Politicians and pundits in the United States love to talk about our "national character," typically in rapturous tones of triumphalism.
Often that character is asserted as a noble force but not defined: Earlier this year, for example, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said our national character -- presumed to be benevolent -- requires us to be welcoming to legal immigrants.
Other times it must be defended against foreigners who just don't understand us: Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland last month explained that too many Middle Easterners fall prey to "depictions of Americans routinely raping, killing, firebombing mosques and torturing innocents as a function of national character."
And sometimes character is political destiny: In New Delhi last month, President Bush proclaimed that "democracy is more than a form of government, it is the central promise of our national character." Luckily for India, its national character shares the same feature, according to Bush.
Can a nation have a coherent character? If we take the question seriously -- investigating reality rather than merely asserting nobility -- we see in the U.S. national character signs of pathology and decay as well as health and vigor. What if, for purposes of analysis, we treated the nation as a person? Scan the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (the bible of mental-health professionals, now in its fourth edition) and one category jumps out: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
DSM-IV describes the disorder as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy" that can be diagnosed when any five of these nine criteria are met:
1. a grandiose sense of self-importance. 2. preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love. 3. believes he or she is special and unique. 4. requires excessive admiration. 5. sense of entitlement. 6. interpersonally exploitative, taking advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends. 7. lacks empathy. 8. often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her. 9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
Narcissistic tendencies to self-aggrandize are not unique to the United States, of course. But given the predominance of U.S. power in the world, we should worry most about the consequences of such narcissism here.
This disorder is bipartisan, and is virtually required of all mainstream politicians. When the House of Representatives held hearings about the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi declared that America is "the greatest country that ever existed on the face of the earth." Texas Republican Dick Armey described the United States as "the greatest, most free nation the world has ever known." With a "grandiose sense of self-importance," politicians routinely ratchet up the rhetorical flourishes when asserting that the country is "special and unique."
As for arrogance and haughtiness: When asked at his pre-war news conference in March 2003 whether the United States would be defying the United Nations if it were to invade Iraq without legal authorization, Bush said, "if we need to act, we will act, and we really don't need United Nations approval to do so." Bush prefaced that promise to defy international and U.S. law with the phrase "when it comes to our security," but since the invasion of Iraq had little or nothing to do with the security of the United States we can ignore that qualifier. Here the younger Bush was merely mimicking his father, who remarked in February 1991 as the United States was destroying Iraq a first time: "The U.S. has a new credibility. What we say goes."
On the Gulf War and "lacks empathy": On Feb. 13, 1991, U.S. planes hit a bunker in Baghdad. Whether military planners knew it was an air-raid shelter or thought it was a "command-and-control site," an estimated 300-400 civilians died. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, referred to this as "one downside of airpower," and said the incident led him to discuss with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf the need "to look at the target list a little more closely." Was the goal of that review to discuss civilian casualties? No, it was to question the efficiency of bombing an already bombed-out Baghdad. In Powell's words: "I asked questions like, 'Why are we bombing the Baath Party headquarters for the eighth time? ... Why are we bouncing rubble with million-dollar missiles?'"
Powell, who went on to serve as secretary of state in George W. Bush's first term, was often referred to as the "dove" of that administration. Perhaps we could call this level of empathy the mark of a "tough dove."
The unpleasant subject of the current Iraq war brings up "fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance." Though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently acknowledged mistakes in the current Iraq war -- "We've made tactical errors, thousands of them, I'm sure" -- she made it clear that history will vindicate U.S. officials for making "the right strategic decision" to invade. But that small concession to reality was too much for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who responded, "I don't know what she was talking about, to be perfectly honest."
While it's easy to point at the narcissism of soulless and self-indulgent leaders, this diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder applies to the country as a whole. The belief that the United States is unique -- a shining "city upon a hill" -- is deeply rooted, and for many has divine origins; 48 percent of Americans believe the United States has "special protection from God," according to a 2002 survey.
The narcissism of the whole society also is evident in the widespread "sense of entitlement," defined as "unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations." This is difficult to confront, precisely because it takes root to some degree in all of us and can't be so easily displaced onto only the most overtly pathological. The vast majority of the U.S. public -- by comparison to the rest of the world -- lives an extravagant lifestyle that we show few signs of being willing to give up.
We are 5 percent of the world's population and consume about a quarter of the world's energy. This state of affairs is clearly unjust, made possible by coercion and violence, not some natural superiority of Americans. Yet the vast majority of the U.S. public, and even much of the left/progressive political community, acts as if they expect this state of affairs to continue. That's real narcissism, and it's at the heart of the political problem of the United States. Even if we swept the halls of Congress and the White House clean of every corrupt and cruel politician, the deeper self-indulgence of an affluent culture would be untouched.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. His latest book, All My Bones Shake: Radical Politics in the Prophetic Voice, will be published in 2009 by Soft Skull Press. He also is the author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002). Jensen's articles can be found online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/index.html.
