Arrogant Nation
By Doug Soderstrom
29 April, 2005
Countercurrents.org
The
arrogance of ignorance, a profoundly dangerous and ill-informed presumption
that ones own people are better (wiser, morally and spiritually
ascendant, and more capable) than others, seems rather well entrenched
within the American populace. It is such that seems to have created
a social-political environment that continues to encourage the American
effort to build a World Empire. All of the elements are there, in fact,
it seems that at this very moment, at the very dawn of the third millennium,
the foundation has been laid. The people have been primed, the leadership
(The Bush-Cheney Administration) is in place, and The Great American
War Machine is ready to take action.
But how did things
get to such a point? What was it that allowed our country to have become
so arrogant? Was it our taming of The West? Was it our near annihilation
of The American Indian, the original inhabitants of this country? Was
it our ability to have been so successful in an enslavement of The African
American people? Was it our capacity to have economically ravaged Central
America and The Caribbean? Was it our capacity for technological development?
How about our having bombed Viet Nam and Cambodia into near stone-age
oblivion? Then there was our war with Iraq in 1991, and the fact that
we were able to kill 350 Iraqis for every American soldier who died.
And what about our ability to have been so good at polluting the earths
atmosphere setting the stage for a rather tragic warming of the world?
Or the fact that four percent of the worlds population has been
so successfully able to have consumed 35% of the worlds wealth?
And what about the fact that we, no doubt, have the greatest military
force in the history of the world, one that could destroy the entirety
of the human race several times over? And what about our willingness
to have thumbed our noses at nearly every institutional effort to resolve
some of the worlds most grave problems (The World Court, The Kyoto
Treaty on Climate Change, The Anti-Ballistic Treaty with Russia, The
2001 UN Conference on Racism, as well as other international attempts
to resolve pending world problems). And finally, we can bask in the
glory of having been so successful in bringing peace, prosperity and
security to a democratic Iraq!
So given such
a fine history
.. what is it about The American Citizen,
on the eve of another Bush-Cheney four-year administrative reign, that
qualifies him to be a candidate for such a grand design? What is it
that seems to have paved the way toward empire? What is it about our
own people that have made them so absolutely vulnerable, so inordinately
willing to be led down the primrose path of a mad dash toward the building
of a worldwide empire?
I would like to
suggest that there are eight factors that have moved the American public
to such a point. The first of which is an inclination toward ethnocentrism.
Americans seem to be wracked with ethnocentric bias, a rather pride-filled
tendency to reject anything that is not American, an attitude that leads
our people to evaluate that which is American as better than that which
is not of American origin. For example, it is common for Americans to
believe that capitalism, the free enterprise system, is inherently better
(more God-inspired) than any other economic arrangement, especially
that of socialism which is, by many, considered to be evil and perhaps
even devil-inspired. Also rather endemic is the presumption that Christianity
is the one and only right religion, the only theological
system that will enable an adherent to enter the pearly gates
of Heaven, condemning all other religions to the category of false faiths
that necessarily lead to Hell. And, of course, given our countrys
current 9/11-oriented fear of another attack by the terrorists,
the converse of such a proposition is a resolute hatred of The Moslem
Faith as well as those of The Middle East who tend to follow its precepts.
Representatives of the conservative-fundamentalist Christian community
such as Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have pretty
well summed up these folks feelings.
A second factor
that seems to have created conditions conducive to the empire-rization
of our country is the undeniability of how we, as a nation, have apparently
normalized the fact of violence, how we have essentially created a culture
of violence as a more or less accepted way of life in America.
