Meditations : Rushing Toward the Rubble of History

Here in the United States, a strange phenomenon is taking place. On one hand, the blatant falsehoods and philosophical idiocy of the Bush Administration are beginning to unravel. On the other hand, support amongst the American people for the Bushites is growing stronger.

This phenomenon confirms the general loss of soul in the American people. When darkness rules a country, the erosion of character and fear in the people that made its ascendancy possible, are the very things that make it almost impossible for people to rid themselves of tyranny.

The exploitive power of America has heretofore been directed much more outside rather than inside these borders. But whereas Kissinger-era domination was epitomized by the dictum ‘ignorance is bliss,’ willful ignorance characterizes our present zeitgeist. Chomsky’s faith that Americans would throw the bums out if they only knew has been broken. They know.

It is a cosmic irony that George Bush, who says he follows the teaching and example of Jesus, wages war without a pang of conscience, as fully convinced that he is God’s messenger as is Osama bin Laden. “The terrorists are people who kill without conscience,” he intones ad nauseam, without a trace of irony, after killing thousands of Iraqi civilians rid the world of one evil only to replace it with greater evil.

The most evil men in history are those who have had no doubt about the rightness and righteousness of their actions. For them, doubt is weakness, and unyielding will is strength. “They will not break our will,” Bush says over and over, “we are resolute.” Hitler too spoke continuously of his iron will, and of the unbreakable will of the German people.

Mr. President, as Nelson Mandela said, you do not know how to think properly. You continuously bamboozle the American people with this wrongheaded notion that “the terrorists declared war on the United States of America.” But even if a stateless network could declare war, which it cannot, that did not give you the right to declare war on Iraq.

When Bob Woodward asked you how history would judge your actions, you gave that disgustingly insouciant shrug and said, “We’ll all be dead.” That is a very strange reaction for one who believes in God and hell, don’t you think?

Can the American people do the world a favor and get rid of our own “evil one’s,” while effectively dealing with the stateless “evil one’s” (and at the same time get out of Iraq)? It doesn’t look promising. After a few weeks of American-induced carnage in Iraq, and revelations about the disgusting dealings of the Bushites, Bush’s approval ratings have actually gone up!

The problem is that the vast majority of adults in America are either inwardly dead, or completely numb. The numb can wake up, but not even Jesus could bring the inwardly dead back to life. (“Let the dead bury their dead.”)

Certainly John Kerry would be a much better president, but he has played the ‘nuanced’ game of politics for so long he conforms to any convenient shape. As far as another center of genuine leadership emerging in the world, Europe is torn between Blair’s big bark and little bite in service of his master, and the rest of the EU’s disgust and desperate hope the nightmare will simply vanish. Meanwhile, China continues to act like it lives on its own planet, disconnected from the rest of the world, except economically.

No people are more enslaved than those who believe without question that they are free. But even though they have millions of walking dead marching behind them, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld are teetering on the edge of a precipice of their own making.

Despite the best-laid plans by the powers and principalities, perhaps all it will take now is a strong gust of truth from a small percentage of good men and women to push the Bushites onto the rubble of history.

- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.

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