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CounterPunch
February
12, 2003
Manifest Destiny
Rides Again
Justifying Plunder
by CHARLES SULLIVAN
American history was built not only upon actual
events; it was also built upon an idea that became known as manifest
destiny. The phrase 'manifest destiny' was coined by an influential
editor, John L. O'Sullivan in 1845. It reads in part:
"...the right of our manifest destiny
to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which
Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment
of liberty and federalitive development of self government to
us. It is a right such as that of the tree to the space of air
and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle
and destiny of growth."
The seeds of manifest destiny arrived
on the shores of North America with the landing of Christopher
Columbus. Since then it has been the ruling principle behind
American imperialism, capitalism and ultimately world domination.
Manifest destiny is the creed of capitalistic expansion that
is responsible for armed conflicts around the world. It is the
unquestioned religion of America that also bears a strange resemblance
to the ideology of the cancer cell.
The history of the US has been an unbroken
chain of events that is carrying us into a future of unspeakable
violence and misery. The doctrine of manifest destiny was then,
as now, essentially racist and bigoted in its world view. Let's
not forget that it was this paradigm of superiority in the eyes
of a god made in their own image that not only permitted, it
provided the spurious moral authority for the genocide of the
American Indian, the plunder of the land for its resource value,
the theft of the land from its original inhabitants, the enslavement
of the Negro, subjugation of women and endless war on the poor.
What manifest destiny has done to America it will, if left to
its own devices do for the entire world.
It is this same essentially religious
spirit that is behind the spread of capitalism to all parts of
the planet. If we allow this unjust and inhumane conquest to
move across the world, we can expect the continuation of the
mass murders that America has always purveyed, the continued
theft of land from sovereign nations, destruction of biological
and cultural diversity, slavery, and the wholesale conversion
of other religious sects to one world religion--that of manifest
destiny, Christian fundamentalism, and capitalism. This is what
is really meant by the New World Order extolled by George H.
Bush at the onslaught of the first Persian Gulf War. Thus, the
terms manifest destiny and capitalism are interchangeable. They
mean essentially the same thing. Christian fundamentalism has
too often provided the bogus moral authority behind the precepts
of manifest destiny and capitalism.
What we are witnessing in Bush's rush
to war with Iraq is a continuation of manifest destiny. The rich
white men who are running the American government---Bush, Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Rove, and the corporations that own them
believe they are superior to the brown-skinned Iraqi people;
just as the early puritans and missionaries thought themselves
superior to the American Indians they slaughtered by the thousands.
As seen through the wide angle lens of American history, this
is not strictly speaking Bush's war--it is capitalism's war.
We've seen the same thing happen again and again, regardless
of who was occupying the Whitehouse; whether Republican or Democrat;
Progressive or Conservative. Endless war is necessary to feed
the insatiable engine of capitalism. The assumption of moral
superiority and therefore greater worth is dangerous, because
it sanctions and rationalizes the slaughter of innocent people
and the theft of their land. Under such religious authority these
atrocities are, in effect, the will of God and therefore right
and just.
So deeply imbedded in the American psyche
is the precept of capitalism and its twin---manifest destiny
that few of us even bother to question it. But the more we buy
into these lies the harder it will be to extricate ourselves
from them.
As a society we are so ashamed of our
own history that we cannot give it an honest rendering in our
schools and in our history books. We tremble to face it. It is
for the same reason that the president and his henchmen go before
the world and tell lie after lie; they are too ashamed of what
they are really doing to publicly admit it. They are living in
constant denial of the truth; but the world knows what they are
doing.
Violence stems from ignorance and fear.
We have bitter, conniving, gluttonous, clutching, fearful people
who are running the government. They are a danger not only to
us but to the whole world. Most importantly, we must understand
that capitalism is inherently unjust and undemocratic by nature.
However, if we insist upon treating only
the symptoms of disease rather than the underlying causes, we
will earn a future that is no better than our past and almost
certainly much worse. As the world's supplies of fossil fuels
are depleted, the iron fists of capitalism, with its fantastic
array of weapons of mass destruction, will be unleashed upon
the world with ever more devastating results. The death toll
is mounting. Our day of reckoning is at hand. As a people we
must put an end to this madness before it puts an end to us.
Economies, and governments, based upon greed, gluttony, conspicuous
consumption, and waste; the exploitation and enslavement of working
people; the rape and plunder of the land, sea and air--has never
been in the interest of the working people.
If there is ever to be peace in this
world, social justice, equality and environmental health, capitalism
has to go. In the mean time the malignancy is spreading. Let's
not deceive ourselves about why it's happening.
Charles Sullivan
is a veteran wild forest activist, writer and cabinetmaker who
resides on twenty acres of land in the rural countryside of West
Virginia.
He can be reached at: cesullivan@stargate.net
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