I had so much to write about yesterday, I think. As I fell asleep last night there was some wise, apropo, and prescient idea floating in my head and I planned on putting it done here this morning. This is not going to happen. I have no idea what that thought was. How about some politics?
To me, the political agenda of the Bush administration seems obvious: to control the world through the age-old machinery of empire building. The clothing that is thrown over the juggernaut seems familiar, but it is keeping with the times. The British used the idea of bringing civilization to the dark corners of the globe and educating the poor little people into British subjects. The Romans wished to spread the Glory that was Rome, Roman law in a lawless land, and to make money through taxation. Bush wishes to spread democracy and freedom and The American Way,via military occupation. This is attempted by direct action, a la Iraq/Afghanistan, or more indirectly and non-militarily by promoting US businesses abroad. Businesses like Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, and other, non-energy based, corporations that are bold symbols of Americas capitalist landscape are sometimes the first exposure to the US for many people.
What also seems obvious is that Bush and his gang are nothing more than a bunch of crooks who find it easy to dupe the public with a blend of religious rhetoric and fear mongering Gestapo tactics. Empires, on the whole are not necessarily the best way to rule the world. They are as weak as their weakest link, and eventually fall, like Britain, Rome, and all the others. But The New American Empire is the worst because they are corrupt at their core. Their ultimate goal is not rule of law, or education by occupation, or gathering of taxes to finance the infrastructure. It is not the bringing together of many cultures, religions, and peoples under one roof. They desire the one great flaw of Empire, and that is power. They are skipping the many years that made Rome great and jumping right to the corruption that caused its fall. They are also finding it harder to move around than they thought it would be. There are protesters, political opponents, and all the rest dogging their every step. This is, of course, due mainly to the freedoms that democracy brings. On one side of his mouth Bush praises the opposition, welcoming and earnest and timely debate. The other side of his mouth, the side he tells the truth with, wishes for a one-party system, where he is King, and the rule of law is The Law of George. Bow down or be punished! Here’s a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley that sums up my feelings about Empire.
Ozymandias
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Wecome to the Beginning, and the End, of the Great American Empire!
Johnnyboy