The
End of Freedom
January
23, 2004
By John Stanton
"The compulsion of total terror on one side, which, with
its iron band, presses masses of isolated [people] together
and supports them in a world which has become a wilderness
for them - and the self-coercive force of logical deduction
on the other which prepares each individual in [their] lonely
isolation against all others - corresponds to each other and
needs each other in order to keep the terror-ruled movement
in motion and keep it moving. Just as terror ruins all relationships
with men, so the self-compulsion of ideological thinking ruins
all relationships with reality. The preparation has succeeded
when [people] have lost contact with [other people] as well
as the reality around them; for together with these contacts,
[people] lose the capacity of both experience and thought.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced
[follower], but people for whom the distinction between fact
and fiction (the reality of experience) and the distinction
between true and false (standards of thought) no longer exist."
— Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
The American nation-state led by the Bush Administration,
and the transnational rebel group led by Osama Bin Laden,
has brought to life the artificially fabricated insanity that
Hannah Arendt so dreaded. But the situation is far worse than
she could have imagined. The insanity that permeates the psyche
of the United States of America and the mysterious Al Qaeda
is being carefully nurtured by Bush and Bin Laden, the products
of wealthy families intertwined in business dealings for decades.
Rather than trying to find a mid-point where some commonality
and reduction of violence might be found, these two zealots
and their minions have eliminated the possibility of any peaceful
outcome and, instead, daily sow the seeds of destruction for
the causes they claim to promote. In short, perpetual ideological
conflict played out on the battlefields of the world.
Bush and Bin Laden view themselves as freedom fighters and
are steadfast in their beliefs and their gods. On that score,
no one can argue. But both have done more to eliminate freedom
- the mobility of thought and action - than some of history's
worst scoundrels.
Set on a collision course predetermined by years of dubious
American economic, political and military actions throughout
the Middle East and Persian Gulf Basin, it was only a matter
of time before Bush and Bin Laden would find themselves and
their followers at war with each other. For a moment following
September 11, 2001, there was an option that both men had
and that was to reach out to each other and, adopting the
best parts of Christianity and Islam, attempt to address grievances,
to right wrongs, to salvage the lives of collateral human
beings. Enough potential, enough new beginnings, as Arendt
would say, had died on that terrible September day and all
the days that came before for those living under tyrannical
regimes supported by the USA. But in an already insane - and
dangerously bored - world eager to explore new levels of insanity,
exercising the freedom to be free from war and its sufferings
to "turn the other cheek" seemed, itself, an absurd choice.
Guided by Fantasy
And so Bush and Bin Laden, blinded by their otherworldly
beliefs in Christian and Islamic mysticism, launched their
hungry followers into the place that they occupy. That place
where, as Arendt pointed out, the distinction between fact
and fiction and true and false no longer exist - an artificially
created insanity, a totalitarian place full of demons and
evil where a disembodied concept-God provides violent guidance.
How else to explain their theatric and compulsive ideological
showmanship? Bin Laden claims peace upon Allah but destroys
Allah's name through the destruction of life. Bush says he
has done more for human rights than anyone in history, yet
he has authorized the creation of a Gulag, the torture and
killing of prisoners, soldiers and collateral human beings
alike. Bin Laden takes his guidance from the Koran and his
zealous advisors. Bush takes all his guidance from the Bible
and claims not to read or watch any newscasts, getting his
views from advisors who never met a boardroom they didn't
like. Both leaders demand total organizational secrecy.
One of the central personality characteristics of both men
is their need to hide. Bin Laden has been on the run since
the CIA supported him against the Soviets in the 1980's. No
surprise there. But Bush's hide-everything characteristic
and "I don't have to tell anyone why I do things" has unfortunately
spilled over into much of American society where even the
operation of local utilities has been classified and hidden
under the guise of national security. This protect-the-sewercap
homeland security mentality in a nation of 300 million people
occupying a continental landmass with a width of 4421 kilometers
and a length of 2572 kilometers is patently insane. So, absent
the bright light of a public that thinks and a responsible
US Congress and media, Americans essentially already have
the equivalent of a martial law government, a government run
out of a bunker that never sees the "real" light of day (perhaps
an arrangement can be made with the US military to keep the
current government and business leaders in their bunkers after
the next rebel assault).
