I wrote this on a beach the other day in wordpad. The text is kinda odd for that reason. I debated whether to publish this it really is a rant. I've decided to though I'm curious what others will think. I'm not even going to correct the spelling errors.
I had just finished reading 1984 for the first time since high school. Back then I read it without it meaning much to me. I had to learn more before it would become meaningful. I put the book down and wrote this all at once in a fury.
Few on this site will agree with anything I will say in this diary. I'll preface this by saying I may be wholly wrong. It is the feeling that I am right that propels me to bother writing this at all. I don't know it to be fact. I'm slowly realizing I don't know much truth at all. What I believe today has gradually been built for a long time now. I believe that whether Obama or McCain becomes POTUS it doesn't matter.
For many years I've missed the forest and stared at the trees. It is like the Declaration of Independence only containing the crimes for which KingGeorge had perpetrated against the colonies. The crimes were not the problem. They were symptoms of the problem. The problem was that King George had reduced the colonies to de facto slavery. If you are not freeyou are a slave.
The new motto of the United States of America should be FREEDOM IS SLAVERY! Can't you feel it? It's empirical is it not? Are we working longer hours for fewer pay? Are we better today than yesterday? In a real sense FREEDOM IS SLAVERY is the only way to interpret the belief that the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan are better today than before our
invasion (as we are told again and again by the administration).
In order to be free an Iraqi citizen must more or less become a slave to America. They must not resist when troops enter their homes and feel up their sons and daughters for weapons checks. They must allow American soldiers to set up check points, impose curfews, kill insurgents...to be free they must be slaves. Once they are slaves they get to vote, work, eat, have clean water and electricity, even reclaim a sense of normalcy. They must not just obey America however. They must love America, liberty, democracy and the freedoms which America holds as sacrosanct.
For a time I blamed the Neo-Cons. I said, "If only we (Democrats) took power away from the imperial, authoritarian Republican party things would change." Hope existed for me. Sometime over a year ago all my hope was transferred and personified in Barack Obama. He was to be my saviour, my personal saviour. Were he to become POTUS he would restore the world
into a peaceful, sane place again (again? has it ever been?). I've hoped, prayed, cried...pleaded that if there were a god (I'm atheist go figure) in the heavens to make Obama President.
Partly, i realize now, I did this because the wounds of the last 7 years are so fresh in my soul. I weep when thinking of what my country has become (or at least I perceive we have become less now). Not just the wars. Not just torture or loss of privacy or loss of habeas corpus or the spying on citizens. WE have changed. Or my perception of who we are has changed.
Have we actually become less intelligent? Can we not see what the media is doing to us? Don't you feel in some way that with the internet and all our advances in technology Americans should be getting smarter not dumber. Our children are less intelligent than they once were. I have no evidence to back it up but I know i'm in the right. I feel it. I can remember the past though my memories may be corrupted. The way WE treat Arabs now, the dehumanization of all things Eastern as a whole, it's all pathetic and degrading and breaks my heart. Perhaps it has always been this way.
And the debt. The great national and personal debt which all Americans feel in some way or another. Debt=slavery.
Obama will not save us. Moving the war from Iraq to Afghanistan is as significant as shifting the war against Eurasia to Eastasia. It's madness! The insanity contained within Obama lies in his most famous sentence (and its not "I am a christian" although that may satisfy).
"I am not against all wars, I am against dumb wars." What is a smart war? What war is just? A defensive war perhaps? A war smartly won? If we completely passified Iraq and Afghanistan, and had they willingly and smilingly given us all the treasure of oil and natural gas at the beginning of the war would Obama consider that a success?
The madness is the entire world order. It can't be solved simply by exchanging Presidents. Obama is an incredible guy, a marvelous politician, and immensely preferably to McCain. Yet were Obama to become President, followed by Democrats sweeping into power nothing would change. You cannot perfect evil you can only destroy it. The evil that exists today has existed since civilization began. Until we understand that the similarities we all share are greater than our differences, unless we realize that the Arabs, Persians, Afghans, Chinese, Mexicans, and all other nationalities share within their hearts the same desires as we do, nothing we do in politics will matter. (Obama will often delineate races, such as Blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos but will leave out Arabs...wonder why?).
When I first thought this I pictured Ralph Nader. Not that he is perfect but that most believe him quite mad. I myself have thought how foolish he must be to put himself forward to be ridiculed by the mass of Americans that realize he can and will never be President of the United States. But suddenly I feel like Nader himself must feel. I understand more deeply what he means by "There is no difference between the Republican and Democratic parties". Of course there are superficial differences. Read their platforms as its clear to see what they are. But as it was necessary to switch wars in 1984 between Eurasia and Eastasia, so is it that we must constantly switch which party is in power. In essence
it is the same party with continuous power. I see that now for the first time. There is only one party.
Why they do this I don't know. Power for power's sake is the solution given in 1984 but I'm not sure. I'm sure though that our democracy is merely a sham. There will be others far more intelligent than I am who will rip apart my arguments and make me look foolish. Everyone here will rage against me and call me a fool. Maybe I am. I don't know. I just
feel that I am right about this. Perhaps this belief I have now is as silly as Bush's "gut" feelings. I'm not even sure what history to believe or dismiss anymore. Everything seems like smoke with lies everywhere and I'm not smart enough to figure it all out. I only know this one thing: We have and are being deceived on a massive scale.
I don't even necessarily want to do anything about it anymore. I just want to express it somehow. This is a rant but its one I needed to say. Maybe I'm insane and all of you are right. Maybe America is only slightly flawed and can be corrected, there are just and good wars that I fail to see or remember properly, and instead of wanting to change the world order
we should ensure that America remains THE world order. Right now I don't see it that way.
I see the whole world order as insane. Nationalism is insane. Serbs and Croatians fighting over cookies is insane. Patriotism is insane. But I'm only one man. If the rest of the world disagrees with me am I the insane one?