More Rules
Do not torture or else your people will get tortured. Do not discriminate or else you will be discriminated against. And if you torture and discriminate, if you work the polls to suppress voters and lead a racist-baiting government, you can't tell anyone else in the world that they can't do those things, too.
Take Russia (please). Vlad Putin is setting up a doozy of a fascist state there. He's the best there is at eliminating dissent and a free press. Don't mess with this guy. But who has the moral high ground to criticize him? Not the US.
Oh, maybe we did six years ago. But no more.
I'm all for breaking rules. I break them all over the place, all day every day. When I am presented with a rule, I always ask: why?
But that's the difference between me and the Junta members. I ask 'why' and respond to a reasonable (or self-interested) explanation. They simply do what they want, and expect that their life of privilege and status will cover for them as it always has. They act in ways they want to regardless of consequences because they've lived consequence-free for their whole lives.
For example, the rule is that you show up for work every day of the week. If you are going to be late or absent, you call ahead.
Why?
Because otherwise you lose your job, and your credibility suffers. When you go for your next job, you have to figure out how to excuse the fact that you were let go before for absenteeism. It goes to trust - a new employer can't trust that you will do for them what you refused to do for the last guy. So - by being late and missing days of work without notice or reason, you not only lose your current job, but you hurt your ability to get jobs in the future. Pretty simple - pretty real.
But that's not how Bush's are raised. Georgie was raised in an atmosphere of extreme indulgence and wealth. There was never a reason to go to work. There was never a consequence to bad behaviour. If you wanted to get out of Vietnam, you want to fly Daddy's jets. If you'd rather drink and do drugs than fly planes, well, you just go do that now.
Want an oil company? We'll buy you one. Run it into the ground? We'll buy it out. Nevermind all the working stiffs Georgie left jobless in the wake of his failed business career.
That's why we are where we are today. Georgie has a religious certainty in himself stemming from the fact that he has been spared all repercussions of failure for his entire life. In a sense, he has never failed. There was always someone there to play Sugar Daddy and bail him out.
Until he pushed his luck with the lives and treasury of (what used to be) the greatest nation on earth. Like a problem gambler, he raised the stakes continuously until he was bankrupt. There's nobody left who can pick up this cheque. There's nobody to pay the bill.
But for Georgie, that's okay. He's just treading water at this point. You get the sense that he doesn't even want to be president at this point. He just wants to get through the next two years without anything worse happening.
The way to do that, he figures, is to stay status quo in Iraq (losing too slowly for people in his base to notice), pushing dictatorial policies that the new Congress will laugh at and then investigate, and (finally) using a veto on any legislation that will give the poor and working class a fraction of the government support he's thrown at the rich all these years.
The rule about breaking rules is this: know the rule that you are breaking and know your reason for breaking it. And when you start a sentence with the word "and," know that it's not correct but will give you the effect that you want.
You don't invade countries for personal reasons. You don't invade countries if you can't demonstrate clear cause. Why? Because what are you going to say to China about Tibet? If Iran decides to take over Yemen - why not? What do you say? It's only right when we do it?
When Saudi Arabia imprisons and tortures Americans - what do you say? We've got a bunch of Saudi's hog-tied on a water board. Had 'em there a few years now. Want to trade political prisoners?
Take Russia (please). Vlad Putin is setting up a doozy of a fascist state there. He's the best there is at eliminating dissent and a free press. Don't mess with this guy. But who has the moral high ground to criticize him? Not the US.
Oh, maybe we did six years ago. But no more.
I'm all for breaking rules. I break them all over the place, all day every day. When I am presented with a rule, I always ask: why?
But that's the difference between me and the Junta members. I ask 'why' and respond to a reasonable (or self-interested) explanation. They simply do what they want, and expect that their life of privilege and status will cover for them as it always has. They act in ways they want to regardless of consequences because they've lived consequence-free for their whole lives.
For example, the rule is that you show up for work every day of the week. If you are going to be late or absent, you call ahead.
Why?
Because otherwise you lose your job, and your credibility suffers. When you go for your next job, you have to figure out how to excuse the fact that you were let go before for absenteeism. It goes to trust - a new employer can't trust that you will do for them what you refused to do for the last guy. So - by being late and missing days of work without notice or reason, you not only lose your current job, but you hurt your ability to get jobs in the future. Pretty simple - pretty real.
But that's not how Bush's are raised. Georgie was raised in an atmosphere of extreme indulgence and wealth. There was never a reason to go to work. There was never a consequence to bad behaviour. If you wanted to get out of Vietnam, you want to fly Daddy's jets. If you'd rather drink and do drugs than fly planes, well, you just go do that now.
Want an oil company? We'll buy you one. Run it into the ground? We'll buy it out. Nevermind all the working stiffs Georgie left jobless in the wake of his failed business career.
That's why we are where we are today. Georgie has a religious certainty in himself stemming from the fact that he has been spared all repercussions of failure for his entire life. In a sense, he has never failed. There was always someone there to play Sugar Daddy and bail him out.
Until he pushed his luck with the lives and treasury of (what used to be) the greatest nation on earth. Like a problem gambler, he raised the stakes continuously until he was bankrupt. There's nobody left who can pick up this cheque. There's nobody to pay the bill.
But for Georgie, that's okay. He's just treading water at this point. You get the sense that he doesn't even want to be president at this point. He just wants to get through the next two years without anything worse happening.
The way to do that, he figures, is to stay status quo in Iraq (losing too slowly for people in his base to notice), pushing dictatorial policies that the new Congress will laugh at and then investigate, and (finally) using a veto on any legislation that will give the poor and working class a fraction of the government support he's thrown at the rich all these years.
The rule about breaking rules is this: know the rule that you are breaking and know your reason for breaking it. And when you start a sentence with the word "and," know that it's not correct but will give you the effect that you want.
You don't invade countries for personal reasons. You don't invade countries if you can't demonstrate clear cause. Why? Because what are you going to say to China about Tibet? If Iran decides to take over Yemen - why not? What do you say? It's only right when we do it?
When Saudi Arabia imprisons and tortures Americans - what do you say? We've got a bunch of Saudi's hog-tied on a water board. Had 'em there a few years now. Want to trade political prisoners?
posted by fiduciary at 6:43 PM
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