Delusional

Kurt Vonnegut, a human being...

I've been thinking lately about how this country has allowed itself to come to its present state, where we attack innocent nations, where we imprison innocent persons in secret jails around the world, and where we allow a president to contradict our traditional democratic system of checks and balances, and who in effect now rules by dictat, or signing statements, circumventing Congress and the will of the people time and time again. How has all of this come to pass, especially with regard to the past six years or so? I think I may have come up with the answer, and it is: Delusion. Look at the facts (delusional folks, create a new delusion here). Lied into an illegal war. No hard evidence ever offered for the "threat" put forth by Iraq, because no evidence existed, because Iraq was not a threat. "The Terrists", as the fearless one calls them; who are they, where are they? Are they everywhere, even under our beds? Are these guys anything like "the Comminists", who seemed also always on the verge of taking over, of invading us from Third World poverty outposts like Vietnam or Nicaragua? Yes, Americans love their delusions; we love to tell tall tales about ourselves (the good), and everyone else (i.e., the bad). And we love to live within our delusions; it's really the only way to explain how a verbally challenged, gentleman's C student, and the real powers behind him, could have ever gotten ahold of the levers of power in this country, and held onto them. He could not have done it all by himself. He needed the support of those who believed, delusionally, that he was a "good Christian", simply because he proclaimed himself one. That talking in a twangy voice some how gives one "homespun credibility". That a Christian would or could or ever be directly responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 persons (and yes, those Crusaders of old, were deluded too). Living within a delusion allows one to do terrible things, and claim that they're really quite wonderful things.

I've been reading a work by Kurt Vonnegut, who died recently. He was a POW in WW II. Of the Germans. Like my uncle. He experienced directly the power of a national delusion gone terribly insane. And thinking. About Christianity, about how the teachings of Jesus have been warped to serve power. About the delusional followers of this new (or not so new?), false brand of Christianity, and their role in our current state of affairs. And about the Buddha, whose teachings, so similar to those of Jesus before those were later warped and twisted very early on, is many times shown in the pose of the Lotus Position, seated cross-legged with one open hand in a teaching pose, and one hand layed over a knee with index finger touching the ground. This means that all of what he is about to teach, is grounded in the Earth, and of the Earth, and from the Earth, and not from the Sky or from some other otherworldly realm. The true, original teachings of both Christ and Buddha, were meant to clear away delusion, I believe, not to create them in the interests of power.

Sinclair Lewis, the author of "Babbitt", wrote that when Fascism came to America, it would come as a Cross, wrapped in a Flag. In other words, it would be a uniquely American brand, not German, and not Japanese. I would only add to that that it will finally come when the people have allowed themselves to become completely overtaken by their own delusions, delusions that are without the benefit of terra firma to hold them up. To put everything beyond the veil, even one's own sensibility, I think, is just asking for trouble.