I suggest that hidden within the American Mind is a rather peculiar
attachment or, perhaps one could say, a kind of fondness for that of
violence
.. almost to the point that anyone who objects to the
use of violence may be considered as either weak, impractical, Un-American,
or perhaps even un-Godly. Such a willingness to conveniently disregard,
or perhaps even to deny, what used to be the quintessential fact of
the Christian faith (that we should not do unto others that which we
would not have them do unto us) seems rather commonplace in such
a religious country as that of America. As evidence for the normalization
of (and likely the desensitization towards) violence in our country
I offer the following: The fact that The United States is the only developed
country in the world that allows the use of capital punishment, and
especially that of a willingness to execute children under 18 years
of age (sometimes as young as 14 years of age), a willingness to use
physical punishment (spanking) as a fundamental aspect of parental discipline,
our countrys unwillingness to ban the use of handguns, the legalization
of corporate practices that destroy the environment, the bastardization
of the democratic nature of our union by allowing those with money to
buy off those in the federal government, a general glamorization of
violence in the media, the historical use of violence against minority
groups (i.e. Native Indian Americans, Afro-Americans, women, homosexuals
etc.), the increasing use of litigation as a form of violence, the legitimized
use of violence in the advertising industry
... the tobacco
companys efforts to advertise their products to children (in order
to replace those they have already killed) along with a willingness
to allow themselves to be used as a way of destroying political careers,
the acceptance of violence as an essential aspect of the video game
industry, an historical unwillingness for schools to deal with the problem
of bullying, the belief that war is an acceptable way to deal with international
conflict, a general feeling that protest against war (standing up for
peace) is an Un-American activity, the tendency to euphemize the killing
of innocent civilians (parents, children, and friends) by referring
to them as collateral damage, a rather confabulated attempt
to condone impersonalized violence (killing people from afar
as when people are slaughtered by missiles having been shot from hundreds
of miles away), a rather fatuous belief that might is right
(i.e. a belief that God has the almighty right to send anyone
He wants to Hell, The Protestant Ethics damning of
those who are poor, an extraordinary belief that our country along with
its military power has been blessed by God), and a tendency for the
conservative-fundamentalist Christian community to condone violence
as an essential religious value (as found in The Old Testament of The
Holy Bible). Again the list could go on but I think the point has been
made.
Third, there seems
to be a rather troubling tradition of spiritual duplicity, a feigned
sense of religious piety that has taken hold of The American People.
An appalling capacity for Americans to disregard the plight of others,
an absence of compassion (empathic concern) for those less fortunate
than ourselves, an essential unwillingness for the American people to
put themselves into the place of others who, by any objective standard,
have faired far less well than those in our own nation. Based upon conversations
in my classroom as well as with others on the street, it
appears to me that Americans are severely limited in their capacity
to place themselves into the shoes of others. For those
of you who are older think about how most Americans felt when they discovered
that nearly a quarter of a million Japanese (nearly all of them civilians)
died as a result of our country having dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki? What were their feelings in regards to our firebombing
of Tokyo in which 100,000 Japanese civilians died, or our incendiary
bombing of Dresden, Germany in which nearly 300,000 German civilians
were torched? And then more recently, how many of you have run into
friends who have anguished over the nearly one million Iraqis (at least
500,000 of whom were children) who died as a result of our twelve-year
economic embargo of Iraq, or the nearly 15,000 Iraqi civilians who have
been killed as a result of our recent invasion of Iraq? Not to belittle
the tragedy of nearly 3,000 Americans having lost their lives on 9/11,
but how is it possible that our own people (many of whom refer to themselves
as Christian) have such a deep concern for those of their own
kind while simultaneously exhibiting such a pittance of empathic
concern for the many more who have died at the hands of our own comrades?
Unfortunately, such seems to be a rather moot point for the Christian
community!
