Howard Zinn

 

 

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Friday

April 29, 2011

 

Howard Zinn:

Why

Did He Write

“A People’s History”?

 

There is a mutually exclusive relation between freedom and privilege. As one of these comes into the world, the other goes out of it.

Howard Zinn might have written A People’s History of the United States in order to pursue justice, or altruism, or just a corrected version of history. But there is evidence of omissions and distortions in the book (see the article on Zinn on the site Discover the Networks) that lead us to question his motives.

So, another possible motive for Zinn (and for Chomsky) is the obtaining of privilege for himself and for his social class, the intellectual elite. That is, Zinn liked to say, “See what happens when the market is free?” He meant to say that the sins of America took place in a decentralized America, in a free-market America. But, the thinking goes, if only we will agree to socialism, to a planned economy and to a planned society, the ancient ills would be surpassed, and a juster society by far would be realized.

But it should be pointed out that the basis of individual freedom is economic freedom, economic opportunity. If economic freedom is undermined, so is the basis of personal liberty. But that precisely is what a planned economy does: It undermines economic freedom by eliminating entrepreneurship. So, freedom is exiting the world in this system of an economy planned against competition.

As freedom exits the world, though, privilege enters. This is the only opportunity that really exists in a planned society. So a possible motive for arguing that America is sinful is to argue indirectly for a planned economy, and thereby position oneself to obtain the privileges in that new society that will open up.

 

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