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July 2005, Volume 12 Nr. 23, Issue 158

Harvest of Pain and Sorrow

Jason Miller
  

War without end. Rape of Mother Earth by faceless corporations. Exploitation of the poor. Subjugation of the masses. 9/11/01 marked the beginning of a new era of profound fear and suffering for the human race. Contrary to the Ministry of Truth of the United States government, the terrorists are not the source of this misery. A malevolent force has taken root in the United States. This force is rendering damage terrorists can only fathom in a dream, and is actually responsible for creating the terrorists. Psychological manipulation and economic enslavement of Americans have enabled our government to covertly inch the United States closer to tyranny with each passing day. With an arsenal of weapons which include a complicit mainstream media (i.e. Fox), an obscenely wealthy plutocracy (i.e. the Bush clan), and an equally affluent consortium of monolithic corporations (i.e. Halliburton) at their disposal to extinguish individual freedom, the US government becomes less of a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" with each passing day. While the murder, mayhem and destruction perpetrated on 9/11 was wicked and tragic, the spiritual subjugation of hundreds of millions of Americans is a travesty with much broader implications. Our White House warns of the dire consequences of "rogue nations" attaining nuclear capabilities, but fails to acknowledge that the nation with the most potent nuclear capabilities is governed by rogues.

 

Bush spreads fear and loathing, not "freedom and liberty"

 

Much of the rest of the world takes a very dim view of the United States. I draw this conclusion based on opinion polls, numerous foreign media publications, the existence of Hugo Chavez (and others like him who dare to challenge the American regime), the hatred that has inspired terrorist attacks here and abroad, and direct feedback I have received from many citizens of other countries. It does not take much analysis to reach the conclusion that people of other nations are justified in their antipathy toward the Unites States. Our leadership is corrupt, imperialistic, and morally reprehensible. Imagine living in another nation, under the menacing shadow cast by a bullying nation which possesses a nuclear arsenal large enough to destroy the world many times over, attempts to force its form of government on other nations covertly and overtly, clearly outlines its imperialistic designs for global domination through The Project for the New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org/), and which wields its immense military and economic might with a profound spiritual emptiness, a narcissistic disregard for the well-being of humanity, and a profound ignorance concerning other nations and cultures. 

 

Many Americans find themselves captive to the invisible chains binding their psyche, which is not an enviable position. However, people throughout the rest of the world are subject to economic and military attacks orchestrated by the twisted puppeteers Americans call leaders. Examples are numerous, and include Iraq, My Lai, Dresden, Hirohsima/Nagasaki, the Philippine-American War, the slaughter of Native Americans, and the numerous ruthless dictators the United States government has installed and supported in the interest of "defeating the Communist threat". 

 

Rotten at the core

 

America's leaders rule by propaganda and lies. Virtually every word which Scott McClellan, George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld utter is a lie. Propaganda of Orwellian proportions perpetually emanate from the White House, channeled through enthusiastic cheerleaders masquerading as journalists (i.e. Michelle Malkin). In his 1983 novel exploring the essence of evil in humanity, People of the Lie, the Hope for Healing Human Evil, Scott Peck could easily have been describing the people who are governing America today when he stated that evil is:

 

"The exercise of political power-that is, the imposition of one's will upon others by overt or covert coercion..." 

 

Peck asserted that human evil exists predominately in the seemingly ordinary, benign people with whom we interact on a daily basis. Hitler was an extreme example of one who was overtly evil. In a sense, people like Hitler are less dangerous than those who engage in evil practices in a disguised manner. Hitler's malevolence was blatant and discernable. Peck's "people of the lie" are wolves in sheep clothing. They live and work amongst us wearing the guise of respectability and "goodness". Beneath their cloak of benevolence, their obsession with attaining their definition of success and preserving their positive image in the admiring eyes of others is the root of their evil. It ensures that they will live in a nearly perpetual state of distorted thinking and lies. A nearly insatiable narcissistic need for the recognition and validation of others drives them to act without empathy or compassion. "People of the lie" aggressively act to harm those who get in their way or threaten their image. As common wisdom indicates, lies compound themselves. "People of the lie" engage in a vicious cycle of committing iniquitous acts to further their goals of success followed by weaving an intricate web of deceit to convince themselves and others how good they are. Once they have "covered their tracks" and sustained their image, they begin the cycle again.

 

Behold a flesh and blood example

 

Karl Rove, an incarnate example of those profiled in People of the Lie recently reared the ugly head of his narcissism when he remarked:

 

"Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." 

