http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1820144,00.html

Time’s July 4th article barely scratches the surface of the veneer of the facade of the antique dressing blind that obscures the real Mark Twain from the mainstream consciousness of his homeland. But at least he’s in the cultural mix during this Independence weekend, and a few quotes from “The Seriously Funny Man” hint at the iconoclast Twain, the Samuel Clemens we all should have been introduced to in eighth-grade Civics class:

"A discriminating irreverence," [Twain] wrote, "is the creator and protector of human liberty."

[Twain’s humor] was attractive to anyone who valued plain speaking and the kind of deadly wit that could cut through the cant and hypocrisy surrounding any topic, no matter how sensitive: war, sex, religion, even race.

Now more than ever, Americans should understand why Clemens’ work as a social critic consumed  his later years, as he watched the nation become increasingly sheep-like on the homefront and outright imperialistic abroad. The most comprehensive research on this aspect of Twain’s legacy was undertaken by the American Studies scholar Jim Zwick, whose recently-published book, Confronting Imperialism: Essays on Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League, sheds much-needed light on the timeless relevance of the author's reflections:

The U.S. military's use of waterboarding began during the Philippine-American War. Euphemistically called the "water cure," it was said to be a form of torture the U.S. military "inherited" from the Spanish. They had used it since the Inquisition. In his 1902 essay "A Defense of General Funston," Mark Twain wrote:

Funston's example has bred many imitators, and many ghastly additions to our history: the torturing of Filipinos by the awful "water-cure," for instance, to make them confess -- what? Truth? Or lies? How can one know which it is they are telling? For under unendurable pain a man confesses anything that is required of him, true or false, and his evidence is worthless.

Mark Twain and other anti-imperialists were protesting the U.S. military's use of waterboarding and other forms of torture one hundred years before their recent use in the "war on terror."

Professor Zwick unfortunately passed away early this year, but his body of work has fostered insight and inspiration for the ages. In a correspondence with me shortly before his untimely death, Jim Zwick lamented the current climate of blind nationalism, the likes of which had prompted Twain to impart the following nugget of wisdom a century earlier:

This chief point of importance relates to citizenship. Citizenship? We have none! In place of it we teach patriotism which Samuel Johnson said a hundred and forty or a hundred and fifty years ago was the last refuge of the scoundrel -- and I believe that he was right. I remember when I was a boy I heard repeated and repeated time and time again the phrase, “My country, right or wrong, my country!” How absolutely absurd is such an idea. How absolutely absurd to teach this idea to the youth of the country....

Yet to-day in the public schools we teach our children to salute the flag, and this is our idea of instilling in them patriotism. And this so-called patriotism we mistake for citizenship; but if there is a stain on that flag it ought not to be honored, even if it is our flag. The true citizenship is to protect the flag from dishonor -- to make it the emblem of a nation that is known to all nations as true and honest and honorable. And we should forever forget that old phrase – “My country, right or wrong, my country!”

I’ll add that we should forever remember that Samuel Clemens was a “seriously funny man” because he was to the depths of his soul a heart-broken patriot whose wise counsul pierces the veil of time and the sheen of his icon status to remind us in this troubled age that we’re each of us all by our respective lonesomes to “decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t.”

 Jim Zwick. Confronting Imperialism: Essays on Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League. Infinity Publishing, Nov.  2007.

http://www.jimzwick.net/confronting_imperialism.html 

Mark Twain. Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War. Edited by Jim Zwick. Syracuse University Press, 1992.

http://www.jimzwick.net/weapons_satire.html