The Empire 139

'George W. Bush: A Symptom of Disease.
>
>By Charles Sullivan.
>
>01/12/07 "Information Clearing House" -- - Sometimes you look around
>and wonder how things could have gone so wrong so quickly. America has
>become the antithesis of everything she purports to be. We are the
>greatest purveyors of violence the world has ever known; the largest
>weapons dealers on earth; and death and misery are our principal
>exports. Everything is for sale here, even men’s tormented souls—at
>least, those who still possess them.
>
>Our imperial leader, an impish little man with clear sociopathic
>symptoms, is incapable of empathy for the struggles of the common
>people, as those born into wealth and privilege often are. The man with
>his finger on the nuclear detonator is mentally ill, incapable of
>remorse—a fact that should terrify every world citizen. I do not say
>this out of malice or to demean the president; it is simply a statement
>of fact based upon quantifiable evidence that any student of psychology
>would easily recognize.
>
>The fact that such a misfit could ascend to the presidency is testimony
>to the effectiveness of the capital system. Under capitalism, political
>power is not derived from the people, as would be the case in a
>democracy; nor does it not flow from the bottom up— it matriculates
>from the top down. It is really quite simple: The men
>and women who are in office were put there by people with immense
>wealth to represent the interests of the wealthy, to make money for
>them. And that is exactly what they are doing.
>
>In many ways, George W. Bush is the perfect man for the job, if one
>understands what his real work entails as an emissary of the ruling
>class. He possesses all of the qualifications the vocation requires:
>callousness and indifference to the needs of others, the absence of
>conscience, truncated mental capacity; the inability to reason and to
>analyze; the incapacity to admit wrong doing; a penchant for cruelty
>that includes the enjoyment of inflicting pain and torture on others,
>as well as a powerful sense of nobility and entitlement that stems from
>being born into wealth and privilege. He is also a pathological liar.
>
> From the president’s sickly perspective, the admission of failure is
>equivalent to a declaration of weakness and indecision, which explains
>his inability to change course, even if it means the destruction of
>America. Thus he has no guilt about sending thousands more men and
>women to kill and die in Iraq. You see, the president’s mind is
>defective. It does not work like the minds of normal human beings.
>
>Corporate America placed George W. Bush in the White House to wage
>endless war; to bankrupt the federal treasury to the extent that few
>social programs will survive, and virtually all of our tax dollars will
>go into supporting the military industrial complex. The people who put
>him in office intend to end public ownership of the commons, as well as
>all government programs that do not directly benefit the wealthy.
>
>Let me clarify what this entails. If Bush and his handlers prevail in
>the class struggle, all social programs of value to the middle class
>and the poor, including Social Security, will be privatized and run for
>profit. The National Parks, National Forests, and all public lands will
>be privatized, and divvied up to private vendors such as the Disney
>Corporation. The public school system, like the public airwaves, will
>become for profit entities to serve corporate interests. Educating our
>children will be of secondary importance to the profitability of the
>corporations managing the schools. Every public service will be
>transferred to the private sector in order provide more wealth to
>corporate America at public expense.
>
>We see the foundations of privatization being laid in Iraq by the war
>profiteers. Billions of dollars in stolen wealth are being hauled out
>of Iraq by the very same corporations that lobbied for war. War is
>money and in America money is power to control the political process.
>It is a vicious cycle that will not end until the people recognize it
>for what it is and rise up against it.
>
>Certainly no man of conscience or integrity could so easily betray the
>people of America he is sworn to serve. That is why George W. Bush is
>the right man for the job and he is abetted by a compliant Congress
>acting under the influence of corporate lobbyists. But the president
>and his accomplices in Congress are only symptoms of a more pervasive
>disease that deeply afflicts our political system— capitalism. Class
>war is being waged simultaneously on many fronts
>and the dough keeps rolling in.
>
>Sources:
>
>Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, Justin Frank,
>Harper Collins, 2004
>
>Charles Sullivan is a photographer, free-lance writer and social
>justice activist residing in the Ridge and Valley Province of West
>Virginia. He welcomes your comments at csullivan@phreego.com.'