Reply
Tue 6 May, 2003 08:23 am
As you know, President Bush recently declared the end of hostilities in Iraq from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Before the speech, instead of arriving on the ship in a helicopter like any normal president, he chose a jet aircraft as his means of arrival, making the event one of the most whorish presidential photo-ops in my lifetime. Newspaper headlines read 'Top Gun,' as the media and the country wallowed in the arrogance and machismo of a pitiful little man playing fighter jock with the real heroes.
Editorial responses have varied from drooling affection to expressions of latent homosexuality (Chris Matthews, Hardball: "And that's the president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star. A guy who is a jet pilot. Has been in the past when he was younger, obviously...") to repulsive disgust at the event to an outright paranoia brought about by Bush's subsequent speech in which he evoked, of all things, the passage in Isaiah which the prophet declared the release to the captives in Babylon (the very passage that the gospels state Jesus read in the synagogue marking the beginning of his ministry).
So here we have a picture of Bush playing a hero (which he is not) and relating his words and actions to those of God (which he is not).
What Bush is falling prey to is not the devil or Armageddon or anything like that. He is an insecure emperor, like those at the height of the Roman Empire.
At the height of Rome's power, the people and their leaders were rather obsessed with war and death. Mock battles were held in the Coliseum in which gladiators fought each other to the death and elaborately staged historical battles commemorating the great Roman victories of the past. Though gladiators were considered lower in social rank than even slaves, the most successful gladiators became cult-like heroes of the viewing public.
It is known that some of the more psychotic and insecure emperors such as Nero and Gaius Caligula, moved by jealousy caused by affection the people showed for their gladiator-heroes, even participated in the games in the arena. Emperor Commodus built an arena in his own palace, fought gladiators there, and practiced killing wild beasts. At times, he would ride into the coliseum on a chariot, and even participate in the battles. Once in the arena, he would leave his chariot, and dressed in a simple tunic (the 'uniform' of the gladiators) he would participate in a highly orchestrated version of the games in which he was always the victor. After the pre-determined conquest, Commodus would be dressed in a lion skin and handed a mace and would be paraded around the amphitheatre before the adoring crowd as the very image of the god Hercules. He was even immortalized in several stone statues that way.
Like the insecure emperor-leaders of the past, George Bush likes to play hero with the real heroes, even to the extent of dressing up like them and doing the things that they do, albeit in a highly secure and scripted way. Like Commodus parading about as the image of his God, Hercules, Bush has spoken the words of the prophet who declared the captives in Babylon (Iraq) free, the same words which Christ, Bush's God, read when he declared that 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing' (Luke 4.21 NIV).
Like many insecure emperors of the past, Bush desperately wants to be seen as the hero. He never was a war hero like his father, most of the other presidents we have had, and several of Bush's current rivals. He has already told us that Jesus is his hero. Why would he not want to be like him also?
The good news is that the facade always crumbles away. The bad news is that often it crumbles in very destructive ways.
Well, they'll play this up for all it's worth. Rove must have hundreds of different angles of the shot, foguring where and how he's going to place them. But this kind of stuff can backfire. Too much, and the ridiculous starts coming in. Also, this is an army of volunteers, not conscripts, and not all of them were cheering crowds. Actually, the picture did not generate the fawning enthusisasm I thought it would. It was kind of ho-hum, but they'll use this as much as possiblr to perpetuate the only myth they have - the warrior president.
I wonder how long it will be before somebody digs up the buried record of Bush's actual service? After seeing the Bill Bennet (the virtue king) and the gambling...and candidates always try to do some digging. What's buried with Bush is plenty.
Reminded me of Michael Dukakis on that tank.
What really stumps me is that it is no secret what kind of record Bush has from his own days in the National Guard and yet nobody calls him on it. Even Gore , to my knowledge, let Bush slide on ALL his failures of the past. It's like a myth taking shape and overwhelming the truth, with its own version of reality supplanting all else and nobody being able to do a thing about it. I have been called a liar by lots of Bush lovers for suggesting he was less than a hero in the Vietnam era.
interesting point edgar seems like McCain was the only one that ever went after the shrub. Gore never did and i don't see it happening now. its really very curious.
Politics has long been about image. Bush is hardly the only pres to use the tricks available to him.
If you want to get mad about the sly posturing get mad at the people who it works on. Politicians would not do dumb things if dumb people did not eat it up.