A fourth factor
that has caused so many Americans to bask in the arrogance of their
own ignorance is a relatively profound lack of knowledge in regards
to world history. It is rather alarming how very little Americans seem
to know about the history of our involvement in The Middle East. Based
upon conversations with folks in my own community, it has become glaringly
apparent that very few adults understand what it is that The United
States could have done to cause their counterparts, those living in
The Middle East, to have become so upset. I suppose that it has not
occurred to many of these folks that The United States, over the past
half century (ever since the establishment of Israel as a nation in
1947), has, along with Israel, a long track record of disregarding the
rights of The Palestinian People, forcing them to live in a perpetual
state of incarcerated poverty, that America has conspired to set up
several puppet governments in The Middle East, that America
has a history of supporting despotic Middle Eastern regimes, or that
our countrys involvement in the production of Middle East oil
has lead to the impoverishment of millions of Middle Eastern citizens.
Again the list could go on.
The fifth ingredient
has to do with PNAC (The Project for the New American Century) that
was established in 1997. Its purpose was to create a plan that would
guide The United States of America into the 21st century in a manner
that would benefit the interests and needs of our country in relation
to, or perhaps even at the expense of, those of the rest of the world.
According to PNACs basic principals found on its official website
it is stated that, we need to accept responsibility for Americas
unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly
to our security,
our prosperity, and our principals www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm
<http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm>.
To be sure it was
a neo-conservative plan as Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz.
Jeb Bush, Daniel Pearl, among others were signatories of PNAC. The document
clearly states that the United States not only has the right to militarily
dominate the world, but even more perilously suggests that our nation
has a moral responsibility to do such a thing, reasoning that what is
best for our country is quite obviously best for the remainder of the
world. To say the least, such sounds amazingly ethnocentric if not downright
evil!
A sixth factor that
seems to have prepared the way toward empire is the infamous, 9/11 (September
11, 2001) attack upon New York City and Washington D.C. At such a point
in time the American public was pretty much absorbed in a domestic struggle
as to what to do about a failing economy. But then came 9/11, and everything
changed! The precipitous economic downturn was causing a great deal
of fear and anxiety. However, after that fateful day in September, panic
began to take hold. If the stock market decline was a left hook
to the stomach, then 9/11 was, no doubt, the equivalent of having
received an absolutely crushing blow to the head as this
is the first time that the American People have been brought to
their knees since the December 7, 1941 affair in Pearl Harbor.
The result: A profound sense of insecurity that has seemingly swept
the American mind. Consequently, the American public is being pressed
to decide if they have the inner strength, essentially the moral courage,
to move on, or are they going to allow themselves to wallow in pity?
Are they going to allow themselves to become so terribly vulnerable,
so distressingly dependent, so unashamedly weak that they will demand
a leader (a strong man), someone to whom they can turn, someone they
can trust to save them from ruin?
Seventh, the 9/11
event has seemingly moved our country into a time of great national
peril, a time of immense fear, a fear of the death of much that we value;
a fear that our economy is no longer under control (especially our countrys
ability to control the lifeblood of our economy
. the flow of oil),
a fear that we, as a country, are not as safe nor as strong as we once
thought, that we are no longer in control of world events that could
well plunge our country into another world war, a fear that we may have
reached the end of an era
. an inability to maintain our
present standard of living, à la The American Dream, and the
never ending hope for a better, more stable, world. All said, as a result
of 9/11, The American Mind has a received a severe blow, one that, unless
we are able to find our bearings, able to get back on our feet,
may have left us open to be manipulated by those who would very much
like to use our insecurity as a launching pad to create a sense of safety
that an American empire would seem to provide. Many have indicated that
the need to be free is the driving force behind humanity. But I disagree.
The one thing that no doubt trumps the desire for individual freedom
is survival, the desire for just one more breath, the need to stay alive.
As occurred in Germany in the years leading up to the beginning of World
War II, the people were more than willing to shed their civil rights
in exchange for a promise that they would be well taken care of by their
savior, Adolph Hitler. A question for thought: Could something
such as this be occurring in the United States?