 

"[Conservatives] saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."

 

Ironically, it is Rove who desperately needs the therapy.  Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the world desperately needs for Karl Rove to seek therapy.  Rove, the architect of both of Bush's seizures of the Oval Office, and a man with discrete yet incredibly powerful influence within the Bush administration, is the principal person of the lie amongst the many people of the lie who rule the United States. Partisan politics and ideology are irrelevant. Some very sick and dangerous people are at the helm of the most powerful nation in the world, and Rove is at the nexus.

 

For evidence of Rove's spiritual and intellectual illness, one needs to look no further than his statements concerning 9/11. Creating false dichotomies are typical rhetorical weapons used by people of the lie, who are afflicted with a psychological illness known as narcissistic personality disorder. With broad brush-strokes, Rove essentially limited the response of 9/11 to two possibilities: invite the enemy over for a tea party or launch a war. There are multiple possibilities that exist beyond these two. 

 

One example would be to pursue justice against the responsible parties. Someone needs to remind Mr. Rove that instead of capturing Osama Bin Laden and impeaching President Bush for his negligence in allowing the attacks to happen, our government launched a war against a sovereign nation which had nothing to do with the attacks.

 

Another possible response, which this highly narcissistic administration is incapable of considering, would be for the United States to change its imperialistic, domineering ways. In an evasion of responsibility typical of those with a psychological malady, the administration refuses to acknowledge that their behavior caused the emergence of hatred and terrorism against the United States. By fighting the war in Iraq, our government continues to exacerbate the problem by creating a terrorist breeding ground and affording the terrorists a chance for live training in urban combat. Besides creating terrorists, the United States is inciting the wrath of the moderate Arab world with our leaders' decision to continue the occupation of Iraq indefinitely.

 

Who gets the credit (or blame)?

 

Veils of secrecy (an earmark of a tyranny) in the Bush administration prevent public knowledge of just how much power Karl Rove wields in the White House. According to Whitehouse.gov, the official presidential website, Rove carries the titles of Assistant to the President, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Senior Advisor. I will not waste time speculating about his level of influence, but Rove dose bear a majority of the responsibility for the damage the Bush administration is inflicting on the world by virtue of his successful efforts to infect the White House with Bush. Rove is a genius of monumental proportions when it comes to political strategy and winning elections. Without Karl Rove, there is little possibility that George Bush would be sending the poor and middle class to the horrors of a war based on lies, killing thousands of innocent Iraqis, acting as Robin Hood's antithesis, raping the environment, deepening the divisions amongst the American people on social issues, spending the United States into bankruptcy, increasing the hatred for America around the globe, and further destabilizing an already chaotic world.

 

Besides making the Bush debacle possible by orchestrating both highly dubious presidential victories, Rove has provided Bush and the socially conservative faction of the Republican Party with a broad-based strategy to increase their strangle-hold on America. His multi-pronged attack includes targeting groups which have traditionally been the largest monetary contributors to the Democratic Party. Attacking trial lawyers with tort reform was a hit on a significant source of Democratic funding. It is no coincidence that under Bush, union membership and power is at an all-time low. Offering strong support for Israel has been a play to garner the support of the Jewish people, who are but 2% of the US population but have historically provided 40% of the Democratic campaign contributions. Bleeding the public coffers dry and lowering the taxes on the wealthy are pages out of Rove's playbook which have "necessitated" lowering federal subsidies of social welfare programs, which Rove and his fellow social conservatives seek to abolish.

 

Where there's smoke, there's fire, and he will burn you

 

Rove's history reflects a man who has struggled with applying the basic principles of spiritual and mental health, such as honesty, integrity, and taking responsibility for one's actions. Like the hypocritical Bush and Cheney, he evaded service in Vietnam by staying in school, but has been a huge proponent (and arguably one of the principal architects) of the war in Iraq. In his early political career, he was a strong supporter of Richard Nixon. As a leader of the College Republicans, he was involved with Nixon's 1972 presidential campaign, from which the Watergate scandal arose. His chief mentor, Don Segretti, exercised successful smear campaigns against many Nixon-era politicians and later went to federal prison for illegal campaign tactics. Rove's career has been littered with direct and indirect involvement in a string of unethical, dirty and sometimes illegal campaign tactics. While his direct involvement has seldom been proven, unethical tactics follow Karl Rove like a flock follows its shepherd.