Yeah, I know, Crave; I constantly rail about Moron-Americans.
I just downloaded a book about them into my Palm.
From Michael Graham's
The Dumbest Generation:
Quote:We are the sons and daughters of the American revolution. We are the descendants of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and, later, of Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr. We are the promise keepers of the greatest, most ambitious experiment in individual liberty ever conceived, an experiment nurtured on blood, upheld by laws, and envied around the world.
We are the American people. And we are as dumb as a box of rocks.
Just months into the new century (yep, we even got that wrong), any serious analysis of contemporary America leads to the inescapable conclusion that, while our parents and grandparents may have been the "Greatest Generation," ours is the dumbest.
At any given moment, the great masses of Americans don't know where they are or what's going on in the world and, more important, they don't care. If you handed the average citizen a copy of the U.S. Constitution, he wouldn't be able to read it. Read it to him, and he will call the cops and have you arrested as a radical.
We are so dumb that a major television network partnered with the World Wrestling Federation to create the XFL, a new football league for folks who found the antics of Neon Deion and the NFL too "highbrow." And while 84 percent of Americans tell Gallup that they have read all or part of at least one book during the past year, if the bestseller lists are any indication, they were either written by a professional wrestler or feature the phrase "chicken soup" prominently in the title.
Never before have so many been so ignorant of so much and felt so good about it.
And yet, the effects of this ignorance on the democratic process are rarely mentioned. Politicians certainly aren't going to raise the issue, and network newscasters -- who spend more time covering the latest episode of Survivor II than public policy -- seem strangely disinterested. Americans continue to view democracy through a fuzzy, sepia-toned lens and with "Over the Rainbow" emotion.
Sure this nation is dumb, many other nations are dumber. The world is a dumb place.
I disagree.
In the European nations I have visited, a large portion of their respective populations are multilingual.
In Barcelona, men gather in the park in front of La Sagrada Familia and carry on spirited debates on the issues fo the day.
Meanwhile, Americans' attention is drawn to American Idol and Elimidate.
Save forums like this one, there is no intelligent discourse on topical events occurring in this country.
And our democracy is suffering because of it.
I recall that when I joined the Navy and went on board my ship, I had a sudden fear: Almost every person I came in contact with seemed incredibly stupid or in some important way incompetent. I felt very vulnerable - frightened even. How could our military protect us if this were all it had to offer? Of course, the antidote to this fear came with a realization that the USSR's military was probably even more disorganized and stupid than ours. Time has proved me right. The moral: Stupidity is universal. Sigmund Freud, in private, considered the whole of humanity as dumber than a sack of dead squirrels. I hope he was wrong, but somehow I can't disprove him.
Acknowledging that the universe is replete with idiots does NOT give me comfort.
I resent the dumbing-down of the world, the country, and this topic.
Am I all alone in this outrage?
Shall I just go huff a bag of acrylic paint until my brain cells are lowered to the median amount of my species?
Or could we agree that we have to actually have to go to work at bringing up the level of intelligence among those in our circle of influence?
(Almost all of whom are not online...)
PDiddie
If I were merely content to rave about my species' stupidity I would be as worthless as they come. The truth is, I do not know how to reverse an historical trend like this. I happen to believe it must play out for better or worse or until it hits a much larger force that can back it down. What is this force and where is it coming from? At least until now, everything that's been tried has been ignored or run over by tanks, hit by bombs. I do work on the personal level, and I have had some success. I also contribute money to the Carter Center, because I see Jimmy Carter and the other folks involved there changing people's lives for the better, long term. In the political arena, I have no new ideas.
Oh, the burden of life among idiots. The pain, the injustice. Haw! You guys are serious, too!
The whole world is crazy, Matilda, except for thee and me, and at times I doubt thee.
Come on - remember the McCarthy era? Some real intelligent types caught up in idiocy.
Maybe that's the breathing space.
Nope. I'm smart, and alla youse guys are stoopid.
That's what you think. Yah yah yah!
Quote:In the European nations I have visited, a large portion of their respective populations are multilingual.
Being multilingual is not an indication of relative intelligence, it is simply a factor of living in a multilingual neighborhood. The US is huge by comparison with most European countries and shares its longest border with a nation where most of the people share our primary language. For most Europeans being multilingual is useful; for most Americans it would serve no purpose. (You may think there is something wrong with that last, but I would call it a matter of reality, not of disinterest or choice.)
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace