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by
John Chuckman
September
27, 2003
No,
I did not read the book, but what words more perfectly describe George Bush
making one of the oddest speeches ever made at the UN? There he was - with his
designer suit, costly watch, and constantly-manicured haircut - stone-faced and
unrepentant for the violent destruction he caused, for his obvious lying, and
for his rage against the thoughtful objections of others. Actually, unrepentant
seems an inadequate description, unaware or uninterested being
closer to the mark.
The
matter and manner of Bush's speaking are always an ordeal for thinking people.
He seems convinced that every audience deserves the same approach given the
pathologically credulous at a revival tent meeting.
But
he outdid himself this time. His description of anti-social behavior on a
global scale as support for the world community must have provided a
sophisticated audience interesting dinner topics. One can imagine the bons
mots around the subject of the world's most incorrigible, obvious liar
claiming he defends UN credibility. As with Dostoevsky's Father Karamazov, it
was as though all his recent vicious and disturbing behavior had simply never
happened.
Of
course, he sees the UN as good for a big handout towards the financial and
human cost of rebuilding the waste he made of Iraq. This may seem odd for one
of those "we ain't a gonna pay no damn UN dues" types, but, remember,
psychopaths are complete narcissists.
But
a handout is not Bush's critical need. Facing an election, he is looking for
ways to deflect growing criticism and doubt from American voters. Americans
have been remarkably quiescent over the dirty wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
because they cost so few American lives and provided a reassuring sense of the
nation's vast capacity for revenge, even if they killed mostly innocent people
and few or any of those associated with 9/11.
But
night after night of car bombs and dead American soldiers on television have a
way of changing perceptions. America's press, "embedded" with the
Pentagon long before the term was invented for the Iraq war, often poorly
reports around foreign policy, but it simply cannot resist blood-and-ambulances
stuff with real American victims. With this continuing week after week, it is
likely more Americans will see the Iraq war for what it was - nothing to do
with justice or democracy or rights or even terror - but one more
kill-a-commie-for-Christ campaign, only on a vast scale with high-technology
killing and no commies. And, as with all previous such holy wars, it just
happens to serve the interests of America's utterly selfish foreign policy.
The
UN is widely misunderstood in America, a circumstance people of Bush's leaning
have always diligently cultivated, and its involvement on any appreciable scale
gives Bush something external and vaguely-disliked to manipulate in explaining
all the violence and confusion yet to come as a people revolt against conquest,
occupation, and misery.
International
involvement gives room for maneuver, wiggle room, and can be twisted with words
to serve many purposes, including the claim that it vindicates Bush's wisdom,
all those do-nothing, effete foreigners finally coming to recognize the threat
of terror - and, yes, he once again with unblinking dishonesty linked terror
with Iraq during his UN performance, terror being, with the bitterest irony,
Bush's best ally in garnering votes. Iraqis fighting back with limited means
against the world's military and technological Frankenstein naturally has to be
called something else, so it is called terror, just as violent resistance to
endless occupation and abuse in Gaza and the West Bank is.
Psychopathy
likely is one of those many glitches in the gene pool, an evolutionary
trial-and-error that served a useful purpose before modern urban society,
psychopathic warriors being valued for their ability at defending early human
settlements and terrifying potential enemies. Probably most of our legends of
monsters such as vampires or ghouls derive from human experience with
all-too-real psychopathic personalities.
Psychopaths
are valued to this day as torturers for secret police, assassins, and
dirty-tricks operatives for intelligence services. Police and prison-guard
services who are careful about their hiring screen out such people with tests
(there are extremely reliable ones), since psychopaths are naturally drawn to
work where others will be at their mercy.
As
with many mental disorders, from depression to schizophrenia, there appears to
be degrees of psychopathy. The father of the late Jeffrey Dahmer, a man who
killed, consumed and memorialized portions of his victims in his Milwaukee
apartment, wrote a courageous book after the discovery of his son's horrific
deeds. He recognized in retrospect signs from his son's childhood that
something unusual was developing. He also, very importantly, recognized that
there were uncomfortable thoughts he had had as a young man which now might be
understood as a milder inclination in the same direction.
Politics
with the power of elected office and the glow of press attention surely is a
draw for at least the more moderately afflicted. There is reason to believe
that psychopathy helps explain the careers of some horrible and bizarre
politicians. The example that leaps to mind is the late Senator McCarthy. Yes,
he was a nasty drunk, but lots of drunks function in politics without becoming
destroyers of others' lives. The great Winston Churchill, for example, couldn't
get through a day without his brandy.
How
do you get rid of a political psychopath like Bush? Well, I hope the Democratic
party doesn't see its only option as simply running another one. The Democratic
contenders include at least a couple characters who might well qualify as
having the disorder.
The
armed forces have always been natural repositories for these dark creatures,
the work of killing and the skill of being able to do it with relish making
good fits. We have a general who suddenly discovered at nearly sixty years of
age that he is a Democrat. What that means in the context of the general's
military experience, which includes probable war crimes and extremely hazardous
judgments in Serbia, is not clear.
We
have a Senator who always smilingly supports death, whether as part of American
foreign policy, Israeli foreign policy, or in prisons.
Maybe
that's just how it has to be in a vast bloated empire that pretends it
represents principle. After all, you need to keep all those disagreeable
foreigners in line. Statesmen and humanitarian leaders aren't very good
material for the job.
John Chuckman lives in Canada and is
former chief economist for a large Canadian oil company. He writes frequently
for Yellow Times.org and other publications.
* The
First Two Years of Insanity
* The
Perfumed Prince and Other Political Tales
* A
George Will Follies Review
* The
Painful Horrors of Political Autism
* Enron-Style
Management in a Dangerously Complex World
* The Real
Clash of Civilizations: Liberals Versus the Crypto-Nazis
* Banality,
Bombast, and Blood
* Through A
Glass Darkly: An Interpretation of Bush's Character
* Of
Blair, Hussein, and Genocide