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May
21, 2003
Graham's
God and George's Evolution
Depression
and Devotion: the Bush Pathology
By Dr. GERRY LOWER
George W. Bush was appointed into the White House
as a proudly born-again "Christian," and his "compassionate"
conservative administration entered the White House accordingly,
as if it had a mandate from the gods, when it didn't even have
a mandate from the people. Following the terrorist attacks of
September 11th, George has answered to a higher calling and signed
America up in the millennial religious struggle against "evil"
in the world. George's self-proclaimed "crusade" against
terrorism has become the new and larger American assignment,
having entirely eclipsed America's centuries-long struggle to
become a democracy.
Operationally, George's vision translates
into the Orwellian notion of preserving American "freedom"
by eliminating American rights, maintaining a self-righteous,
neo-imperialistic attitude toward the "old" world's
democracies, and promoting a militaristic expansion of American
power in the name of America's war on terrorism. All of this
is brought to you, as they say on Sesame Street, by the letter
"C," "compassionate" conservatism, consumerism
and corrupt crony capitalism.
In light of George's dynastic family
past, it is possible to wonder why George would feel so duty
bound to nourish the conservative sociocultural world which caused
him decades of dysfunction as a young man. Why would he invest
in a sociocultural world which provided him with no interest
in education, a good deal of interest in alcoholic escapism,
and little or no ability to survive on his own in the business
world of his social class?
Having finally found sobriety in Billy
Graham's concept of deity, George learned to accept as personal
fact that he had largely wasted two decades of his life jagging
around as the spoiled son of money, privilege and power. Having
achieved this personal epiphany, it was by giving himself over
to Graham's god, that George has been able to rid himself of
alcoholic indecision and indirection. In return, Graham's god
has provided George with righteous self-justification. While
one might hope for a president who is knowledgeable, thoughtful
and caring, George doesn't need to be any of these things, because
George is right in the eyes of the god who keeps him sober.
George's devotion to his Grahamic god
has saved him from a life of alcoholic failure and chronic bailouts,
no doubt. George has found his theological calling as a "dry
drunk,", now able to be smug and belligerent without drinking
a drop, as testimony to the great healing power of Graham's god.
From this self-righteous mindset, George has declared that America
(and the crony capitalism for which it has come to stand) is
transcendent of all traditional western notions of morality,
no compassionate forgiveness, no religious vengeance, just raw
unprovoked military aggression. America's dominant position in
the world is assumed to reflect the wishes of Graham's god and
America is, therefore, justified in contemplating pre-meditated
and unprovoked violence against all who are seen as a threat
to the new unilateralist "American Way."
In the course of this personal evolution,
George has come to accept that he was a black sheep in the Bush
dynastic family, that he was saved from himself by Graham's god,
and that he has since been blessed by that god with a transcendent,
religious reason for being in power. Given that George's dynastic
family has made his survival and his "success" possible,
it is necessarily in George's interest to see himself as duty
bound to those responsible. George, the prodigal son, has found
his way back home to make his family proud. It was he who was
out of line all along wasn't it now, all praise Graham's god.
This approach to the comprehension of causation in one's life
is, by now, classically "American" in that it only
goes back one step in thought. Under the aegis of consumerism,
for example, food comes from grocery stores and housing comes
from real estate agencies, nevermind the farms and ranches and
timberlands. For decades now, American consumers have believed
that they need only go back one step in thought, to the retail
outlets and to the common denominator required at all of them,
i.e., money.
Likewise, personal causation in George's
life did not start one step ago with his devotion to Grahamism,
nor did it start with his earlier devotion to alcoholism. As
with even "common" people, personal causation in George's
life started back in the family, where the parenting which he
experienced must be considered as a factor in his early lack
of self-discipline and self-respect and, therefore, his lack
of parental respect.
In other words, if George took a natural
historical look at his situation, beginning with his beginnings,
he would see that there are necessarily direct and indirect reasons
for his having spent his first two adult decades in alcoholic
failure, both as a dis-interested student and as a would-be businessman.
George must know that he was not really such a "bad"
kid, that there were home-bound reasons for his depression and
his penchant for alcoholic escape, his inability to find a mature
footing upon which to grow.
From what kind of world do you suppose
George was so desperately and for so long seeking to escape?
What was the nature of the parental world that would drive a
young man into a life style of alcohol and meaningless relationships?
What parental impositions would produce a young man with little
interest in personal growth and self-improvement? What sins of
commission? What sins of omission?
This is the introspective subject area
to which George ought really devote considerable personal attention
in the interest of self-comprehension. It would certainly make
him a better president to better know himself. Do you suppose
that George turned to alcohol and "good" times because
he was raised in a world in which he was personally insignificant
and inconsequential? Do you suppose that George lost his way
because he was exposed to nothing that had meaning for him, nothing
that made sense to his nascent self? Do you suppose that George's
wealthy and powerful parents were so busy with matters of pomp
and circumstance, matters of security and securities, that George's
needs were oftentimes treated with benign neglect (which is never
very benign)? Do you suppose young George went off the deep end
because he got everything he wanted and very little he needed?
Do you suppose that if George thought
about his life on the whole, from the beginning, that he might
see that his youthful depression and escapism were understandable
if not justifiable, given his dynastic family experience? Do
you suppose that George might come to see that he was perhaps
not all that wrong as a rebellious youth, more like over-protected,
over-pacified and neglected? Do you suppose that George might
come to see that had he been provided what all young people need
at home, a loving, honest and time-intense parental relationship,
he might have avoided two decades of meaningless escapism? Is
it not entirely possible that George could have departed the
parental nest to do just fine as an adult, not as a politically-appointed
and manipulated president, not as a self-ordained religious hack,
but as an honest, thoughtful and caring individual making honest
contribution to the country and the people he could love?
Think back, George, to the days before
you sold yourself out. What exactly about your home life was
bothering you?
Dr. Gerry Lower
lives in Keystone, South Dakota. He can be reached at: tisland@enetis.net
Today's
Features
CounterPunch
Wire
"Terror" Slut Steve Emerson
Eats Crow
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A Letter to Kofi Annan on Powell's Missing
Evidence
Ross
Vachon
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Refuge of Goofy?
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Matt
Vidal
Corporate Media and the Myth of the Free Market
Michael
S. Ladah
The Fine Print to Bush's Road Map
Robert
Fisk
Bush's Eternal War Backfires
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Jonathan
Freedland
Ann Coulter's Appalling Magic
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
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