The concluding factor
that seems to be moving our country toward empire is an apparent need
for someone who might be able to save us from destruction. In the 1930s
that someone was Adolph Hitler. However, in the year 2004,
I believe such people to be George W. Bush and his neo-conservative
companions. But why would I say such a thing? Well, in the 1930s,
the German people were looking for (perhaps even begging for) someone
who would be able to save them from disaster? It is my opinion
that The United States, because of an insecurity-driven sense of fear,
has allowed itself to be propelled into a rather similar situation in
that of todays world. In attempting to link himself with that
of the conservative-fundamentalist-evangelical Christian community,
in wanting to convince these people that he is a true man of God, this
community has come to accept George W. Bush as their man,
the one God has pre-ordained to lead them through this time of
great trial, the times leading up to Armageddon and the eventual
return of Christ (The Rapture of The Church). Such has created conditions
conducive to the rise of a neo-conservative power structure (exemplified
by folks like George Bush, Carl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,
John Ashcroft, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others) that seems
to be using the federal government as a means to a rather precarious
end
. that of wanting to take possession of the American
Mind, to be able to control The American People, in order that they
might be used as pawns in their march toward world power.
It is the same group
of despots who very methodically laid plans for that of The Homeland
Security Act, Patriot Act I, Patriot Act II, and the once infamous Total
Information Awareness Program
all in order to protect us,
The American People, from being destroyed by our enemies. However, what
most do not realize is that the enacting of such legislation has lead
to the destruction of many of our hard earned constitutional rights
such as the governments right to: monitor religious and political
institutions without suspecting criminal activity; to secretly detain
people without charges; prosecute librarians as well as others who keep
records for having informed someone that their records had been checked
by the federal government; monitor federal prison conversations between
attorneys and their clients; deny Americans accused of crimes the right
to retain a lawyer; search and even seize citizen documents without
probable cause; jail an American citizen for an indefinite period of
time while simultaneously denying him the right to have a trial; and
to jail a citizen of this country, without the right to confront his
accuser, even though he has not been officially charged with a crime
(ReclaimDemocracy.org). At this point it seems pertinent to ask; who
is the enemy
the terrorists or the federal
government itself?
Rather than having
created a need to protect ourselves from such governmental intrusion,
it seems that our response has been one of mindless complacency, an
almost do whatever you want to do attitude. Such seems reminiscent
of the peoples response to Adolph Hitlers seductive invitation
to the German People, Give me your minds, and, in return, I will
take care of you, I will make you safe. So this is the question
that we, as a people, must be prepared to ask ourselves: Are we willing
to lay aside the fact of our hard-earned constitutional rights, the
fact of our freedom, the fact of our integrity, even more, the fact
of a moral responsibility to think and decide for ourselves
.
or would it be better to settle for the pittance of a rather hollow
Bush-Cheney promise that the government will take care of
us, that they, just like some kind of gods, will protect us from being
destroyed by our enemies
A question not to be taken
lightly!
So what does the
foregoing mean? What does it mean that we have become so ethnocentrically
arrogant, so open to the use of violence, so religiously crippled, so
pervasively ignorant of our impact upon the world, so terribly frightened
and insecure? Such I believe means that we, as a people, have allowed
ourselves to have been set up, to have become rather ripe for the picking,
to have become very ready and extremely well-prepared to be led by those
in power (The Bush-Cheney Administration) into a jack-booted, goose-stepped
march toward world empire, a determined attempt by our own country to
dominate and to eventually rule the world.
But how could such
a thing have happened? Much like the proverbial ostrich that stuck its
head into the sand in order not to contend with reality, the American
populace seems to have done much the same. Given such an arrogant ethnocentric
orientation, we have come to believe that we are somehow superior to
those of other nations. Through generations of conquest and appropriation
we have been led to believe that our own understanding of world history,
our interpretation of world events, our own rendering of our countrys
involvement in The Middle East is The Truth, the one, and only, correct
explanation of what has occurred. And just imagine
all of
this in light of a rather profound degree of ignorance regarding what
has really gone on in relation to our countrys continued interference
in Middle Eastern affairs. Given such an incredibly outrageous belief
in our superiority, mired as it is in a sea of historical ignorance,
it is no wonder that we, as a people, have become a living example of
the arrogance of ignorance.
