They Thought They Were Gods
A BuzzFlash Editorial
In mythology, the Greek Gods dealt harshly with those who thought that they had the power of Gods. That’s what we learned in high school, isn’t it?
We were reminded of that when we re-read the infamous quotation of an unnamed – as always – "senior Bush aide" who boasted to author Ron Suskind:
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
Suskind calls this a revelatory moment about the Bush Administration – and indeed it was.
The quotation encompasses a hubris that is pre-Age of Enlightenment. More than that, it is an assumption of God-like powers by Cheney, Bush, Rove, (Rumsfeld while he was Secretary of Defense) and their underlings.
It is not that Bush believes that he is listening to the directives of God, as he has claimed. It is rather that he – and especially Cheney – believe that they have God-like powers.
No reality intrudes into the decision of a deity, because a deity creates reality, as revealed by the quotation that Suskind recalls.
Outing a CIA agent and threatening America’s national security, an endless series of failures in Iraq, hundreds of thousands killed, illegal wiretapping, shredding the Constitution, torturing people – and so many more actions (known and unknown) have defied the founding laws of America and basic standards of civilization. So many failures have been revealed in the broad daylight of reality, so many lies, so many broken promises, so much "collateral damage," so much failure based on empirical evidence.
None of this matters to the "Masters of the Universe," who in their own minds don’t follow the will of a specific God (the father of Christ, in their case), but who believe that they have a seat at the table of the Gods, that they walk among them.
Such is the horrifying dilemma that we face in the United States, that we are ruled by those, who have assumed that they have the power of Gods.
Reality is of no concern to them. They, like the Gods, claim to create reality.
In the Old Testament, the world was created out of chaos. And so the quotation above, cited by Suskind (in a 2004 New York Times article), refers back to the ability of God to create reality from unformed matter, only in this case the Bush/Cheney/Rove trio – and their support staff of Neo-Cons – believe that they are a God-force on earth.
In ancient mythology, those who tried to usurp the power of the Gods were smote, destroyed for their hubris.
Today, in this glorious nation, our recourse for dealing with those who believe themselves deities above the rule of law, and scornful of the Age of Enlightenment that produced our Constitution, is called impeachment.
Suskind began his 2004 article, written prior to that year’s presidential election, with this quotation from a Reagan Republican critical of Bush:
Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that "if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3." The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion.
"Just in the past few months," Bartlett said, "I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do." Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and self-described libertarian Republican, who has lately been a champion for traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to say: "This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded; they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . .
"This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts," Bartlett went on to say. "He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence." Bartlett paused, then said, "But you can't run the world on faith."
Yes, it is possible that Bush is just the Christian fundamentalist mirror side of Osama bin Laden. No action is to be regretted because all actions are divinely sanctioned, for both of them.
But more likely, in the last few months, as the evidence of illegal behavior and justification for endless war has unfolded, it has become clearer that Bush and Cheney are not under the perception that they are carrying out a divine decree. Although Cheney never even used the pretense of acting on behalf of another God, he has always simply acted as if he were a God. Instead, they are divine directors themselves at the moment of recreating the world.
At the same time, Bush has been virtually disinterested in actually pursuing bin Laden, who is the person that got Bush on his war obsession in the first place.
America is a nation that was created to welcome people of all faiths, but not people who assume the power of Gods. America is the product of the post-Enlightenment age, an evolutionary advancement from the religious status quo of the Middle Ages, in which faith defined the social and political order.
We are free to worship – or not worship – whatever God we please.
But, under the rule of law, we are accountable to the three branches of government, the Constitution, and the judicial system created back during the American Revolution.
It was a Revolution indeed, not a devolution to a distant past that rejected rational thinking.
We elect a President and Vice President in the United States, not men who assume that they have the power of Gods.
It is time for the Democratic run Congress to bring this government back to earth and, once again, make it a nation "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
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We are on the same page...
