SENTIENT TIMES December 2002/January 2003

The Consequences of Denial

By John Darling

Let’s try to put last November’s election—and our nation’s complacency—into perspective. Surely this is not the people we’re going to be for coming decades. Can we salve ourselves by saying we’re in a time of transition? That feels better. Nine-11 did not redefine us for the coming century. It did not make us all about homeland security, beating up on saber-rattling, third world warlords and enriching the corporate-military-Republican complex. Did it?

Let’s say we have finished being who we were and are not yet who we will become. It’s a time of transition for the culture and, since the world is being imprinted by our culture, it is a transition time for the whole world. Right now, we’re getting by on being reactive. We’re a people, at least in our national vision, who have gotten used to responding to sudden crises—Stock market crash! Pearl Harbor! Assassinations! 9/11!— as this allows us to rise bravely to the occasion, Come Together, make unity of diversity, and enact good (us) against dark badness.

In the election last November education was ignored, as was health care, the environment and the withering economy. Then, grasping after the feel-good of a war on terrorism in which we are the good guys (with thousands of nuclear weapons) smiting evil madmen (who are making their first), in a breathtaking bullying of the global community, Bush makes the U.N. get on his side for Iraq’s total disarmament. This is a first, a new direction. It presumes that America, with all this might and economic clout, is always going to be on the right side and do the right thing. That’s a lot of power for one man to have.

We should remember that power corrupts and absolute power—which is close to what Bush is wielding on the national stage—corrupts absolutely. The Greeks loved this theme. They would be rubbing their hands together, waiting for the next act. They called it hubris—overwhelming pride in the rightness of oneself and one’s cause. Then the Fates would arrive to balance things out. It always came right before the tragic downfall part of the play, when the protagonist is undone, usually with plenty of suffering among those around him.

In our recent political process, Fate itself seems to intervene in favor of a Republican senate, killing one of the last honest politicians (and last to hide from the label of “liberal”), Senator Paul Wellstone. The widow of Democrat Senator Carnahan, (he was also killed in a light plane) loses her reelection bid for his seat. And Governor Kitzhaber, who would have beaten Republican Senator Gordon Smith, chooses out, so he can have quality time at home in Oregon with his wife and child. At least Kulongoski succeeded him as governor, joining a long line of distinguished Democratic chief execs in Oregon.

Many are saying the Democratic Party has lost its way and offers only a “Republican Lite” vision. It has lost its way. No “vision thing.” The D’s do the routine work of labor unions, teachers, nurses and urban minorities. As they guides themselves by the polls and shoot for the mainstream, they dare risk nothing. This is following, not leading. Congressional Democrats, in a breathtaking abandonment of principle, look at pre-election polls (2/3 favor war powers for Bush in Iraq) and provide a blank check to be used in the Middle East (or wherever they choose) for years to come. They got spanked for it at the polls. And no one among the D’s seems to be building a challenge to Bush for 2004.

In this era of transition to whatever we will become, Bush and the Republican, corporate, Christian right will polarize the Arab world and the West, enrich the stockholding class and not come any closer to ending the Terror Wars than they have the drug wars. But then, the purpose is not to win—it’s to build an entrenched military-corporate-Republican class, which is seen as perpetually patrolling the ramparts of freedom against a dark, relentless foe. It doesn’t work without a foe and we lost that with the fall of Communism. Nine-11 restored it.

In this time of transition, we’re revisiting the cronyism and robber baronism of U.S. Grant et. al. during the Industrial Revolution. It will be a sorry joke in history. But, of course, it will take a generation like the sixties to stop it. People with conscience and vision.

I was interviewing some missionaries who taught English in remote China. They showed me their snapshots. You can tell a lot by faces. All the Chinese were smiling and they were happy. I read emails from them. One said she dare not look at the picture of the woman teacher because she would cry for missing her. Gosh, I was almost crying. They have so little and they’re oppressed, so why are they so happy? The missionary said she wasn’t sure but it might be family and that they did have to struggle and needed each other.

Then, I’m having coffee that Saturday morning and read Wellstone is dashed against a frozen cornfield in Minnesota. Now I do cry. Why him? There is no why, no reason, it just happens. Testimonials say he was nice to everyone, genuinely—he could afford that. He wasn’t out sucking up to PACs and lobbies for cash. He could sleep with his conscience. He was going to win. Minnesota was about to say that works for them. Then that same gut-emptying loss, like the Kennedys and King.

