A quick glimpse of any day’s news headlines leads me to
believe that the world is about to tip off its axis. Every day, another threat
to the American way of life: Ebola, ISIS, fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, the
Chinese, the Taliban, a nut with a rifle (or a cop with a pistol and a black
kid in his sights), General Motors, the airlines, you name it and it wants to
fuck us up. Still, we remain fat, dumb and clueless – provided, of course, we
have Happy Meals and plenty of TV channels to choose from. Every dying empire
needs a robust entertainment industry to distract its citizens from creeping
decay and decline. Our leaders insist that all is well, that America is still
the biggest badass in the world. Facts on the ground suggest otherwise. The
world’s greatest military force has been fighting, somewhere, continuously for
a dozen years and is no closer to victory today than it was when George W. Bush
got a hard-on for Osama bin Laden. With a prayer on his idiot lips and
retribution in his heart, Bush fell right into the arch terrorist’s trap – an
endless war against a shape-shifting foe. We enthusiastically adopted the terrorist’s
methods and went on a murderous rampage through Iraq, Yemen, Somalia,
Afghanistan and Pakistan, all the while turning a blind eye and deaf ear to
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most energetic sponsors of jihad. Like Israel,
Saudi Arabia always receives a pass from generous Uncle Sam. It’s all very
fraudulent and deceitful, immoral, and our double-dealing will ultimately
contribute to our demise. America is sinking, not rising, in case you haven’t
noticed. This doesn’t have to be, but the people are too willing to surrender
their liberty for the illusion of security. Our political leaders and national
media superstars, like the venerable Bob Schieffer over at CBS, insist that
there isn’t a war the U.S. cannot wage and win. Our brave men and women, our
technological superiority, our will and grit and resolve, these must carry the
day. Raise the red, white, and blue, thump the drum, blow the horn… Defeat will
not come in one epic battle but in hundreds of small skirmishes over many
years. Didn’t the Romans spend 300 years trying to tame the Middle East, only
to fail? But who cares about history, particularly if it doesn’t agree with the
prevailing narrative, the story line, the talking points handed out by PR
flacks and party dickheads? But what do I know, me, one unarmed American living
on the parched central coast of California? Life is still grand here, the sun
shines every day, the rich are happy and the poor are marginalized, and most of
us rent and wait for the knock on the door or the envelope in the mailbox; and
a good man I know lies dying on a hospital bed in his living room – another
victim of cancer. I can’t pray for him because I don’t believe in that sort of
thing. If there were a place like heaven, this man would already have his
ticket in hand, his first-class seat reserved, a bottle of fine champagne
chilling in a bucket of ice. Life isn’t fair, never was, never will be; the
good die young, the evil live to grand old age, and no great man was ever good.
No comments:
Post a Comment