However, such
arrogance within the context of an extremely dangerous post 9/11
world is creating a real mess, something akin to the arrogance of an
incendiary being thrown on an already raging fire. So what might such
an arrogant group of folks, with such a limited and distorted view of
the world, do if confronted by an external threat to their existence
vis-à-vis a terrorist attack? As a psychologist, it would seem
a typical response for such a people to engage in an activity that would
tend to ensure their image of strength while simultaneously allowing
them to deny, to themselves as well as others, the fact of their own
fear. Psychologists have a name for such a maneuver, a defense mechanism
referred to as reaction formation, the forming of an outer antipodal
reaction (power, virility, and strength) in order to cover up what is
bothering one from within (fear). Of course, in such a case, it is altogether
natural for the outer response (a show of strength and power) to become
rather exaggerated because of, and in order to cover up (from oneself
as well as others), the immensity of the fear having to be held within.
Much like what an insecure bully might do if one were to call his bluff.
However, what makes such a defensive maneuver so terribly dangerous
is the fact of how exaggerated the response might become. As in the
case of a bully, his fear, along with a need to protect an image
of strength, would compel him not to simply strike his enemy,
but rather to strike his enemy very, very hard! Perhaps
an explanation for Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfelds display
of Shock and Awe during our most recent invasion of Iraq?
There is another
part to the puzzle. As in the case of the bully, wouldnt it be
nice if there was a way that he could somehow blame his anger
on the one he had just beaten up. And again, there is a defense mechanism
that would allow one to do such a thing. It is called projection, the
act of attributing undesirable behavior (such as aggression) to another
as if the other was the one who had engaged in the angry behavior. Projection
enables one (without his own awareness of course) to do something to
another individual (like making him mad) in order that he might be able
to blame (that is to project) his anger on the other individual. Such
a maneuver, along with reaction formation, would rather conveniently
enable an individual to project his previously unacknowledged fear-induced
anger upon another while allowing him to conveniently reason that it
was the others fault. Thus, it would seem a rather easy thing
for The American People, out of a fear-induced sense of rage, to have
decided to crush those who they deemed to be their enemy (the evil Islamic
infidels of The Middle East) even though, but more importantly especially
because, of an attempt to deny the fact that it was them (their own
governments foreign intervention into The Middle East) that, no
doubt, caused their enemies to be so bitterly angry and pissed
off in the first place.
No wonder the rest
of the world seems to be so very mad at us. They cant seem to
understand why we have done the things we have chosen to do. They cant
seem to figure us out. To them, nothing we have done seems to make any
sense. And no wonder
because, you see, The American
People cant even figure themselves out. In fact, I believe that
The American People dont want to figure themselves out. For if
they did
if they were really able to understand why
they have chosen to do some of the things they have done, I believe
they would have little choice but to feel very, very ashamed!
Paralleling such
self-deception has been an ongoing program of deliberate disinformation
orchestrated and administered by the Bush-Cheney administration, an
intentional effort to willfully deceive The American People. Part and
parcel of such an attempt has been to distort the truth
of what is really going on, and it seems that there are essentially
two ways they have chosen to do such a thing; premeditated sins
of omission (such as no attempt to inform The American Populace
concerning our 50 year history of ignominious intervention into Middle
Eastern affairs) as well as premeditated sins of commission
(such as a determined efforts to distort the truth regarding the existence
of weapons of mass destruction, the connection between Al Qaeda and
Iraq, and the reality of what has, in fact, been going on in Iraq).
Consequently, it is no wonder that so many of The American people seem
to be in the dark as the governments planned-out program
of political disinformation has no doubt served to reinforce the American
publics desire not to know!
