The Fanboys of Empire
03/23/07 12:07 PM
In
1972-73 I was in high school and watched Vietnam
implode in a cloud of officially sanctioned lies,
mind-boggling incompetence and abject contempt for
the lives of American servicemen and the Vietnamese
on whose lands they did their commanders' bidding.
Tens of thousands of Americans died in that war.
It was my second year of high school when Nixon resigned. That ended two years of watching politics exposed as a criminals' game, one in which lies and the lust for the preservation of personal power were the ne plus ultra. The People, The Rule of Law? Bah. Hollywood stuff. That individuals like Nixon and his ilk could convince themselves that their utter venality was for the good of the union only proved that, for those in power, God and Country had been reduced to flimsy screens behind which they could sate their perverse lusts with the abandon of chimpanzees flinging feces in a cage.
From 1976-80 I was in college. Paid little attention to the world outside the campus, and I'm glad of it. Governmental ineffectuality in the face of an increasingly complex world seem the order of those days. Americans didn't like that much. We're used to being in control. We believe we deserve to be.
Reagan took care of that. Another "God and Country" man, he cavorted with right wing drug runners and death squads in order to overthrow Nicaragua's democratically elected leader, and lied about it. His administration oversaw sales of arms to Iran in violation of the law, and lied about it. The purpose of the sales was to gain the release of hostages. He lied about that, too. A scandal ensued. Indictments, convictions, reversals and pardons followed. By the end of his term, Reagan was, once more, beloved. It was more important that he showed us a vision of ourselves we wanted to see--one of the hardy frontiersman, pure of soul and big of heart--than the fact that he and his administration had been exposed as full of criminals, liars, and accessories to drug smuggling and murder.
His successor, George H.W. Bush, pardoned Reagan's former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, whose indictment accused him of withholding notes that contradicted Bush's assertion that he had only tangential knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair. The first Bush also pardoned 5 others in the matter. He said, "the common denominator of their motivation--whether their actions were right or wrong--was patriotism." God and Country. You would think that those who committed crimes in the peoples' name would be seconded to a special place in hell. But no. Lie, cheat, steal or kill, but as long as you wrap your motives in the flag, as long as you claim that your crime is committed in the name of The People, you deserve our thanks, not a prison cell. Thus, any crime is justifiable, and the national interest just becomes a matter of getting away with it.
Vilified for his White Trash unwillingness to fit himself to the mold of the Washington Establishment, Bill Clinton was hounded in the press and in the halls of Congress. Accused and investigated for everything under the sun--investigations that produced absolutely nothing--his outsized personal appetites finally provided the fodder, and it was his crime of getting a blowjob in the Oval office from a consenting adult that led to impeachment proceedings. Assassinations and drug running in the name of the American people got you official reverence or a pardon. A pathetic lie about a blowjob got impeachment. Clinton was said to have "disgraced us" by that blowjob and that lie about it. The murders?... Hey, That's Empire.
And now Bush II. A pointless war. Official lies to sanction it. Thousands of Americans needlessly dead. Tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis needlessly dead. Hundreds of thousands of widows, orphans, the mutilated and maimed.
It's Their Dream, Not Ours
Americans do not want an empire. But our leaders do. We watch again and again as they reach in to the world's thicket to have their way, and slice their fingers to the bone, and then reach back in and slice their forearms and reach back in, yet again, because they cannot relinquish the dream. But when they get cut, it's us who bleed. It's not an American's dream; it's not the people's dream. It's the dream of American leaders. It is their dream of Power. Their gross, perverse desire to hold personal sway over the world.
This country alone exhausts Americans. By itself, it's proving too big for effective governance, its purpose too diffuse to provide a common bond among its people, thus reducing it to less of a nation and more of a mere place. That's why we only seem able to define ourselves in opposition--opposition to the Soviets; opposition to the "Terrorists." There's not enough to hold us together, so we import the glue in the form of enemies and inflate our importance in the world as the last line of defense against it. And as keepers of that last line of defense, our leaders take license to steal our liberties and our lives.
The government I have witnessed in my lifetime has not been capable of the basics -- providing healthcare for all, planning for adequate energy for the future, maximizing participation in the democratic process and seeing that it is not corrupted by powerful influences that pervert the will of the people.
It cannot do the basics at home, yet our leaders have the gall to try to mold the world in their image. Americans are rightfully cynical about our government. We consider it corrupt, because it its. We consider it beholden to the powerful and the monied, because it is. Instead of ruling the world, perhaps our leaders might focus on governing America. But they don't. Perhaps it's because governance is not rule. Governance is dull and plodding and long-term. It's about thinking and planning and executing. And rule... it's like a videogame, full of blood and valor, adrenaline and action. Throughout my time, we have not been governed. We have been increasingly ruled by the Fanboys of Empire.