Except that I'm not entirely sure anymore that they will be able to pull off another attack...certainly by now they WANT to pull one off...and surely they have attempted to, but I think that good people in the military and around the world have been thwarting their efforts on a regular basis...
Of course one could slip through and actually happen...I've been holding my breath for years now, knowing that since they DID 9/11 they certainly are mentally and emotionally capable to do other horrific acts of terror...
We can only do our best at this point to prepare for the worst and pray for the best...
I'm surprised that they have not put us all in camps by now...they seem to be picking people off one by one...and I am now thinking that they just cannot defeat the 'masses', the scales have tipped, too many of us are awake now...unless they go the bio/virus method of destroying us...God Bless and good luck to you and yours.
Complete overhaul, reform and imprisonment
Right on, jackiesglitter. I felt the same way wondering how could so many people get it so wrong before the first 'selection.' My family and friends think I'm psychic because I seem to call out the neocons' manipulations and games. I guess I'm not impressed by money, makeup, lies and bad acting, because I saw these monsters coming at us like a train on schedule.
Solution:
1) If our leaders won't pull us out of Iraq immediately and get rid of these bottom dwellers now, our only recourse is a revolution. And you better believe these neocons have prepared for it, so there will be massive blood shed in carrying this out - but the masses will win.
2) Try these criminals for treason and high crimes against their own country and humanity at large. Immediate death is the only answer. A hanging, just like they did to Saddam, would be more appropriate so any future wannabes will think a few times before bringing their half-baked dungeon tricks to the fore. Geniuses? Rove, Cheney, Bush etal act like arrogant bullies proud of their predictable, dark activities who are nothing more than emasculated mental cases born of even sicker parents.
3) Reform our entire economic and political system to embrace the needs of Americans and the world.
Signs of this country's collapse are here: criminal government, war or party to war, real and imagined terrorists, propaganda, failed economy, and fascism. The economy has already begun to crash, we live on paper money, and we face martial law, internal unrest, Blackwater, military suppression, concentration camps and enslavement.
We must get out of these Dark Ages now before these madmen take us all down with them - because they ARE going down, preferably sooner than later. The boldness of their crimes indicate the we are at a critical point and must act quickly. Get these criminals now before they go underground in their caves and leave us with chaos, death and ashes all because we were too scared to act or didn't care...
http://truthorlies.org/declaration.html
Final note: look for another "trumped up" terrorist attack this summer that will be a doozie. The neocons are such predictable demons...
On creating reality
Actually there are two "Reality Principles" at work here.
First, it is true that we create our own Reality.
We have the freedom to Sow, to get biblical about it.
But what Bush and his socio/psychopath friends don't take into account is the "Reap" side of causation. They have no comcept of unintended consequences nor of the complexity and essential unpredictability and uncontrollable aspect of "things as they are"
THEY think Iraq will be a cakewalk. And they don't care what the Iraqis think. But, as it turns out the Iraqis think too, and they can also create their reality. So things didn't turn out for the Neocons the way they thought after all.
In a war game with Iran, the US fleet was sunk, when the opposition, led by a retired US General thought outside the US military strategist's box. So what did the wargamers do?
They refloated the fleet --as if they were gods-- and won the war against Iran--in the game that is.
But as the great investigator Mike Ruppert once said, those who cheat to win get stupid. How this unfolds is totally unpredictable but it won't go as planned for the neocons.
Il Duce himself, Mussolini, ended up hung by his heels. The world he thought he controlled was literally turned upside down.
Good luck to the neo cons, and good luck to the world. We'll need it.
Truly Dangerous
I absolutely believe that Bush wants to be the creator of Armageddon!
Change
Jackie,
Thank you so much, you took the words right out of my mind. It all seems so clear and always has. Enuf said.
They Thought They Were Gods . . .
Maybe, We the American People, could take a bit of advice from the Gods that are leading us all to hell on earth, and do some no-bid contracts of our own.
Happy for the first time in years...