Of course, such
a state of mass nescience is a good thing (in fact a very good thing)
if one would like to have a blank slate on which to write!
And that is exactly what those of The Bush-Cheney Administration would
like to have; a relatively ignorant, malleable and docilely receptive
populace on which they might be able to foist their plans for empire;
a loyal group of followers who they can count on to get behind them
and thus be willing to support their every attempt to build an empire
of power. One that will allow them, the neo-conservative power structure
of our country, to take over and to eventually be able to rule the world!
Now, such a plan
to rule the world has been clearly acknowledged by PNAC (Project For
The New American Century), and it is such that has undoubtedly directed
nearly everything that The Bush-Cheney Administration has done since
9/11. Perhaps even more damaging is the so-called Bush Doctrine,
documented in his (Bushs) own National Security Strategy
of the United States of America which clearly delineates his commitment
to military preemption
.. a belief that The United States
has the right to launch a military attack upon anyone that merely threatens
our assumed right to dominate the world. As is stated in the document;
The United States has long maintained the option of preemptive
actions
. even if uncertainty remains as to the time and
place of the enemys attack. To forestall or prevent such hostile
acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act preemptively.
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf>.
Now, at this point
one might be inclined to say that it is ludicrous to say that the United
States did not have a right to attack the country of Iraq. Well, actually
not. The United States may have had the right to attack the Taliban
in Afghanistan. However, the reasoning for an attack upon Iraq was all
wrong! First of all, the Presidents declaration that the war was
waged in order to establish freedom and democracy in Iraq and throughout
The Middle East is patently false. Secondly, even though the stated
reasons for attacking Iraq have been invalidated by several government
studies, the likelihood is that the United States attacked Iraq in order
to constitute a puppet government, in order to establish
a geo-political presence in The Middle East by constructing military
bases in Iraq, and in order to have access to Iraqs reservoir
of oil. Thirdly, our country brazenly chose to ignore the fact that
our constant meddling in Middle East affairs for the past 50 years undoubtedly
played a part in provoking Middle East anger that eventually led to
the terrorists September 11, 2001 attack upon our nation.
Yes, the terrorist
attack upon our country was obviously an act of evil! That cannot be
denied. However, our previous interventions into The Middle East were
every bit as bad! Neither side, the terrorists or that of our own country,
has a right to justify an attack upon the other by saying, We
had no choice, but to attack in return, because two evils a right
does not make! There are two things that The United States does not
seem to understand. First, as of 9/11 we really had it made. In the
days following the attack we had the world in the palm of our hand!
For the first time in years, the whole world felt sorry for us
.
the rich kids on the block. Not an easy thing to pull off,
but thanks to what the terrorists did, the whole world was once again
on our side. However, after having chosen to attack Iraq, those chips
of gratitude were instantly used up in Rumsfelds rather
pitiful display of Shock and Awe. From that point on the
worlds hate for us has risen in spectacular fashion.
The second thing
that our country has never seemed to understand is the fact that violence
is not a cure for itself. Increased violence only inflames! History
proves that to be the case. The true antidote for violence is love.
As a so-called Christian nation we should know such a thing. But apparently
we do not. The teachings of Jesus in The New Testament make it clear
that we should love not only God and our neighbor, but that of our enemy
as well. But we do not, since such would seem so terribly impractical,
if not downright stupid! The world (along with George Bush, Dick Cheney,
and Donald Rumsfeld) preaches peace through strength, and strength is
generally defined as ones ability to inflict devastative damage
on the other. But, there is another kind of strength, one that most
countries seem to know little about; the strength that comes from love.