Trust Me
Earn your daily bread and we'll take care of politics and
your defense, they say. Arendt points out in The Human
Condition that one of the main goals of tyranny is to
get the public, the followers to forget about opposition politics,
to not ask tough questions. Right on cue, Bush's minions lash
out at any criticism of his/their policies as unpatriotic
and unrealistic. Don't Ask! Have Faith! They admonish. And
that attitude permeates today's society. For example, in the
business world in-your-face, know-your-place takes the form
of statements like these, "Those of us who make the big decisions
get the big money and those who sweep the floors don't" according
to one executive and retired military commander. One can only
imagine the penalty that Bin Laden has for dissent. Yet, it
is critical to remember that in the fantastical world that
Bush and Bin Laden occupy, Arendt's insanity is normalcy.
It is useless to ask, where's the outrage, simply because
millions of followers in government, in business and in the
public exist in that same unreal reality. Anyone else just
doesn't matter.
Distinctions between Bush and Bin Laden followers are difficult
to make. Both advocate preemption, War/Jihad, assassination,
coups, and kidnapping and torture. So it's no surprise to
learn that Bush and Bin Laden think there's just too much
freedom. They've done everything in their power to ensure
that freedom - that open space to move about or fill with
thought - is designed in accordance with their totalitarian
worldview. It's no surprise that in Bush's 2004 State of the
Union Address he made note of the fact that many Americans
do not believe that the USA is at war. In a backhanded slap
at the American Constitution, Bush mocked the US civilian
justice system opting to glorify war and the US military,
and give Americans another dose of fear. Bush is keeping the
movement in motion, as Arendt would have said. In this environment,
Individuality is of no use; in fact, it's dangerous. The day
may be close when an individual born in the USA will not receive
citizenship until later in life and after being subjected
to a background check, fingerprinting, neural mapping and
a citizenship test. Can it be long before every American is
classified as a national security interest?
Goodbye Individuality
Bush has adroitly fused state, religious (Faith Based government)
and business interests into one indistinguishable tyrannical
mass (would one expect anything different in a country run
by Bin Laden?). In like manner, the needs of that tyrannical
mass has (or soon will) supercede and absorb individual thought
and action, even the individual self as property. All of life's
effort will be on behalf of national survival, national security.
At the dinner table, at the office, upon waking up from sleep,
on the metro, in the movie theater, all images, thinking and
movement is dominated by war or the threat of war. Join the
cause or find yourself on the outside is the new thinking.
The next step, perhaps well underway, begins with collection
of US census data, airline passenger manifests, medical records,
driving records, credit reports, academic transcripts, property
records, religious affiliation, sexual affiliation, and marriage
records, all of which are finding their way into centralized
databases run by NASA, the US Army, the Pentagon and, undoubtedly,
the FBI, CIA, NSA and who knows how many other organizations.
In compressed databases across the country, one no longer
has a private and unique record, but rather becomes a classification,
lumped together in an indistinguishable group. The data pattern
determines your eligibility to join the group outside the
database; for example, to board the airplane or train. You
board the aircraft because of the very fact that you are no
longer unique, you are no longer an individual, you are part
of the group. You've selected non-freedom. Your interests
match those of the tyrannical mass. And that's not all. Non-invasive
neurological testing as proposed by NASA will be done right
at the airport or train station to determine, like a lie detector
test, whether you're nervous. Is your nervousness a sign that
you are a threat?
The Horror
Adam Smith once said that the purpose of government is to
protect the rich from the poor. Bush's policies and actions,
or should we say those of his advisors, demonstrate at once
that the federal government of the USA is being reduced to
an entity that concerns itself only with national security.
Smith's view is in play in 2004. As Bush chides the federal
government to reduce "wasteful" spending on education, infrastructure
repair, global health insurance, veterans benefits, social
security, medicare and environmental protection, etc., he
asks for more tax cuts for the wealthy, more weapons, more
tax breaks for corporations and more funding for an other-worldly
program of space exploration best left to mechanical explorers,
not flesh and blood.
Bush terrorizes his own populace and the world by indicating
that the entire cosmos hangs in the balance. And it's not
just the cosmos, it's your job, your home. And now your sexuality
is under attack. Homosexuals and lesbians - and the radical
judges who rule in their favor - threaten the national security
of the USA because they may destroy the sanctity of the marriage
contract. For this reason - and in another swipe at the US
judicial system, Bush would amend the US Constitution inserting
discrimination into a document that what was supposed to guarantee
freedom.
Perhaps Arendt's most powerful and simple statement was
that people need to think about what they are doing. She warned
that the consequences of action taken today can't be known
or may not be controllable once set into motion. The individuals
that remain need to think hard about who and what they want
to become - ammunition and human capital in the violently
absurd world of Bush and Bin Laden, or thinking individuals
moving in the open space of a fearless society.
John is a Virginia based writer specializing in national
security and political matters. He is the co-author of America's
Nightmare. Reach him at [email protected]
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