. There are a lot of "common" Americans who could have done the job just as effectively, and probably a lot more convincingly. Unfortunately, in this Age Of Celebrity, had it been done using commoners, it probably would have gone nowhere. So once again, what is, is better than nothing.
"what is, is better than nothing."
Is the alternative to this movie really "nothing?" Or could one simply research and read the original quotes? Wouldn't this independent reading be better than letting the elite spin the same words into something that suits their own power-seeking agenda?
You wouldn't even need to do much research.
Just buy (or steal) a copy of Zinn's "The People's History of the United States".
Most -if not all of these quotes are taken from that book.
Hopefully this program will encourage people to do as you suggest. Maybe, then, people will begin to feel like they CAN make a difference.
Watching a program is more likely to make the viewer even more passive than he/she was before entereing the dark room and grabbing some popcorn.
I am not encouraged by "programs" that are supposed to "change" society. Americans watch more programs than anyone else on earth, and the US nation is stagnant and ideological.
Likewise, Obama is excellent at throwing out the amazing words and inspiring speeches. They only seem to buy time for the elite to make sure nothing changes at all.
@ qatzelok December 10th, 2009 9:25 am, your comment seems to be a variation on Frank Zappa's quote about the influence of rock music, "There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something, we'd all love one another."
Even if it has little influence, I'm just glad it's on TV.
When I said "what is, is better than nothing," I wasn't speaking for myself, because by the time I'd finished reading the article, my mind was working on how to find a copy of the original work, and to ask one of my kids to tape the show and send it to me because I don't have cable. I was speaking for all the dumbed-down people who won't ever think of doing a little research to find original text because they've had their curiosity deadened or outright destroyed, but just might watch the History Channel when it's on, and even if it's been altered, will believe it as is.
It is good to see the History Channel developing some spine after their retreat from the Johnson family in their last show regarding the JFK assassination, however, inspiring rhetoric from America's resistance is only part of the picture. We also need statements and context for America's villains: Henry Ford's early sponsorship of the Nazis, DuPonts fascism and anti-Semitism (despite their own Jewish ancestry) and coining of the term "free enterprise," Standard Oil's contracts with the Axis, Allen Dulles' duplicitous "intelligence" work aiding the Axis in support of his sometime clients at Sullivan & Cromwell. For much, much more see "The Nazi Hydra in America" at:
http://www.aracnet.com/~gdy52150/noon.html
And remember, this only scratches the surface.
I am not much of a T.V. watcher as it is almost either cacophonous, commercials for the corportocracy; war propaganda; yellow journalism; dumbing down and brainwashing; negative news that is about murders, suicides, rapes,ect; ad nauseum. Having said that, I watched Jesse Ventura's new show on true T.V. about the HAARP installation in Gakona,Alaska and I thought he did an excellent job. Maybe the history channel will do justice to Howard Zinns classic: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
Whatever else, what does it say about the "state of the nation" that those in a position to do something to preserve this history and inspire new generations to live up to it feel the best way to do so is to have TV/Film/Music "stars" read quotes from Zinn's book?
Even the list of readings seems skewed toward "celebraties" (i.e. social heirarchy superiors) of past Movements and away from the words of the majority of the "People".
I do see this TV show as having POTENTIAL for positive effect, however.
But this is only if community, school, workers', college campus, and other social groups do the hard footwork and organizing of expanding public interest and enjoyment of this TV show into first reading of the book, then discussion and further organizing amongst expanding groups of people to implement and propagate the concepts and structures found in this history and new ones which will evolve from its reading.
This is the important work that lays ahead for all of us.
I for one will try and get the village pub in my small community to turn off the juke and show this program with the sound on when it airs (or at least a tape of it later if it is competing with football).
Also, along with some friends of mine and the local library (who all have their own copies) I will be making my "People's History of the United States" available for lending and myself available for discussion of its subjects.
If a couple of the young, unemployed, working-class guys that I know can hear and read the words of Debs and realize that -far from being "pinko" or "commie" sh!t foisted on them by over-priviledged and over-educated sissies as a means of stifling their liberties- democratic Socialism, democratic control of the means of production, and a Social Welfare oriented State are the ideas that they have been waiting for...then I will consider the effort a success.
-matti.
At least, it seems, this isn't one of those PBS Ken Burns puff pieces.
-30-
Eh.
Maybe it'll inspire some raised-consciousness in History Channel devotees.
Too bad it's on CABLE teevee, though, not free teevee.
Although I get mail DAILY from Comcast and Verizon regarding their bloated "triple-play" bundles, and although antenna reception with digital broadcasting is problematic at best, I refuse to pay for hundreds of channels of pop culture purée.
Guess Zinn doesn't make the cut for those PBS holiday fundraising craptaculars, though.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Ironic that 'The People Speak' is on cable, thereby making it impossible for millions of us broke people who do not have cable to enjoy it...
I was wondering when this was going to appear somewhere. I've read here and there for years that it was in the works.
At last -- worthwhile teevee.
Can anyone tell me the length of The People Speak that will be showing on Sunday night? I've searched a bit and can't locate this information. My DVR TV guide is only giving me TO BE ANNOUNCED, 30 minutes at time. I may not be home, so want to set it up early.... thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
I really don't trust the history channel. There is a lot of bullshitting, ommitting and de-emphasizing in that channel. Lately it became what I call UFO/Occult/Weird Channel.
I am afraid that they will take Howard Zinn work and water it down and do their tricks of ommitting and de-emphasizing the important points of his work.
I might be wrong. We will see??