Call Ishmael, America

These days, American politics resembles a perverse retelling of Moby Dick.

by Michael Nenonen

If this seems far-fetched, then consider Ahab's rationale for his obsession: "All visible objects . . . are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him."  

Consider, also, Ishmael's analysis of Ahab's quest:  "The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung. That intangible malignity which has been from the beginning; to whose dominion even the modern Christians ascribe one-half of the worlds; which the ancient Ophites of the east reverenced in their statue devil;- Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."  

If we were to replace the phrase "white whale" with "the enemies of America," we would have a neat synopsis of the reasons why many American conservatives support the "War on Terror." American conservatives are often tormented by thoughts of the white whale, a creature who's taken many forms throughout their country's history. They've long cried out for an Ahab to captain their ship of state, to lead them into a final, conclusive battle against "the enemy," whomever that may be at the moment. Bush seems to be just the man they've been looking for. After all, does his supporters' maniacal energy not resemble the impassioned labor of the Pequod's crew, and does their voyage not appear destined for the same catastrophically futile conclusion? Meanwhile, the administration's critics are forced into Ishmael's role, pleading in vain on economic and moral grounds for a change of course before they overtake their ultimate ruin.

Ahab's moral crime is the demonisation of his enemy. Whaling, for him, is merely a way of striking a blow at Satan by striking the demon's foremost mask. Demonisation of this kind is an enduring feature of a large segment of American culture. It's most vividly displayed in the way that American Protestants have historically used the concept of the "Antichrist," a term that refers both to a specific Satanic avatar—a sort of inverted Christ figure—and to all those people whose beliefs and actions support his worldly power.  

The Puritans came to America to establish a New Jerusalem far from the reach of the Antichrist, whom they believed resided in the Vatican. Shortly after their arrival they came into conflict with First Nations people, whom they thought were marching in the Antichrist's armies. During the War of Independence, they located the Antichrist in the British monarchy. Afterwards, Deists and Freemasons assumed the demonic crown. In the Civil War, each side called the other Antichrist, while in the Twentieth Century the Antichrist would be found among communists, secular humanists, and homosexuals. The need for an Antichrist was so strong that as the threat of communism receded in the 1980s and early 1990s the myth of a vast Satanic conspiracy spread across the United States. By 2001, the label had been transferred to “terrorists” and the religion of Islam.  

This pattern of demonisation is so pervasive and so well-established that it's difficult for Americans, regardless of their religious beliefs, to escape it. The American entertainment industry, for example, thrives on demonisation. American action, horror, and sci-fi movies are notorious for their two-dimensional villains, characters who, like dimestore Moby Dicks, are often nothing more than stand-ins for the forces of cosmic evil. The same can be said of many other American genres. Demonisation also appears essential to American political discourse. What is the point of American attack-ads, after all, if not to portray political opponents as embodiments of absolute evil? Wherever one looks in America, demonisation reveals itself.   

Demonisation has been perfected by Protestant fundamentalists in a school of thought known as Premillennialism. Premillennialism informs the teachings of such Fundamentalist powerbrokers as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye. It's disseminated by Christian media empires as well as by Protestant churches, charities, schools and colleges throughout the United States. Premillennialism is at the heart of modern American social conservatism. Without the support of the Premillennialists, Bush wouldn't have captured the White House. To understand America's whaling expedition, we must appreciate Premillennialism's appeal.

According to Premillennialist doctrine, Christ will return at the beginning, not the end, of a utopian era of global peace and happiness known as the “millennium.” In contrast to Postmillennialism, which has fallen out of favour in fundamentalist circles, Premillennialists believe that the millennium cannot be brought about by human effort, and that it must be preceded by a period of horrific "tribulation" brought about by the Antichrist's rise to global power. Premillennialists see the tribulation—which will entail genocide, nuclear war, environmental cataclysm, and inconceivable Middle Eastern carnage—as both inevitable and necessary. The tribulation will only end when Christ leads the armies of heaven to victory over the Antichrist in the inconceivably bloody battle of Armageddon. Many Premillennialists temper the terror of such expectations with the belief that the faithful will escape the tribulation by being teleported into heaven, an event they refer to as the "Rapture".

Premillennialists therefore see nuclear proliferation, incessant warfare between America and its "enemies," increasing hostility between Israel and its Muslim neighbors, and mounting environmental catastrophes as welcome signs of Christ's imminent return. Any attempt to avert the tribulation is denounced as a ploy by the Antichrist to postpone Christ's return.

Even the welfare state is suspect, as evidenced by an early Twentieth Century essay by Eli Reese entitled “How Far Can a Premillennialist Pastor Cooperate With Social Service Programs”: “Sociology, or social service as generally emphasized is, in its final outcome, a black winged angel of the pit. . . . Satan would have a reformed world, a beautiful world, a moral world, a world of great achievements. . . . He would have a universal brotherhood of man, he would eliminate by scientific method every human ill, and expel by human effort every unkindness; he would make all men good by law, education and social uplift; he would have a world without war. . . . But a premillennialist cannot cooperate with the plans of modern social service for these contemplate many years with gradual improvement through education as its main avenue for cooperation rather than the second coming of Christ.”

Given this abject ideological cruelty, Premillennialist demonisation must be seen as a profound expression of hatred. The question needs to be asked: what could motivate hatred of this intensity?  

We hate in others what we loathe in ourselves. Typically, that loathing is motivated by the repression of emotional needs. Human beings have many such needs. Our sexual, intellectual, and social maturation depends upon our ability to satisfy them. Unfortunately, many of our needs often go unmet, usually because we lack the personal or social resources to satisfy them. We experience profound anxiety when this goes on for great lengths of time, or when our needs go unmet during critical developmental periods. This anxiety can make our needs seem like threats to our peace of mind, leading us to repress them—that is, to drive them from our conscious awareness.

This has very dangerous consequences. The more we repress our needs, the more our emotional development is stifled, the more frustrated and angry we feel, and the more juvenile, sado-masochistic, and anxiety-provoking our desires become. This, in turn, compels us to repress our needs all the more.

Unacknowledged needs don't disappear. Instead, they re-assert themselves by focusing our attention upon people and practices that remind us of them. Denying our needs requires us to attack these reminders. Unacknowledged emotional pain doesn't disappear, either; instead, it re-asserts itself at the edge of our awareness, shaping our perceptions. The filth we recoil from in the world around us is often the gore spilling from the wounds we've inflicted upon ourselves. The more mutilated we become, the more loathsomely mangled the world seems to be, and the more we desire its destruction. Psychological repression thereby fuels political violence and oppression.

Protestant fundamentalism is notorious for its authoritarianism and its psychological repressiveness. When fundamentalists label their turbulent emotional and intellectual needs as "Satanic," they can't help but see the hand of the "Antichrist" in every reminder of those needs. They're driven by their internal war on desire, doubt, and disobedience to wage external campaigns of hatred against people who cherish sexual diversity, reject Protestant dogma, or question America's moral authority. Their hatred only intensifies as unemployment, poverty, addiction, family breakdown, and despair worsen throughout the American heartland. The more they suffer, the more they repress, and the more they love their Ahab.

For all the captain's passion, for all the efforts of his faithful crew, Moby Dick still shattered the Pequod. What's more, this nautical apocalypse heralded the dawn of no millennium, holy or otherwise. The tribulation was, in the end, pointless, and should have been avoided. Ishmael was right.

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