Twilight 'Zona: American Exceptionalism and the Collapse of Civility

"By isolating the case and by depriving it of the right to be

examined in conjunction with the generic whole(and therein

consists the only defense of the unfortunate "delusioned" ones),

you thereby, as it were, not only seal the final verdict against

them, but you even alienate from them mercy itself, because you

are directly asserting that their very errors were caused solely

by their repulsive qualities and that these youths, who even are

guilty of no crime, must arouse contempt and disgust."

----Dostoevsky, "One of the Contemporaneous Falsehoods".

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In the quote above Dostoevsky notes the denial of the Russian

Intellegentsia to honestly examine the Nechaev case. Newspapers

and journals were filled with stories about deluded loners and

exceptionally insane idiots leading the anarchist group's murder

of a doubting member. Nobody could except that a sane and educated

Russian could ever do such evil. Peruse US newspapers after the

recent massacre in Arizona. History is sadly repeating itself. No

way a sane, educated "American" could plan and carry out this

kind of massacre! Mentioning the "Guns and Ammo" rhetoric of

reactionary US politicians was deemed irresponsible and unfair.

No mention of the complete absence of minimal Gun Laws in the

state of Arizona. No mention of the deep economic depression the

US now experiences. All of that is hushed and the actor is considered

a lone acting lunatic and nothing could be done. Lots of pious

hand wringing, no rational analysis of the inability of mental health

services for millions of "Americans" but, absurdly, easy access to

guns for the mentally ill. The thousands of women and children

killed by US drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen

do not merit a mention. Poor dark people are not as human or

innocently sacrosanct as white americans or a politician who

votes to fund the Drone bombing policy.

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Movies and TV glorify guns, explosions and violence. Torture was

glorified on fictional TV series like "24". The plight of US occupiers

in Iraq was wept over in a film that completely ignored over a million

Iraqi dead in "The Hurt Locker". Empire has its discontents for the

poor "Americans" killing wholesale and destroying the social fabric

of a nation. That's mainstream "Liberalism" in the US. "There's no

joy in being the world's largest arms dealer and mass murderer of

poor brown people!" "Torture is okay when we do it to Muslims and

we don't have to see it!" "Nevermind the daily torture of thousands

of prisoners in our own country! They're poor and they deserve it!"

Mainstream "Conservatism" is worse. It feels that any recognition

of something rather than the ardent celebration of US Military power

and excessive support for the inequality of wealth is akin to treason.

They mock paraplegics who ask for healthcare reform as commies.

They kick them and throw dollars down contemptuously and laugh

at their plight.

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Now we have calls for greater Police State measures. Offers to make

laws against dangerous speech. Which is interesting bearing in mind

that most of the inflammatory speech in the US is coming from politicians

and their paid minions in Corporate Media. But Politicians and the Media

Elite can never be held accountable for their lapses. No, the people must

suffer for them. When the Big Banks failed who bailed them out? Who

was punished? The people. In this bizarro world where crimes are committed

by our supposed Government servants and cheered on by their corporate

media claques the criminals walk and the people are punished. If the shooter

in Arizona was Jamie Dimon we'd have editorials and news programs about

how he "never could have foreseen that a loaded gun fired into a crowd of

people would have killed anyone".

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In the US the love of comfort, wealth and success is oddly coupled with an

admiration for guns, military and torture. "Americans" also love to exalt

the wealthy while rushing to scapegoat the weakest and poor of the world

and their own society. Civil Society no longer exists in the US. It is a

consumption culture. Anything that gets in the way of business, comfort

and delusions of exceptionalism must be destroyed. The US is a psychotic

who abhors the truth. When Wikileaks exposed US policy, its policy of war

crime and torture, it was vilified as an enemy that must be wiped out. How are

the US politicians and Media commentators different from Islamic

Fundamentalists who issued Fatwas on Salman Rushdie when they call for

the elimination or assassination of Julian Assange? Americans refuse to

see the madness of their culture. They deny it. When it is shown to them

they either become enraged and call for the destruction of the messengers

or write it off as an aberration not exhibiting the "exceptional" nature of

what being "American" is about. When US citizens see mass murderers,

torturers and high level financial criminals walk and, furthermore, receive

greater rewards despite their heinous acts, why should they have qualms

about "joining the club"? The shooter's acts in Arizona mirror the psychosis

of US policy in the world and in its own society. Unfortunately the US Gov't

never asks for defense because overwhelming power needs none----

But, do not cry, they have an army of well paid claques in the MSM singing

their praises and celebrating the glorious expansion of "Free Markets"

and the eternally unmatched heroism of US Military personnel. So,

remember well, a mass murder committed by a US Citizen is an act of

unexplainable madness and delusion. Mass murder, torture and

destruction of civil society by US elites needs no defense because we're

the greatest nation in the Universe forever.

That's reasonable.