Much is made of the "ticking bomb" terrorism scenario: a situation in which a terrorist in our custody has set a bomb to explode, but he refuses to reveal the time and place. This scenario is used to justify torture, but it is a very remote possibility. Much more real is the time bomb ticking in the Bush/Cheney administration - the planned launch of another "preventive war" against Iraq.
It is truly terrifying to contemplate that at any moment, on a whim, GW Bush can send our armed forces to attack Iran, possibly with nuclear weapons, and that nobody can stop him. What is even more amazing is that everyone goes about their daily business as though this is quite normal. The madness of our current situation is reminiscent of the start of WWI, in which all the "normal" functions of diplomatic and military professionals converged to destroy European civilization. Let's look at how madness has become our new normality:
- It is now considered normal for a weak and irrational man to occupy the Presidency of the United States. The symbolic power of the Presidential office now emits such a dazzling propaganda aura that the actual character and actions of the President are considered irrelevant. He is simply the holder of the magical scepter of the President. The people trust that anything the President says or does will be presented in a dignified, impressive, and reassuring manner - and that it will look good on TV.
- It is now considered normal for the US to be continuously at war, because the tools of propaganda have been perfected to sell a war against anyone to all Americans in 72 hours. If Al Qaeda surrendered tomorrow, we could easily be at war with China next week.
- It is now considered normal for the US to use any available weapons or tactics against any adversary at any time. Torture, murder, atomic weapons - anything goes - because the propagandists tell us we are fighting for our SURVIVAL.
- It is now considered normal to believe that bad things only happen to people in far away places on television, and that endless warfare could not affect the shopping habits of US citizens.
- It is now considered normal for young Americans to volunteer to fight in a dirty neo-colonial war in order to secure college tuition subsidies.
- It is now considered normal to ignore world events because the "system" is taking care of things, and that the result will be a "good deal" for all Americans.
- It is now considered normal to have a psychotic, ticking human time-bomb in the White House who may kill a million people with a single decision, as long as we can keep on shopping at the mall.