And what if love were considered to be a function of empathy, a willingness
to love our enemy, an honest desire to understand him, a morally-driven
inclination to place ourselves into the shoes of our enemy, an honest
interest in wanting to know what it would be like to be him, a sincere
desire to understand what it would be like if I were the one who was
forced to contend with the pain of my own blows? Again,
it was Christ who admonished that we should be willing to take
the beam out of our own eye before attempting to cast the speck from
our enemys eye. In other words, wouldnt it be interesting
to see what would happen if love were to prevail, if each country was
willing to fess up to its own misdeeds rather than attempting
to dissimulate blame on the other. I maintain that peace is predicated
on truth (an honest search for it), and then, and only then, can love
(a true respect for the other) become a possibility. In my opinion,
peace is possible only when one is willing to lay aside his own particular
interests, his own particular version of how things are or how they
ought to be in order to pursue that of a much greater truth,
that which is best for each regardless of what either of the two desire
(the greater truth of peace and justice in the world). However, until
such a point is reached nations will rail against one another and there
will be never be peace, at least not as long as homo sapiens inhabit
this planet!
It is one thing
for a nation to proclaim its greatness in the presence of definitive
evidence. However, when such a nation, as our own, The United States
of America, proclaims its greatness due to the fact that it has become
the richest nation in the history of the world, that it has determined
that it knows what is best for the rest of the world and that it has
the military might, and thus the assumed right, to force any and all
of our demands upon the world
. we are heading for
a heap of trouble!
If I have learned
anything it is the fact that pride always cometh before the fall.
It happened in Greece and then again in Rome. The consequences were
similar for that of the French Empire as well as that of England. Then
there was Hitlers Germany and that of the Russian Empire. Eventually,
everyone of these nations, each one an aspiring empire, wanting to rule
the world, folded like a house of cards giving way to the enormous weight
of the ignorance of its own rather arrogant pride.
Consequently, I
think that it is incumbent that we, as a people, ask ourselves if we
might not be moving in such a direction, if we might not be moving in
a direction similar to that of other nations that aspired toward that
of world empire. Considering the pronouncements in PNAC that clearly
indicate our countrys desire to become the worlds next great
empire along with that of The Presidents policy of military preemption,
a declared willingness to preemptively destroy anyone who is willing
to challenge our authority to rule the world, the answer should be clear.
I suggest that there
is only one thing that stands between what seems to be a rather mind-numbingly
subservient willingness to surrender our civil rights to those in power,
only one thing that could clear the way for an unimpeded grab for power,
an outright takeover of our country by the neo-conservative power structure,
and that is
.. a cataclysmic event such as a
major chemical and/or nuclear attack by the terrorists.
Such, I believe, would be sufficient to frighten, sufficient to create
the insecurity necessary for the masses to relinquish their right, even
worse their moral responsibility, to run the country. Such a crisis
might perhaps be enough for the people of our country to go on ahead
and give the green light to the neo-conservative power structure
to extend their efforts to establish a world empire
. and,
of course, to do such a thing all in order to protect us from our enemies!
However, there is little doubt that such a move would destabilize and
thus inflame the world to the point that war, perhaps even an all out
nuclear war, would become an inevitability!
I suggest that we,
as Americans, had better think about such matters before it is too late.
Think about what the world might perhaps be like if we abnegate our
personal as well as collective responsibility to think and choose for
ourselves by allowing those in power to do the thinking
and choosing for us. We must remember that those people in Washington
are not Gods, rather they are fallible human beings just like you and
me
people who, if we allow the arrogance of their ignorance
to take charge we may well be led into the vast abyss of a third world
war. We, as a citizenry, have a morally bound duty to demand that those
who we have given the power to rule in our stead do so in a way that
might serve the best interests of humanity, rather than the mere interests
of any disparate nation or that of a conglomerate of multinational corporations.
It is time that we, as citizens, stand up and take charge of our nation
and do so in a manner that might enable our country to become a harbinger
of peace, love, and justice; a beacon of light, an example for the rest
of the world to follow.
Doug Soderstrom
Ph.D. is a Psychologist
College Phone: (979)
532-6451
Home Phone: (979)
532-0990
Email: [email protected]