Demonic Despots and Dastardly Denial
The truth is your sadistic master; let him whip you til it hurts so good
When you hear the popular refrain, “ Home of the brave, land of the free, ” does the image of noble, ardently autonomous individuals blossom in your mind, or do you, like me, let out a sardonic cackle and mentally revise those lines as, “ Home of the craven, land of the psychologically imprisoned ” ?
Because, really, America has become a nation of cowardly complacent, harrowingly apathetic mental mummies.
Perhaps I am overstating the case — after all, there are millions of Americans like yourselves who do truly care — or perhaps America has always been a nation of stoic psychotics, and I’m just now being shocked awake to this disconcerting phenomenon.
One thing is clear, however, despite my possible amplification and historical naivety: Too many Americans don’t give a shit about what’s happening to our beloved nation: about the erosion of cherished democratic principles and the government’s menacing metamorphosis into a totalitarian state.
Oh, sure, we’re still in transition — we haven’t become full—on fascist just yet. But we’re a fledgling fascist regime, and anyone who inanely refutes that idea need only glance at “The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism” by Dr. Lawrence Britt (http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm) to apprehend the terrible truth. Of course, there are plenty of people who would peruse Britt’s list and still sink into a state of denial. But the truth will always float to the surface, even as one drowns herself in luscious lies and illicit illusions.
And denial, finally, is the crux of the problem. People, obstinately hopeful, often refuse to embrace truth, even as it’s gnawing the conscience like a rabid bird. The truth, indeed, is like Poe’s raven. In Poe’s infamous verse, the speaker refuses to accept his mistress’ demise, and so the raven harasses the speaker with the memory of his beloved until he goes quite mad.
The truth, sinister raven that it is, will harass us, and unless we acknowledge its presence, we too will go mad with denial.
When I ponder the denial disease and how it’s afflicted the nation, I can’t help but recall Elie Wiesel's Night, the haunting story of the ghettoization, tyranny and elimination of Polish Jews during World War II.
One of the many salient themes in Night is that of denial. Throughout the story, the Jews persistently dismiss the gravity of their plight. For example, when the Jews are initially moved into ghettos, they begin to accept it as an inevitable inconvenience; and then when they are transported to the concentration camps, they refuse to believe they might be tortured or killed there. They keep thinking their situation is bearable, or will improve.
It’s as though, in using the instrument of denial, the Jews are inoculating themselves against the excruciating actuality of their fate. And perhaps in some situations, denial can be a sort of perverse antidote to pain. Perhaps a healthy indulgence in denial is necessary to ensure sanity.
The problem with denial, of course, is that it enables passivity, and passivity is poison. If we are not actively living, then what is the purpose of living at all?
One of Wiesel’s points seems to be that had so many Jews not cowered in the face of such barbaric brutality, perhaps the Holocaust would not have happened to the extent that it did. In a way, the Jews became immune to their fate through their submissive acquiescence. Wiesel does not blame the Jews, of course, but his is a powerful cautionary tale about docility and its fatal repercussions.
America has not turned into Nazi Germany, to be sure. And no doubt it never will. But many Americans are in deep denial about the horrific things happening to their government. The mainstream media, of course— ever beholden to its corporate masters — holds truth hostage, revealing slivers of it when a brazen mood hits or when a story is too stridently sensationalistic to comfortably evade notice.
CNN — scapegoated by neo-cons as the “leader of the liberal media conspiracy” (certainly a farce, as CNN is hardly liberal) — and other mainstream media outlets report about the sundry Bush scandals in an “ aw shucks oh well what can we do?” manner, neglecting to infuse these sordid stories of deception, greed and tyranny with the solemn tenor they so malevolently merit.
Furthermore, historically it has been media’s purpose to look askance upon political indiscretions; but instead of ruthlessly questioning Bush’s myriad misdeeds, CNN and its ilk excel at being servile to his regime.
Indeed, the mainstream media is Bush’s bitch.
But maybe it’s not fair to deride and discredit the mainstream media with such scorching critique. Perhaps Bush’s manifold depravities defy simple media anatomizing. After all, the Bush regime’s audacious atrocities (repeated Constitutional raping and a multitude of flagrant white-collar crimes) have become one big befuddling blur, and do not lend themselves to painstaking deconstruction.
Or perhaps I am right, and, misogynistic though it sounds, the mainstream media is simply a crack whore with corporate clients and a Bush—Cheney—Rumsfeld pimp alliance.
It's truly amazing to me that people aren't rioting in the streets over the tyrannical turn our country has taken. My pacifistic values would not permit me to riot, but the crap this government is getting away with is unfathomable to me, and I certainly advocate peacefully vociferous means of resistance.
For in the end, even though the mainstream media has shamefully miseducated the public, it’s the people who are mostly to blame -— the Big Mac—gorging, Hum V—idolizing, mummified moronic masses.
So if this country ever becomes a full—fledged fascist regime, the people will have no one to blame but themselves — for turning the other way, for plugging their ears and shuttering their eyes to the terrible irrefutable truth.
America is a democracy, dammit, not some playground for demonic despots.
Americans! Wake the hell up from your stupefied slumber, clutter the streets, and clamor for change. It’s either that, or quietly suffer whatever befalls us — and have no one to blame but our sad, slothful selves.
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Alison Ross is a passionate but peeved advocate for the poor and homeless. She deplores American fascism but adores American liberalism. She has had her sociopolitical rants showcased in Democracy Means You, Exquisite Corpse, Democratic Underground, Muse Apprentice Guild, When Falls the Coliseum, and Creative Loafing. She also venerates verse, and has had her poetry published in Cerebral Catalyst, A Little Poetry, Muse Apprentice Guild, Mad Swirl, and Nova Express, and forthcoming in Underground Window. When not writing, she enjoys reading, drinking wine, snoring, and bonding with her feline friend, Quetzal.
