- I would rather eat my keyboard than watch the State
of the Union speech, so consider this article an act of sacrificial public
service.
-
- The most irritating thing about the State of the Union
is that we are a captive audience ñ in every way. This guy taxes
us, spends our money on stuff he likes, sends our kids to war on his decision,
lies to us, dares to believe that his personal will is somehow more important
than yours or mine or anyone else's solely because he managed to eke out
a few more electoral votes than Gore two years ago, and to top it off,
expects that we will watch for more than an hour as he prattles, while
his minions interrupt him only to stand and applaud.
-
- Where to begin to criticize? George Bush is the biggest
spender since Lyndon Johnson, increasing federal spending at a rate twice
that of Clinton, and yet he stands up and demands spending restraint, seeming
to blame everyone but himself.
-
- He talks about freedom and opportunity and then brags
about his new bureaucracies, spending programs, mandates, comprehensive
plans, regulations, and goals concerning all our lives, from how our kids
are educated to the cars we drive to the way we care for those in need.
-
- He claims to care for life, decries partial-birth abortion,
but refuses to rule out the use of nuclear weapons in the war he is plotting.
He calls on America to feed the entire world, liberate all its women, educate
all its children, and cure all its sick, even as ghettos rife with every
social pathology languish miles from the White House.
-
- Hypocrisy? He denounces bureaucrats and praises innovation
only to demand a huge new boondoggle program to put researchers on the
dole. Indeed, the underlying assumption behind the entire speech was that
Americaís commitment is identical to his own commitment, which is
reflected in his plans for your money.
-
- Donít write me to say that he wants to cut taxes,
and so we should like him. Every few minutes, we heard spending numbers:
tens and hundreds of millions, tens and hundreds of billions! It is never
too much, and nothing is outside his purview. Indeed, he calls for the
federal government, under his leadership, to "transform" our
"souls." He went further: he says he is defending the "hopes
of all mankind."
-
- His entire foreign policy seems like a massive effort
to incite every terrorist in the world against this country, and otherwise
encourage every small country to arm to the teeth against the US threat.
From the governmentís point of view, such would only increase the
power of D.C., so one has to wonder whether this is the point after all.
And not to nitpick, but how can he at once say that Iraq is despotic for
ignoring the UN even as he brags that he will ignore the UN if he chooses?
-
- "The course of this nation does not depend on the
decisions of othersÖ I will defend the freedom and security of the
American people."
-
- Are these not the words of a dictator?
-
- It's too much! There should be a break at the midway
point, in which we could broadcast messages like: You are our servant,
not our master! Everything you do, you do with our money! There are three
branches of government, and you only represent one! The powers not granted
to you are reserved to the states and the people! You are not king of the
world! The founders envisioned frequent impeachments!
-
- Instead, we must sit and sit and watch a despotic display
that seems like an import from the times of Pharaohs and Caesars, or the
modern world of dictators and commissars. What does this one fellow, holed
up in the White House, living off other people's money, surrounded by sycophants
and pollsters, know about the state of the union?
-
- The speech was particularly bad this year because we
are dealing with a man who has clearly lost perspective. He speaks about
his desire for peace even as he ignores the whole world's plea for him
not to bomb and kill. He talks about a war on terror but the words Osama
Bin Laden never pass his lips. He speaks of all the things the government
will do to make us prosperous even as a two-year track record has failed
to put a dent in the worsening recession.
-
- Indeed, his language seems to reflect a very dangerous
state of mind. He habitually speaks about America as identical to the central
state, and seems to regard that state as incarnated in himself ñ
the entire apparatus of government embodied in his person. His will is
the people's will, the perfect realization of Rousseau's fantasy. But rather
than the language of the French Revolution, he uses the cadences of his
evangelical constituents, invoking God and quoting old-time hymns.
-
- Americans have a hard time recognizing just how fascistically
scary all this is because we are surrounded by it all the time, and we
read and watch a media that rarely draws attention to it. But foreigners
see it.
-
- Hardly a day goes by when I don't receive a call from
abroad, usually from some classical liberal scholar or supporter, who asks
with astonishment: what in the world is going on over there? What is it
that drives this man? Why is your president going to war? Who does he think
he is? How broadly is he supported? Are there no mechanisms available within
your system of government to rein him in?
-
- Well, the speech tonight illustrates the problem. Whereas
Clinton was merely a con man who seemed to revel in his ability to dupe
people, Bush is something more alarming: he may actually believe what he
is saying.
-
- Sadly, there are no mechanisms to restrain him other
than public opinion. Americans are instinctively suspicious of government,
but when it is headed by someone who seems to be a good and sincere man,
they let the head of state get away with murder, particularly the murder
of foreigners.
-
- Just in time, however, it is becoming more obvious than
ever that the economy is not improving.
-
- For 20 months, the business punditry and the government
have been telling us that the economy is not in recession but is rather
only stumbling a bit. Recovery is perpetually underway.
-
- The truth is that we are still in the midst of what even
official data designate as the longest recession in postwar history.
-
- There's nothing like a prolonged recession to end a people's
romance with the head of state, and this seems to be happening. It was
due to internal polling that the speech had an unusual focus on domestic
issues, at least in minutes. But instead of recognizing an obvious truth
that there is nothing the government can do to improve our lot except get
out of the way, Bush has invoked a tired clichÈ: we must rally to
a unified "great cause" that involves serving the government
and serving each other in ways the government approves of.
-
- This man has no idea what a "great cause" is.
In the real world, a great cause is doing something like meeting a payroll,
getting one's kids a good education, paying for college, doing a good job
at work, helping the needy through our churches, maintaining healthy families
and peace at home. These day-to-day details of bourgeois living constitute
the great cause, and it has nothing to do with the government. Nothing
at all!
-
- But in Bush's mind, no cause can be truly great unless
it is endorsed and generally organized by the state. If the great cause
that Bush is seeking won't actually address any real problem that the typical
American may be having, what is the point? It is to "rally the American
people," as they say, which is to say, distract them from the failures
of the state in hopes that they will view the state as the organizing center
for all of society. This is the real point of invoking a great cause.
-
- Everyone says that Bush is a Christian man who has a
strong moral sense and a penchant for prayer. Good. But the Christian religion
offers specific spiritual guidelines for heads of state. St. Augustine
writes in the City of God (Book XIX) of the "Libido Dominandi"
ñ the lust to dominate others. He was speaking of a general flaw
in human nature, to which heads of state are particularly prone.
-
- Augustine cites this impulse as the worst manifestation
of the sin of pride, since it directly seeks to ape God. It can also be
shortened to a more familiar phrase: Power Lust. By way of contrast, Augustine
cites the case of a family headed by a "just man who lives by faith
and is as yet a pilgrim journeying on to the celestial city." There,
"those who rule serve those whom they seem to command; for they rule
not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they owe to others
ñ not because they are proud of authority, but because they love
mercy."
-
- Mercy and peace are causes great enough to consume any
head of state. A just man who heads a government has enough to do to suppress
the lust to dominate, which every "great cause" proclaimed by
every despot threatens to unleash. He got the countryís name wrong,
but Bush was precisely right when he said: "Your enemy is not surrounding
your country. Your enemy is ruling your country."
-
-
- January 29, 2003 Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is editor
of LewRockwell.com. Copyright © 2003 LewRockwell.com
-
- http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/powerlust.html
|