 

In the 1986 Texas gubernatorial race, Rove campaigned for Republican Bill Clements against Democrat Mark White. Polls showed the election would have been close, but at the eleventh hour, Karl Rove made an unsubstantiated claim that his office had been bugged. White lost. In the 1994 election, George W. Bush was running against popular incumbent Anne Richards. A mysterious whisper campaign near Election Day spread rumors throughout much of eastern Texas that Richards' staff was dominated by lesbians. Bush won. In the 2000 presidential primary, John McCain had a solid shot at winning the Republican nomination until a smear campaign portrayed him as having been a "stoolie" while a Vietcong prisoner of war, a homosexual, the father of a black child out of wedlock (the reality is that he and his wife adopted a black child), and that he was married to a drug addict.

 

Perhaps Rove's most heinous and cowardly political attack (for which he has yet to be found guilty) was the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame had the misfortune of being the wife of Joseph Wilson, a US ambassador who challenged the Bush administration's allegations that Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy uranium from Niger. When someone threatens the falsely constructed reality of a narcissistic personality disorder, that person becomes the target of retribution at virtually any cost. Since Wilson represented a threat to the success and image of his precious president, Rove (allegedly) leaked the information about Plame to columnist Robert Novak, who disclosed it in his July 14, 2003 column. Risking Ms. Plame's life by revealing her identity as a member of the CIA in retaliation for Bush's lies and image demonstrates the lack of empathy or conscience associated with a narcissist.  In September of 2003, the Justice Department launched an investigation which, for unexplained reasons, has been slow and inconclusive. Mr. Rove, as a subject of the investigation, does have counsel.

 

Rove has been implicated in his schemes on at least two occasions.  Early in his career, he stole letterhead from the campaign office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon and printed invitations for "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing."  He distributed them to homeless shelters. The stunt embarrassed Dixon, but did not cause him to lose the election. It was a rare occasion: Karl Rove failed and was caught. In another rare instance in 1992, according to Esquire magazine, Rove misfired again when George H W Bush fired him from his campaign for leaking information to his favorite columnist, Robert Novak. Getting caught twice with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar further strengthens the likelihood that Rove had a hand in many other reprehensible acts, particularly in light of the Robert Novak connection.

 

Foreclosure of Dr. King's Dream

 

While the United States never fully realized the ideals envisioned by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution, Americans made great strides towards them through the course of history. Tireless efforts by leaders and thinkers like Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair, FDR, Martin Luther King, Jr., and even the oft-maligned Jimmy Carter brought Americans much closer to curing our social and political ills during the Twentieth Century.

 

Finding their roots in the Nixon era, and cementing them in the Reagan area, social conservatives have utilized the undeniable talents of men like Karl Rove to re-infect America with the diseases of imperialism and economic subservience. According to Scott Peck, narcissists like Karl Rove readily attain power because of their lack of empathy, their desire to win at virtually any cost, and their obsession with manipulating others into believing they are wonderful people. Recognizing that he lacked the necessary personal charisma, Rove has ingeniously fulfilled his narcissistic needs using George W. Bush as his proxy. 

 

More's the pity for humanity. While high functioning, and obviously successful by society's measures, Karl Rove shows many outward signs of having the undiagnosed and untreated spiritual malady known as narcissistic personality disorder. As American Progress Action Fund suggested in a recent newsletter, and as I am suggesting, it is Karl Rove who needs therapy. His ailment is causing tremendous human suffering as he satiates his narcissistic desires by facilitating the spread of tyranny in the most powerful nation in the world. Rove has sown the seeds and tended the fields well as the cultivator of humanity's blight, the Bush administration, social conservatism, and tyranny. Thanks to his efforts, humanity is reaping a bountiful harvest of pain and sorrow. 

 

For more on Scott Peck's novel and narcissistic personality disorder:

 

http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/traits.html
http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p21-pe07.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/narcissism/
http://www.yuricareport.com/RevisitedBks/How%20to%20Detect%20Evil.htm

 

For information about the struggle for social justice and human rights and hope for humanity:

 

http://www.aclu.com/
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://www.worldwiderenaissance.com/mainstuff/mainportalpage.asp
?Level=Main
 

 
Jason Miller is a 38 year old free-lance activist writer with a degree in liberal arts. He is a husband and a father to three boys. His affiliations include Amnesty International, the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com or comments on his blog at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
  
© 2005 Jason Miller
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