It was my second year of high school when Nixon resigned. That ended two years of watching politics exposed as a criminals' game, one in which lies and the lust for the preservation of personal power were the ne plus ultra. The People, The Rule of Law? Bah. Hollywood stuff. That individuals like Nixon and his ilk could convince themselves that their utter venality was for the good of the union only proved that, for those in power, God and Country had been reduced to flimsy screens behind which they could sate their perverse lusts with the abandon of chimpanzees flinging feces in a cage.
From 1976-80 I was in college. Paid little attention to the world outside the campus, and I'm glad of it. Governmental ineffectuality in the face of an increasingly complex world seem the order of those days. Americans didn't like that much. We're used to being in control. We believe we deserve to be.
Reagan took care of that. Another "God and Country" man, he cavorted with right wing drug runners and death squads in order to overthrow Nicaragua's democratically elected leader, and lied about it. His administration oversaw sales of arms to Iran in violation of the law, and lied about it. The purpose of the sales was to gain the release of hostages. He lied about that, too. A scandal ensued. Indictments, convictions, reversals and pardons followed. By the end of his term, Reagan was, once more, beloved. It was more important that he showed us a vision of ourselves we wanted to see--one of the hardy frontiersman, pure of soul and big of heart--than the fact that he and his administration had been exposed as full of criminals, liars, and accessories to drug smuggling and murder.
His successor, George H.W. Bush, pardoned Reagan's former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, whose indictment accused him of withholding notes that contradicted Bush's assertion that he had only tangential knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair. The first Bush also pardoned 5 others in the matter. He said, "the common denominator of their motivation--whether their actions were right or wrong--was patriotism." God and Country. You would think that those who committed crimes in the peoples' name would be seconded to a special place in hell. But no. Lie, cheat, steal or kill, but as long as you wrap your motives in the flag, as long as you claim that your crime is committed in the name of The People, you deserve our thanks, not a prison cell. Thus, any crime is justifiable, and the national interest just becomes a matter of getting away with it.
Vilified for his White Trash unwillingness to fit himself to the mold of the Washington Establishment, Bill Clinton was hounded in the press and in the halls of Congress. Accused and investigated for everything under the sun--investigations that produced absolutely nothing--his outsized personal appetites finally provided the fodder, and it was his crime of getting a blowjob in the Oval office from a consenting adult that led to impeachment proceedings. Assassinations and drug running in the name of the American people got you official reverence or a pardon. A pathetic lie about a blowjob got impeachment. Clinton was said to have "disgraced us" by that blowjob and that lie about it. The murders?... Hey, That's Empire.
And now Bush II. A pointless war. Official lies to sanction it. Thousands of Americans needlessly dead. Tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis needlessly dead. Hundreds of thousands of widows, orphans, the mutilated and maimed.
It's Their Dream, Not Ours
Americans do not want an empire. But our leaders do. We watch again and again as they reach in to the world's thicket to have their way, and slice their fingers to the bone, and then reach back in and slice their forearms and reach back in, yet again, because they cannot relinquish the dream. But when they get cut, it's us who bleed. It's not an American's dream; it's not the people's dream. It's the dream of American leaders. It is their dream of Power. Their gross, perverse desire to hold personal sway over the world.
This country alone exhausts Americans. By itself, it's proving too big for effective governance, its purpose too diffuse to provide a common bond among its people, thus reducing it to less of a nation and more of a mere place. That's why we only seem able to define ourselves in opposition--opposition to the Soviets; opposition to the "Terrorists." There's not enough to hold us together, so we import the glue in the form of enemies and inflate our importance in the world as the last line of defense against it. And as keepers of that last line of defense, our leaders take license to steal our liberties and our lives.
The government I have witnessed in my lifetime has not been capable of the basics -- providing healthcare for all, planning for adequate energy for the future, maximizing participation in the democratic process and seeing that it is not corrupted by powerful influences that pervert the will of the people.
It cannot do the basics at home, yet our leaders have the gall to try to mold the world in their image. Americans are rightfully cynical about our government. We consider it corrupt, because it its. We consider it beholden to the powerful and the monied, because it is. Instead of ruling the world, perhaps our leaders might focus on governing America. But they don't. Perhaps it's because governance is not rule. Governance is dull and plodding and long-term. It's about thinking and planning and executing. And rule... it's like a videogame, full of blood and valor, adrenaline and action. Throughout my time, we have not been governed. We have been increasingly ruled by the Fanboys of Empire.