Johnny Appleseed's America

[ecosophia]

Back in June of this year, not long after I posted my discussion of John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed in the series of posts on America's magical history over on the main blog, I made a post here which consisted of an edited version of Vachel Lindsay's fine poem "In Praise of Johnny Appleseed" and an invitation to my readers to chant it aloud at least once. I noted in the post that this was an attempt to waken an older, stronger magic in a time of blind flailings and mindless rage, and indeed it was -- but I asked those who had questions to wait until after the election, when I would discuss the matter in detail. 

And of course here we are. 

Given all the yammering about identity in today's America, you'd think there would be some discussion of what an American identity is or might be. What we have instead are two tired and wilted bundles of clichés, one from each side of the political spectrum, which most people have long since stopped taking seriously. On the one hand you've got the geriatric Americanism of the early 20th century, replete with founding fathers and historical events that most people barely remember any more. On the other side you've got the almost equally geriatric anti-Americanism of the mid-20th century, which gets more time in the media just now but which even fewer people buy into. (That's why the corporate media tried to make such a fetish of the 1619 Project earlier this year; it was a last-ditch attempt to prop up a failing narrative, and will have no more effect than Brezhnev's attempts to revitalize Communism did in the Soviet Union's diminuendo days.)

The problem with both those superannuated narratives is that both are designed primarily to support different versions of the political and social status quo. The old Americanism was meant to prop up the American status quo circa 1900, the world of political machines, chambers of commerce, and government of, by, and for the well-to-do, by selecting out those details of American history that could be twisted to that purpose and ignoring the rest. The old anti-Americanism was meant to prop up the American status quo circa 2000, the world of managerial elites, corporate media, and publicity flacks in lab coats claiming to speak for science, by doing exactly the same thing. Neither one offers the basis for a workable national identity, because both fetishize solely those aspects of the national experience that support the political agenda of their proponents -- the former, by insisting that everything will be fine if we just let the kleptocratic rich go on making money; the latter, by insisting that everything will be fine if we just let the managerial class go on tell everyone else what's wrong and how to fix it. 

I think most Americans realize by now that if we let either group do what it wants to do, no, everything will not be fine. As Einstein famously commented, you can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it -- and of course that's what both sides in the current culture wars insist on doing. 

There are various ways to jolt a country in that kind of dysfunctional binary out of its stalemate. Most of them involve a lot of shed blood, and I'd prefer to avoid that if we can. Since the toolkit I know best is that of traditional Western occultism, I decided to see if it was possible to move some energy in the direction of a vision of American identity that wasn't rooted in the cravings of one or another privileged class for even more power than they've got already. I wanted an image that celebrated the concept of liberty, not as a political commodity doled out by politicians or bureaucrats, but as something that people enacted themselves; I wanted an image that celebrated individual liberty -- not the privileges of this or that biologically or culturally defined group, but a space of possibility in which individuals can do as they wish, no matter how eccentric that might be, so long as it doesn't harm anyone else or force anyone else to pay their bills. 

John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed -- Swedenborgian mystic, frontier rambler, American Dionysos, force of nature -- is very well suited as a seed image around which such a vision can begin to coalesce. That's why I selected him, and why I chose Vachel Lindsay's extraordinary poem, which catches the magic of such a vision with a great deal of clarity and force, as an instrument to test the waters of our collective consciousness and see if they were propitious to such a project. I'd like to thank everyone who helped with that test, because I now have the answer, and that answer is "yes."

What I'm suggesting is that it's possible at this point to envision, then to enact, and finally to create, what I'd like to call Johnny Appleseed's America.  That America isn't defined by any of the one-sided ideologies currently being pushed at us by the various political factions. It isn't defined by politics at all. What defines it is possibility. It's the kind of place where someone can decide to ignore all the well-meant (or otherwise) advice of the promoters oft the status quo, follow a luminous personal vision instead, and become Johnny Appleseed -- or, for that matter, any of the other extraordinary figures who have done their own versions of the same thing in this country, from Mother Ann Lee to Sun Ra and beyond. (Yes, this is one of the reasons I'm doing the current series of posts on the magical history of America, because occultism is one of the contexts in which Johnny Appleseed's America has taken shape most often in our history so far.)

I'm still exploring how best to follow through with this. What I'd like to suggest to begin with, though, for those of my readers who want to take a hand in this process, is the following. 

First, two days each year are celebrated as Johnny Appleseed Day -- September 26, which was his birthday, and March 11, which is in apple planting season. Mark both days on next year's calendar, and do something to celebrate them. In March, plant an apple tree if you can. In September, make cider or bake apple pies with friends. Recite the poem if you feel moved to do so. If you have kids, make sure to do something with them to celebrate both days. Once the current restrictions have been lifted, I may see if I can arrange with readers to do something suitable for each day in or around Rhode Island, and invite all and sundry to take part. 

Second, there are plenty of other glorious American visionaries and eccentrics who have followed their own star, turned their back on the conventional wisdom, and done strange and splendid things. Choose one, or more.  Learn about them. Make room in your schedule to read a biography or two. Bring into your life something that they created, or that echoes their work in some way. Let that replace at least a little of the conformist babble of the corporate media in your life. 

Third, begin to reflect on what you would do if you were to make the same choice Johnny Appleseed did, and put your own vision at the center of your life irrespective of what other people thought. You don't have to follow through on it if you decide that's not a good idea -- if age or health or other commitments or some other factor forbids it, or you just decide that you're not up for it. Envision it, though, as vividly as you can. What would you do if you decided to follow your dreams? 

We'll talk more about this later on. In the meantime, enjoy an apple, and consider the possibilities...