There is always something good even in bad things and the only ‘good’ about Bush and Co. is that we saw who we are at last. Bush is our face. He came from us. We made him. And when our creation, our Frankenstein emerged, we saw him for the first time. And we are scared. We created a monster.
A monster, though, was there for a long time. We just did not see it. That monster was us, particularly our arrogance, our ignorance and our malice. We are malicious people, yes. Ugly too.
In the Y2004 when it was all that noise about the ‘debates’, even when there were still nine Democratic candidates and not just John ‘I surrender’ Kerry, I was surprised by one pattern: no matter what candidate it was, no one said anything negative about the electorate. NOT A WORD! Wow, our American people had trained their politicians big time. When Bill Cosby said something innocent about American Blacks, those words of criticism were booted back into him with so much ferocity that if used properly it would have ended the Iraqi war. Our politicians had figured it out; they are merciless to the individual but they suck to the People big time. If The People had an ass, that ass would be covered with saliva so thick that we could bathe in it. That’s how you win elections Clintonian style. And that is how Karl Rove operates too.
And that’s how you win elections when you ARE a man of the People:
‘ I have a speech here. It is a speech about what this state needs. But there’ no use telling you what the state needs. You are the state. You know what you need. Look at your pants. Have they got holes in the knee? Listen to your belly. Did it ever rumble for emptiness. Look at your crop. Did it ever rot in the field because the road was so bad you could not get it to the market? Look at your kids. Are they growing up ignorant as you and dirt because there isn’t any school for them?’
Whoa! If Willy Stark had said such things now to the good folks of Louisiana after the Katrina disaster they most likely would not have a Mardi Gras. Instead they would have demanded a CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OF THE KATRINA-INITIATED MASSACRE OF THE CITIZENS OF NEW ORLEANS! But there is no Willy Stark and there is no Huey Long and the children are still ignorant like dirt. Only they have three squares a day and a gun and they are fighting those Iraqis. Or maybe Iroquois? They can’t make a difference. And the people of Louisiana are dead.
A bunch of cowards and traitors seized power not because they are smart. Not because the liberals lost their connection to the conservative majority of the PEOPLE. They are there because it was an empty place. Nobody wanted that job except crooks, perverts and power mongers. We, the People f- cked ourselves out of the power. We were literally flattered to death. We didn’t want to work.
Oh, of course, we loved it. We loved being called brave. We loved being called free. But there was a condition- we didn’t want to be equal. No, Sir, I am better, Sir. Everything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you. Bullshit. Childish crap. Nonsense.
Why did the Supreme Court select Bush as President? Didn’t they know they were committing treason? Of course, they did. But treason is only treason if there is someone to betray. Look into the mirror, folks. There was no one to betray because there is no nation. Just a bunch of hicks. Oh, Willy Stark, he was right and so was Robert Penn Warren.
Hicks are not the nation. Hicks are insects. If you pour boiling water on the nest of hicks, they will scream but they will not fight. Patriot Act is such water. You pour it on them and then tell them that they all are patriots. They don’t know who they are, really. But you can explain to them that it is the voice of the PEOPLE in those paragraphs designed by some obscure pervert sublawyer, that those paragraphs will protect them from all enemies and if only they sacrifice their kids… Oh no, you don’t. say that. Instead you say that if only their kids defend freedom and our way of life, then everything will be hunky- dory, coffins and all.
Our way of life? What level of stupidity had we reached that Frankenstein tells us that our way of life is the best and we believe him. We don’t hack him to pieces. What is our way of life? Working our lives out just to see our children in debt since their adolescence? Outsourcing to India? To Pakistan? To Whateverstan? See Donald Trump and his third wife? Or maybe Oprah is our way of life? But look at our pants. They are made in China and they still have holes at the knees. And the schools, they are still lousy, otherwise our Mr. Ray Bradbury hadn’t been talking about ‘generation of morons’. Now, morons we are : we can build an incredible space device and then lose it because of the error in conversion between English and SI units. And the C- student can become a President. A nucelar one. Now the nuky guy has a plan. He says he knows how to provide us with new energy. Maybe we will make fuel from people? We certainly killed a lot of them. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS! We obviously know how to kill. The Earth is losing weight American style.
‘ Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud’
Bingo, Wille Stark! There are no saints. There are no Proud Americans. There are no Brave and there are no Free. There are only EQUAL. WE ALL ARE EQUAL IN THE EYES OF GOD! GOD DOES NOT RESIDE IN AMERICA AND LADY LIBERTY IS MADE IN FRANCE! F- CK you, hicks. Hicks you are and hicks you will be until you decide not to be ones anymore. And to do that you have to start by acknowledging the simple truth: YOU ARE NEITHER BETTER NOR MORE VALUABLE THAN ANY ANOTHER HUMAN BEING ON THIS PLANET! Painful? Tough? Live with it.
IT IS THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE TO DEATH!
We don’t take America back. We stop being hicks. And then America will return to us
like a lovely lady when she sees her man really becoming one.
by
Mark Sashine (51 articles, 19 quicklinks, 244 diaries, 3463 comments)
on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 12:35:07 PM
1 comments
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