Collective Insanity?

Sometimes I wonder if September 11 inflicted massive psychological trauma on the entire population of the United States. If this were the case, you could expect a process involving mass grieving, followed by anger... but will there finally be a time of acceptance and moving on? It seems we are still very much bogged down in the "Anger" phase.

How long can this warlike mentality endure before the people say "Enough!"? Does America really need guided bombs that fall from space and huge hypersonic drones capable of taking off from a conventional military runway and striking targets 9,000 nautical miles distant in less than two hours, able to carry a payload of up to 12,000 lbs and fly at speeds of up to 10 times the speed of sound?

Is that the world we want to create?

Is that the world we want to bequeath to our children?

IT is interesting to examine a June 26, 2003 White House transcript of a Condoleeza Rice speech:

"... This confluence of common interests and common values creates a historic opportunity to break the destructive pattern of great power rivalry that has bedeviled the world since rise of the nation state in the 17th century. This is, in fact, more than an opportunity. It is an obligation.

Instead of repeating the historic pattern in which great power rivalry exacerbates local conflicts, great power cooperation can now solve conflicts.

In recent months some have questioned whether this is possible -- or even desirable. Some argue that Europe and America are more divided by differing worldviews than we are united by common values. More troubling, some have spoken admiringly -- almost nostalgically -- of "multipolarity," as if it were a good thing, to be desired for its own sake.

The reality is that "multi-polarity" was never a unifying idea, or a vision. It was a necessary evil that sustained the absence of war but it did not promote the triumph of peace. Mulit-polarity is a theory of rivalry; of competing interests -- and at its worst -- competing values.

We have tried this before. It led to the Great War -- which cascaded into the Good War, which gave way to the Cold War. Today this theory of rivalry threatens to divert us from meeting the great tasks before us.

Why would anyone who shares the values of freedom seek to put a check on those values? Democratic institutions themselves are a check on the excesses of power. Why should we seek to divide our capacities for good, when they can be so much more effective united? Only the enemies of freedom would cheer this division."

Where does that leave every freedom-loving individual who is NOT on the US electoral role? Where is OUR freedom?

This is not peace. This is not freedom. This is not justice. This is an Orwellian state of perpetual war.

Am I being too pessimistic for you? OK, how about this positive article from Greenpeace, who are encouraging Iraqis to swap their stolen radioactive water barrels for clean, new ones? Interestingly, the new barrels cost $15 but the occupying powers are only offering $3 to buy the old ones, so many Iraqis are forced to take a long-term health risk. Maybe if the barrels were full of oil...???

Meanwhile, El Busho today scooped up another $3 million for his re-election campaign.