As Bonhoeffer wrote in what was later published as ETHICS, “At such a time as this it is easy for the tyrannical despiser of men to exploit the baseness of the human heart, nurturing it and calling it by other names. Fear he calls responsibility. Desire he calls keenness. Irresolution becomes solidarity.
Brutality becomes masterfulness, Human weaknesses are played upon with unchaste seductiveness, so that meanness and baseness are reproduced and multiplied ever anew. The vilest contempt for mankind goes about its sinister business with the holiest of protestations of devotion to the human cause.”
With this present administration we see a similar attempt to turn “values” upside-down. A supposed concern for human life masks use of torture, denial of Geneva Convention relevance, and starting war without justifying evidence. A supposed dedication to freedom and the establishment of it in other countries hides the despising of the same freedom. U.S. government-established secret prisons in other countries, wire/cell-tapping without prior warrants and use of force to “establish democracy” transforms freedom into a joke. Fear becomes a tool for maintaining power. Those who oppose the leader’s decisions become unpatriotic, unrealistic, and unwilling to “stay the course.” Corporate powers link hands with leadership to deny or subvert attempts to avoid environmental disaster.
The point is that we find America in a values crisis. As a society, we often leave the field to those who would turn our values upside down. We may be relatively comfortable personally, but our nation is at a crossroads. It hurts to hear some political candidates continue to prioritize militancy, war, and fear over everything else. It bothers one to see “peaceniks,” pro-choice advocates, and gay and lesbian persons targeted, while our administration has championed war, torture, denial of freedom, alignment with the powerful rich and environmental unconsciousness.
Will America ever wake up to what has transpired by this present administration? Many of us hope so.
Rev. Earl R. Modean, Bend
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 5, 2008.
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Sheffield makes some good points. How come these Buybull thumpers compassion only extends to their sanctimonious left wing Bush hating counterparts who think exactly like they do? Wasn’t the Buybull philosophy inclusive of everyone on the planet?
I’m sure this sanctimonious hypocrite Modean never lost a moment of sleep over the plight of the Iraqi people under Saddam. Those ‘feraners over yonder’ aren’t even humans are they, Modean? Certainly they don’t rise to the level of compassionate awareness or even casual concern.
The idea, the concept, that force must sometimes be used to remove cancerous murderous despots is a novel and outrageous idea that never got beyond the toothpick hanging off their lip or the ever present Buybull clenched in their feverish fist.
The concept that every cause has an effect doesn’t even enter these folks dogmatic brain. If we stopped the war today, the aftermath that ensued and the utter destruction that followed would come as a complete surprise to these folks, “Holy Mackeral, what do you figger caused that there?”
I’m sick to death of these fake Christians, with their fake philosophy, their fake compassion, their strict adherence to non-thought, the single minded, dull eyed, lizard like, rhythmic chant of I hate Bush, I hate Bush.
This simplistic one track mind Bush hater, Modean, is of the ilk that chastises the Bush Administration for going to war without a plan to deal with the aftermath… Yet these same sanctimonious hypocrites want to stop that same war, and have no plan to deal with the catastrophic aftermath. Yes, Modean, there will be an aftermath, you can bet your well thumbed, well thumped, but content hypocritically ignored, Buybull (thanks Ginny!) on it.
“Bush Lied,” they yell to the rooftops…but can point to no lie, other than their own, when asked to clarify.
“an illegal war,” they trumpet… but can point to no actual law breaking… no illegality to support their baseless claims, which clearly are based on mere hatred, not fact.
We have a word for baseless claims based on politics, based on hatred… it is PROPAGANDA. This Modean is spouting opinionated propaganda… and has no facts whatsoever to support his biased, baseless mutterings.
You speak of values, Modean, yet appear to have none of your own. Compassion? You see no value in that. Reasoned rhetoric? You see no value in that. Truth? You see no value in that. Reality? You see no value in that. Love of country? You see no value in that. Adherence to the philosophy of the Buybull? You see no value in that. The one issue you seem familiar with, hate, is not a value. So did the Bush Administration drain you, Modean, of all your lost value system? Or did you do that yourself?
You call yourself a Reverend. This indicates a ‘reverence’ for something. The only reverence you appear to possess, is a reverence for hate and dis-information. Did you learn that in the Buybull?
Values are subjective.
Saddam killed, on average, 24/7/365 for over 30 years, 176 people a day. Modean argues that putting a stop to that, “turns his values upside down.”
Saddam had rape rooms where thousands of women were tortured, raped and murdered. Modean argues that putting a stop to that, “turns his values upside down.”
22 million Iraqi’s have now formed a new democracy by being allowed to vote in open elections for the first time in a lifetime. Modean argues that, “turns his values upside down,” and further argues that this new found freedom is “a joke.”
Thousands of Al Qaeda have been killed in Iraq by Coalition and Iraqi forces. Modean argues that, “turns his values upside down.”
Modean States, “those that oppose the leaders decisions become unpatriotic, unrealistic and unwilling to ‘stay the course.'”
When your country is at war and you spout lies and propaganda detrimental to that country and that war, that might be called “unpatriotic’ by many of us.
When you push for a ’cause’ with mindless disregard for the probable ‘effect,’ some might see that as the definition of “unrealistic.”