I get a daily quote from Sun-Angel.com. It’s from Buddha, who says: “The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.” Wow, no one’s ever said it that clearly and bravely. You mean, it’s possible simply not to fear? Wellstone was doing that. He died free.

I yank the tv cable out. The kids howl and actually say, “I have no home.” I laugh. They begin to talk, read, listen to music and hang out. They’re not singing together like the Von Trapp family yet, but there’s more laughing. It’s working. I do not miss the young fools on Fox menacing me with their breaking news logos and their importance frown, as they clue me that my world is changing again—and not for the better. Their breaking news crawl does not say: “Volunteer delivers Meals on Wheels to old folks!!”

Surely, we’re not going to become the people we see on tv? Television has lost (never had) its courage because, like our national political system, it feels it will be penalized for saying anything outside the Matrix, and thus lose ratings and money.

I interview a new Latino minister who says Mexicans coming here are hard to talk to about church and they want to be free of that, like the Americans they see around them. Transition, again. The old is gone, the new is not yet here. What will it be? Their children and grandchildren will marry into this culture. A new religion will arise. But what? I write weddings and perform them and almost everyone says leave out the churchy stuff; we find religion in the hills and creeks and stuff. It will come from there.

Recently, Bill Moyers did a series on the environmental decline and finished by asking major thinkers how much time we had to save the planet. Twenty or 25 years, said most. One said 30. That’s if we start last year and go full-out with all our passion, intelligence and resources. Well, guess what? We’re not. We’re all about homeland security. We’re in denial about the rest.

But voters only get the amount of truth they ask for. You remember The Matrix, that breakthrough scifi movie that would have us believe—oh, preposterous Hollywood! —that some future society of people would rather be comfortable consumers with their jobs, homes, tv’s, cars and paychecks, living as aphid-slaves in service to the over-arching system than to deal with the truth.

I don’t know. I can’t get a fix on it. It’s all changing so fast and we’re all so busy. But I know bs when I see it and the electorate (the minority of eligible voters who actually voted) bought bs this time. The terrorists are a blip in history, I guarantee it. But the decline of the environment and education and the increasing cost of college and health care are all much bigger things with more lasting consequences—and if you want to see an insecure homeland, these will be bringing it live and in color into your living room in crisis form.

Then we can unite, the way we love to do, and start showing what we’re made of.

John Darling is an Ashland counselor and writer.

We The People Must Not Be Silent

The incredible Democratic defeats that came during the midterm election in November did not happen because America is a conservative Republican nation. The policy of appeasement proffered by the Democratic leadership—go along with tax cuts, go along with the PATRIOT Act, go along with the Iraq war resolution, virtual silence regarding corporate criminality—stripped the leadership and the party of any ability to argue in favor of a Democratic vote.

When you support a ruinous tax cut, you cannot stand on fiscal responsibility. When you support invasive and contra-constitutional legislation, you cannot stand on the Bill of Rights. When you support an ill-conceived war, you cannot stand on responsible military leadership. When you stand silent on the subject of corporate corruption and thievery, because too many of your fellow officeholders are deeply implicit in the scandal, you cannot stand for the rights of the little guy over the powerful. In short, when you acquiesce to virtually every major piece of legislation and policy put forth by the opposition party, you offer no reason whatsoever for the existence of a separation of powers.

The men and women who make up the spine and soul of the Democratic Party must stand up and make some noise. The streets beckon, nay, demand to be filled. Since Congress has been greased for all manner of Bush proposals, the only area of true resistance left stares back at you from your bathroom mirror. If you are not represented by the leadership, if the issues that concern you are not spoken of by those who purport to be on your side, then so be it. Your last, best option can be found on the far side of a lot of shoe leather.

From this point on, the issues must be the focus. The environment, the judiciary, the budget and economic policy, constitutional erosion, as well as war on Iraq and the rest of the world are all on the table. The resignation of Harvey Pitt demonstrates that this administration still struggles with coherence of policy, though they appear to have mastered the art of electioneering. The shop belongs to Bush now, but the people must be loud in demanding what is on the shelves. The Democratic party can be an important part of this, but only after they put themselves in order. In the meantime, the job falls to us.

- William Rivers Pitt, www.truthout.org

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