Americtus
The Poisoning of America

Douglas Milburn

                           What Stalinism was to utopian communism, Bushism is to
                           the American creed.
                                           —Patrice Higgonet, Attendant Cruelties (2007).

At this point the only question about the poisoning of America is not whether or how or when it happened but: is it fatal?

The deed is done—this undercutting of civility, this dilution of reason, this theft of elections, this installation of incompetence, this denial of responsibility, this attempt at a state religion, this expedient pursuit of wealth, this shredding of the social contract, this equation of tiny egos and global power grabs, this reversion to white makes right, this rampant fear of those who think, this cowardice parading in the emperor’s old clothes.

Those who poisoned America remain in power, with a similarly feeble-minded Supreme Court behind them and a still-cowering Congress still feeding the maw of their senseless wars.

All of which is depressingly familiar to anyone with some knowledge of history. As usual, they—the very very wealthy—came, they saw, and with the aid of limitless bucks they conquered the homeland. But good.

Pleased to be making history—though ignorant of all parts of history that didn’t fit their blindered politco-religious views, they set out to conquer the world.

Failing from the git-go, they continued to try. Why not? They had, remember, those limitless dollars and a professional army and the idiot’s belief that as long as they keep on keeping on, where’s the problem? They still had the perks and material rewards of power. At the end of their term lay a blissful retirement of celebrity (Fox news we shall always have with us) punctuated by nightly applause from hand-picked audiences here and abroad. Leave the mess to the bleeding hearts to try to clean up.

Like the psychopathic serial killer or mass murderer, they were only doing what in their minds was necessary and rational.

Also like the psychopathic killer, they remained sweetly unaware of the poison they had loosed. The pictures from their wars were bad, but then one expects bad pictures from war, doesn’t one. It’s the price of glory, yes?

What they didn’t see was the massive poisoning at home. They didn’t see it because how do you photograph psychic rotgut spreading cancer-like through the citizenry?

They claimed they were making history. In their stupidity they didn’t realize the kind of history they were making.

First to fall was our belief that we—Americans—are the good guys. OK, maybe not always, but more often than not and certainly more often than anybody else. That’s gone now. After Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and Fallujah etc., that’s gone. But the flag still waves, patriotic speeches are still given, pledging hands still go over happy hearts. No prob.

Next to go was accountability. No matter the results of my stupidity, if I’m still standing, I keep on keeping on. Good job, Brownie. Mission accomplished. If you happen to get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, well, you can always manage to die (viz. Kenny Boy) and then your wife gets to keep your ill-gotten billions. No prob.

Next to go was the rule of law. Congress is a nuisance, so have the President sign "special exceptions" to any law his people don’t like. The Supreme Court is a nuisance so pack it, culminating with a Chief Justice who sends Jerry Falwell RIP a note thanking him for his support. Bye-bye, habeas corpus. Bye-bye a thousand years of jurisprudence. Result: a legal Potemkin Village. Like the western frontier towns in John Wayne’s world: if it looks real, it must be real. No prob.

Then came total artifice. Science fell, replaced by belief in a world imagined 2,000, 3,000 years ago by desperate desert-dwellers. Is the sky really falling (is massive climate change really upon us)? Of course not. Everybody knows the Chicken Little story. Everybody believes the literal truths of the Bible. God won’t let the sky fall on us. And if in His Inscrutability, He does, well, it’s what we sinners deserve, isn’t it, so who are we to interfere with melting icecaps, massive storms, rising sea levels, drought, famine, pestilence, etc.? Anyway, those with bucks will surely have the wherewithal to survive, yes? No prob.

To get through the days filled with such falsity, what finally befalls us all is denial. If I say it’s not true, then it’s not true. Deny reality, affirm unreality: that is the way of the present American government—and much of the present American citizenry.

For the final little hiccup, consider us and Germany. Until the end of World War II there was no general awareness inside (or outside) Germany of the full extent of the monstrous deeds carried out in the camps. Now—and for some time—there has been widespread general awareness inside—and outside—America of the death-filled disaster that is the war in Iraq. Many Germans had the excuse—however flimsy—that they didn’t know what was happening. We don’t have even that excuse.

Our leaders can deny that reality as much as they like, but the reality is visible, in front of us every day, and it is pure poison, seeping slowly but unstoppably through the American social comity. The leaders in their secret meetings look at terrifying world scenarios about what may happen if they stop their war and leave Iraq. So scary are the scenarios that the leaders keep on keeping on. What their scenarios don’t show them is the invisible— and vastly more destructive— internal damage that the poison of their lies and self-deeptions is doing at home.

By the day, by the hour, by the minute, by the second, the poisons of disconnect and denial disturb and disrupt my own thinking, my own feeling—and yours. They warp and distort my interactions with others, at home, at work, in the car, in sleep. They are an invisible tsunami of chaos powerful enough to undercut the firmest foundations of belief, of law, even of simple everyday politeness.

Singly, those poisons are terrible. Together, cumulatively, they are the stuff of social collapse, poisoning the very soul of America.

The deadly process is not finished yet and not yet fatal (maybe). But every day that passes when the homeless multiply, the children in poverty go without health care, the schools become detention camps for rote-learners, great cities are destroyed and then left to rot, the most pristine wildernesses are opened to corporate greed, art is mocked, science is degraded, the great truths of religion are mimed, every such day brings us closer to Americtus.

END

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