When you push to NOT ‘stay the course,’ presumably those of us with cognitive ability would logically figure out your intent is to not ‘stay the course.’ That shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
So, you see that some of us have value systems that are ‘right side up,’ and some of us have value systems that are ‘turned upside down.’
I prefer “right side up.”
Spare me the sanctimonious drool about how we went into Iraq to free the po’ oppressed Iraqis from the eeeee-vil tyrant Saddam. That whole spin is completely bogus. In the first place, we had no objections to the eeee-vil tyrant Saddam for 20 years — in fact we even treated him as an ally for a period and provided weaponry to him. In the second place, freeing the po’ oppressed Iraqis was never mentioned in the run-up to the invasion — it was only after the administration’s stories about Saddam’s WMDs had been exposed as lies that the rationalization of freeing the po’ oppressed Iraqis was invented (along with several others, like “we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here,” which is the exact same bullshit the right wing spouted during Vietnam — seen any Viet Cong in downtown Bend lately?).
Do you think Americans would have gone along if Smirky McChimp had said, “I want to spend a trillion dollars and get 4,000 of our troops killed to free the po’ oppressed Iraqis”? Yeah, right.
“”Bush Lied,” they yell to the rooftops…but can point to no lie …”
A chart of Bush’s lies about Iraq: http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/07/22_lies.html
That’s just hitting the high spots.
Of course the diehard Bush defenders (aka “the 19-percenters”) will now claim that Smirky was the victim of “faulty intelligence,” but as the famous Downing Street Memo put it, “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” Smirky & Co. had made up their minds to invade and they cooked the intel to try to justify it.
HBM: No one said that was the reason for going into Iraq…that was the result, some of the benefit that logically would follow the war. Cogitate on that for a while, perhaps you’ll eventually divine the difference. Perhaps not.
I have never defended Bush. All I have ever asked is that you HA’s think about what is going to happen when we pull out and spend at least a moment or two admitting that you haven’t a freaking clue and whats worse, you don’t give a crap how much murder, rape, torture, death and destruction results from your mindless, hate Bush simplistic stupidity, only where you can lay the blame, assuming the great unwashed is even more stupid than you HA’s are, which is probably mathematically impossible.
Further, the likelihood Al Qaeda will end up with 4 billion worth of Iraqi oil to finance their adventures against us, has never, ever occurred to the HA’s, or the simplistic realization that what follows this event will be an even bigger expenditure of treasure and life when we have to go back in…Why? STUPIDITY!
This whole anti-war fiasco isn’t about politics, it’s about the inability of the HA’s to stop for a moment and dwell in the present moment…and have the simple wit to comprehend the, “what do we do now?” is not a function of undoing history. Stopping the war doesn’t mean there never was a war. That is a new cause that has a new effect. If you do something and you have no idea what the effect will be…that is the definition of stupidity.
HBM: You are actively promoting the mindless “take action without a clue about the effect of that action,” that all you HA’s castigated Bush for. If that isn’t stupid, it’s at least dull-normal, wouldn’t you say?
HBM: No, I have not seen any Viet Cong in Bend, but I saw 19 Islamic assholes in New York and Pennsyvania a while back…seems like they killed about 3200 of us, give or take…but then, you HA’s are now saying that never happened…we just dreamed it…or Bush did it…
It seems your spin has a pretty severe wobble goin’ on…but that’s nothin’ new…
I’m a Democrat, who, if I must have a further label, would probably categorize myself as moderate and am a regular reader of the Source. This is the first time I’ve posted here.
I object to HBM mocking Iraqi casualties and then calling those offensive statements ‘truth.’ That is not truth, that is hate speech and should be condemned by all right thinking people, regardless of party affiliation. Where does the ‘truth’ reside in anything he said on this thread?
We Democrats make a serious tactical error when we focus on how we got into the Iraqi war. What practical difference does that make once we are in war? We shout, “Bush lied!” So what? All of this useless ‘after the fact’ rhetoric doesn’t solve a damned thing. If you find yourself caught up in an avalanche, what is be gained by pissing and moaning about how pointless it was to go rock climbing? If we are prescient, we should reside in the ‘now.’ We are at war ‘now.’ Much mention has been made about cause-effect. We need to pay attention to that, because it is absolutely true. If one hates a certain fire, and one feels obligated to pour something on it, does it make sense to pour gasoline on it?
We Democrats, if we are to succeed long term, must approach this war issue on an intellectual level rather than whipping our hate into a frenzy of stupid reaction. Lizards react. Hopefully, we possess more wisdom than a lizard.
This is where HBM fails. He fails to recognize that to be against mindless reaction based on hate is not necessarily right wing, it just might be right thinking by fellow citizens who have no ‘wings’ at all. All those against stupidity should not be labeled ‘right wing’ as HBM routinely does, for doing so crowns the opposition as the ones with wisdom. ‘Smearing’ the right wing as being more cognitive will likely backfire and is utter folly. If the right wingers are the smart guys, what does that make us? If we plunge the world into further chaos because we react to hastily, having not thought this through, we all lose. I have not seen Miller talk, even once, about how to deal with the effects of what he and Modean and many other Democrats propose. That is both foolish and shortsighted, not positions I’m comfortable with or want to be associated with.
Until we Democrats come up with a real plan to deal with real and current issues, we would do well to sit down and shut up.