All of this has reduced international law as it applies to human rights to an unattainable ideal. It is sobering, and very depressing, that it has only taken a little over 70 years to forget the horrors that necessitated the promulgation of such documents as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As far as the "statesmen" in Washington, Jerusalem, and at least a dozen other capitals care, the world can go back -- and indeed it is going back -- to the bad old days before World War II when nationalism, with a malignant mixture of racism, was the political guiding light. Back to a time when political leaders spoke their minds not as rational and reasonable people, but rather in the style of Mussolini. Back to a time when threats and dares took the place of diplomacy and the citizenry stood piously by waiting to serve the national cause as cannon fodder.
Under these circumstances, the United States might physically survive, even through the disastrous presidency of Donald Trump, but morally it is lost. It has never shaken its long-standing addiction to the destruction of other people's human rights and the support of racists, fanatics and dictators.
Part IV -- Idealizing Destructive Behavior It is very odd how such destructive behaviors become idealized in a nation's consciousness even as it destroys otherwise worthy ideals such as human, civil and political rights, and even undermines the very notion of democracy. Sometimes this is done In the most innocuous way, for instance, through song. Here are two examples:This is the first stanza of the U.S. Marine corps anthem:
From the Halls of MontezumaFor anyone who knows a bit of American history, the first two lines can remind one of U.S. intervention in Central and South America as well as the Middle East. With the possible exception of the very early war against the Barbary Pirates, those interventions never did have anything to do with "right and freedom," so the "honor" of the U.S. Marines is anything but "clean." The song glorifies, quite successfully, a false history.
to the Shores of Tripoli
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
and to keep our honor clean"...
The second example comes from Israel. The Israeli national anthem, HaTikvah ("The Hope"), speaks of a "two thousand year old Jewish hope to be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem." That is a big assumption to assign a few ritual phrases repeated infrequently, if ever, by the average Jewish person. And when looked at closely, the yearning for "Jewish freedom" in Palestine is based on a lie -- the false assertion that one people can gain "freedom" by ethnically cleansing another people.
Today that poison can be seen in the way Donald Trump is received as a savior by many Americans just because he represents a racist militarism they confuse with honor and "greatness." And Israel's style of "freedom" -- which is really a wretched form of racism -- is seen as the fulfillment of a divine promise, one that is repeatedly reaffirmed by the murder of unarmed protesters. As we glorify we also adulterate. Do nations have karmic-shaped destinies? It just might be so.
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