“What? Me worry?” Alfred E. Newman

My Amnesty group’s book this month is THE UNQUIET GHOST that discusses Russians thinking and talking about their time under Stalin. I remember one of our producers, Gloria, mentioning something about the difficulty some Russians had at facing that time squarely. She mused about the possibility USA people will have that same difficulty facing the past. I’d put that recent past at the election of Ronald Reagan. Yesterday at Borders, Eris and I were in line when she noticed a cute Jelly Belly container. I told her Ronald Reagan ate Jelly Bellys and I still couldn’t eat them. About that same time, the guy in front of us snapped his head in our direction. I did not look up at him. At least I don’t have to worry about ending up in a gulag and/or dead for saying my Jelly Belly comment. In Stalin’s Russia, even supporters and sycophants ended up on the punishment end of the stick.
I admit that I now do feel fear. When the government terrified us after 9/11/01, I was aware great harm could come to our nation. I was not afraid of that but rather that citizens would no longer speak out and hold elected officials accountable for their actions. Barack Obama has been cast on the altar of sacrifice and the Democrats are letting it happen. I don’t care if elected offices change from one party to another given the pendulum of history, but I’m feeling strong-armed. During George W. Bush’s reign, progressives vilified him and his administration. I think invading one country to capture or kill a mastermind criminal only to fail at that and invade another country a year and a half later on a road paved with lies supports my thoughts about GWB’s tenure. GWB’s administration codified and sanctioned waterboarding one man over 180 times, used dogs – German Shepherds- to terrify prisoners (often stripped to their underwear or naked), and detained people – including minors – for years without charges. These points also clarify my thoughts about that administration. But GWB’s and his posse’s media, religious, Republican Party machine powered on with the loudest, most insistent statements and actions. The GOP, the far Right – including the Christians, and some Libertarians seem to want nothing more than to trivialize and demonize our present presidency just as they have climate change, opposition to the use of military force, and development of meaningful energy sources that can be available to developing nations and villages as well as developed nations. And the Democrats? Well, they are not rallying.
I was going to say industrialized nations, but the USA is a developed nation without much industry anymore, except perhaps for weapons systems and the weapons themselves. The Right believes opposition to the USA’s status as the World’s Biggest Arms Dealer is a blow to employment should those workers have to stop making Tomahawk missiles, predator drones, and other items that when used as directed cause maiming and/or death. Maybe those factories could make solar collectors and the hardware to allow them to work – just as an example. I fail to see how the workers would suffer.
While I’m on the topic of weapons and the military, let’s talk about that budget item for the USA. While we spend twice as much on healthcare than many other developed nations with less positive outcomes, we lead the world in military spending. Our budget adds up the to sum of the next 25 nations combined. That seems a bit excessive to me. Maybe many of these men and women who want to serve our country could be trained to repair and maintain our infrastructure and produce other necessary civic projects. They wouldn’t be away from their husbands, wives and children, and they could invest their time and effort, our blood and treasure, in projects they and their families could see and use – be a part of. I’m not sure why we can’t afford this and even more important I can’t figure out why Americans would be opposed to this idea.
For the folks who are convinced that if the enlistees were used for projects in the USA because the government is invading their lives, I wonder how they cannot see that by posting these men and women around the world we are missing their skills and energy here at home. We have military personnel deployed in over 700 places in 130 or more countries. What would we think if 130 countries had significant military presences in our country? This spreading of our men and women who want to serve our country away from our land is a lost resource that is as useful to us as oil and coal. And let me be clear here. Stationing many of our volunteers stateside to work for America in America does not mean I want ANY of my cash flow going to paramilitary groups like Blackwater to continue our widespread military influence abroad.
What is happening in the USA? I’ve been considering the idea that our country’s people are engaged in chaotic (wholly confused) hysteria (abnormal effects due to autosuggestion). I’m not sure how pervasive this chaotic hysteria is but when I see or hear people like Glenn Beck, Jim Cramer, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, or any of the belittling and mean-spirited cowards who hide behind the 1st Amendment and the lack of the Fairness Doctrine, which was abolished in 1987, plant seeds of half truths and outright lies watered with fear, I wonder what their motivation is. They become rich enough to ensconce themselves in exclusive neighborhoods and buy homes in other countries. They can afford to hire Blackwater type security forces or any of its clone security firms to protect what they have. As my country is torn apart by the worst polarization I’ve seen, including during the Viet Nam War, I have to wonder if these men and women, who wrap themselves in Old Glory and claims of true patriotism even as ignite our most base fears and outrage, have no shame.
I do not believe these men and women want a forward moving, functional for ‘we the people’ country as much as they want the destruction of this administration and perhaps government as we understand our representative government to be. In A TIME FOR CHOOSING, a speech Ronald Reagan gave October 27, 1964, he said, “But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or economically as the private sector of the economy.” This was essentially an anti-Communist, pro-Vietnam War speech so perhaps the military is what Mr. Reagan had in mind for the ‘legitimate function’ of the USA government. We have certainly seen the idea of our government demonized. The move to the private sector for all things, even our military as we’ve seen with Blackwater, has occurred without much of a ripple of dissent from the majority of people. I am convinced the American people can be sold anything even if it contradicts their best interests. We are so easily swayed, and sometimes simply to the ‘winning’ side. During the second Reagan presidential campaign, one of my students came into our class chanting, “Reagan, Reagan, he’s my man!” This young woman lived in a group home. She’d been taken from her mother, was sexually ‘adventuresome’, abused some drugs, and was generally out of control. Her life story was one Mr. Reagan might have used as an example of all things that had gone wrong with the country. When I asked her why she supported Mr. Reagan, she gleefully replied, “Because he’s a winner!” I think the Right’s scream machine is effective in this same ‘winning’ way.
If President Obama does what Democrats often do well, lose the White House, and in the process set the stage for the loss of the Senate and the House, the Republicans and the far Right will come back bruised, angry, and mean spirited, ready for vengeance. For the Right, the public health insurance option, Medicare for all, is the camel’s nose under the tent that will cause government to invade our lives. For me, the camel’s nose is coated with our chaotic hysteria, and I see that camel standing upright in the middle of our shared tent. Books and articles on what makes me think this way abound. What is unclear to me is how we treat our chaotic hysteria and consider the common weal of our nation and her people. At least at this point no gulag awaits me.

Stevi Carroll 9/7/09


Tiny Bibliography
Chris Hedges – EMPIRE OF ILLUSION: THE END OF LITERACY AND THE TRIUMPH OF SPECTACLE; AMERICAN FASCISTS; WAR IS THE FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING
Chalmers Johnson - BLOWBACK: THE COSTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF AMERICAN EMPIRE;NEMESIS: THE LAST DAYS OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC; THE SORROW OF EMPIRE: MILITARISM, SECRECY, AND THE END OF THE REPUBLIC
Jane Mayer – THE DARK SIDE: THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW THE WAR ON TERROR TURNED INTO A WAR ON AMERICAN IDEALS