I'm watching this madness come to the forefront...I wasn't sure it would happen...but I had faith that it would.
I remember clearly the first time I heard GW's voice on the radio...it hit me like a punch in the stomach...I became physically effected...I felt sick. I was immediately shocked and repulsed at the tenor of his voice which reeked with all that I find truly repulsive...deep unconscious arrogance, dishonesty, deceit, and with assurance of unstoppable power that cares not who is injured...I felt pure delusional evil...I was stunned...and now it has all come to pass...those fearful repulsive moments, like ones first impression of a stranger, were not just felt by me...but by all sane people of the world...so how did it still come to be that he and his evil minions came to power? That is the question we asked about Hitler and now if we survive will be asking about this administration...I know the answers and so do you...stolen elections, mass media manipulations, intimidation, misplaced patriotism, and the list goes on...well, the nightmare is ending...thank you Dennis Kucinich and Keith Olberman, and all the truth seekers out there...we won. Now lets clean up the mess. Impeach...Impeach without a moments delay. Nancy step up to the plate...take your place in history...call for the impeachments now.
And on a personal note...LOL, it is so funny...my daughter just cancelled her cable service which means out here in the boonies she will have no TV...why? Because their gas bill for their cars is so outrageously high that they cannot afford cable...lmao...I know she isn't alone...so she relies instead on the internet ....lol...and the mass media hypnotic machinery isn't able to push their distorted view of reality on her anymore...lol...so as the bush oil companies slowly milk the middle man dry they lose their audience...lol...talk about shooting themselves in the foot...as only godless morons like them can...oh, I do live in a just universe...thank God in Our Hearts...it is time to impeach...Don't hold back any longer. And for goodness sakes start a journal of your own...can you imagine the upcoming beauty as we regain our country back??? I've been silenced before but with the dam breaking how can they intimidate ALL of us? be brave, our time has come...
Manifest Insanity
Because they believe absurdities, Cheney/Bush commit atrocities. Meanwhile, over at the House, Conyers/Pelosi absurdly debate themselves over Bushist nonresponse, perpetuating the Bushist atrocities on US all. YANK FREE!
Can you say "President Cheney"?
That is what you would get if you impeach Bush. We need to impeach Cheney FIRST.
Complicity.........
In stating the obvious, you left out the one varible that could solve this "loathsome" dilemma.....
The human spirit........if we can find it..............
Humanity...........no matter how much we all "balk" about the current state of affairs, is still quite alright with just sitting around and watching it's own distruction on CNN and Faux News.
I like it to be similar to putting a frog in cool water and slowly boiling it...the frog will eventually succumb to the heat and die, without ever knowing the differnce.
We are more to blame........more than all these criminals put together.
We allow it...We watch it unfold...We do nothing to stop it.
Go ahead write your congress person...if it's make you sleep at night, but it doesn't does it.
"Violence begets violence"
No need for a Tom Wolfe analysis
Bush and Cheney believe in dictatorship. The irony is that the reason their power grab wasn't opposed was because of 9/11, a terrorist attack neither man did a thing to prevent. Perhaps Bush and Cheney haven't been impeached because Congress helped sell the public on the same lies Bush and Cheney exploited for dictatorial power.
Impeachment...Not!
Talk is cheap! All I hear is talk about impeachment, yet no one listens and nothing happens. "Money talks, BS walks" maybe we Americans need to buck up and hire a lobbyist to get impeachment back on the table!
reality bites
Creating a reality has little to do with rational thinking.
It doesn't have much to do with wishful thinking that the good guys always win in the long run.
Bush has created a reality.
When Alan f*ing Dershowitz embraces torture, there has been a significant shift in reality.
When our entire constitution and the rule of law back to the Magna Carta has been turned into toilet paper there has been a significant shift in reality.
The idiots who smile smugly at the hubris of the Bush administration will begin to understand how a reality IS created when they are dumped into one of the waiting concentration camps.