We are and have been for two decades an insular & provencial nation.There is a corrolary between what is happening to our democracy and what was being done to us in the cult.
Lifton's
read about him.
THE DEMAND FOR PURITY - I think we all know how 'shrub' renounced his drinkin' days and his taste for white powders. He reads a Bible study every day, and prays for guidance. He percieves himself as chosen by God for this job, and openly proclaims his desire to see this nation more towards a more pure and godly culture.
CONFESSION - Ok ok, I had a hard time explaining this one in terms of a national process of thought reform, perhaps someone else can offer some ideas about how the Bushies are using this aspect?
SACRED SCIENCE- Surely we can all see how the Bushies hold their own ideology as the 'one true good message' and try to paint any other doctrine as evil, feckless and incoherant. Incidentally, the left wing of the democratic party is no better about this process.
LOADING THE LANGUAGE - They keep hoping that they can load the language, and to some extent the press really helps out with terms like 'Taliban Johnny', refusing to translate 'Al Queda' into English so that it sounds more spooky (incidentally it means The Base) or using the term Allah in place of God- for
us it is God, for
them it is Allah. It would be too great a burden to refer to their diety by the same name as ours, surely he could not justify such actions against
us.
DOCTRINE OVER PERSON - Perhaps the best example of this on a national basis is the passing of Minimum Mandatory Drug Sentencing Laws in the eighties and to a lesser bu no less damaging extent 'Three Strikes' here in California during the mid ninties. The chance for an individual to be judged based on the actual circumstances of their crime or alleged crime is removed in exchange for maintaining a doctrine of toughness and agressive sentencing. The people our system was designed to trust with these decisions, judges, are reduced to automatons enforcing a doctrine that is wholly different that the original one- The Constitution -which specifically and intentional placed person above doctrine.
DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE - For a good example of how this works in the real world today, watch the recent CNN special regarding the uprising at Maser-e Sharif. In particular listen to the CIA agents talking to John Walker, just at the end of the program, as they tell him that his choice comes down to one decision- does he want to die here, or somewhere else. His right to exist had been dispensed in the minds of those agents long ago- they were only hoping to get more info from him. They had established i ntheir own minds that he was one of 'them' and not one of 'us' any longer. I make no claims as to how correct they may have been or not been.
"We are now trusting to those who are against us in position and principle, to fashion to their own form the minds and affections of our youth... This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and if not arrested at once, will be beyond remedy." --Thomas Jefferson to James Breckinridge, 1821. ME 15:315
