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June
9, 2003
Alex
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Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
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Ashcroft is Coming!
Steve Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
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Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
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M.
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His Own Little Country
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Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
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Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
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Dean
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4, 2003
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Hammond
Guthrie
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Perry
The WashTimes'
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June
2, 2003
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Roy
Day of the Jackals
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Madarasz
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& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
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Perry
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May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
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June
9, 2003
Compassionate Conservative
Human
Worth in Bush's America
By DR. GERALD LOWER
Michael Kinsley (Tyranny of the Rich, MSNBC, June
06, 2003) has recently legitimized open discussion of class warfare
in America, and the historical context for this western millennial
trait has been discussed with regard to it's relationships to
fundamentalist western religion (Class Warfare Against the Poor,
CounterPunch, Jan. 30, 2003). Rather than blame Michael Kinsley
for his poor grasp of political correctness, we might also consider
addressing the actual issue.
By all right wing gods, we certainly
do have an awkward time in America with the notions of human
greed and human fairness. The rich are entirely unable to define
or recognize greed. The poor, as a result, seldom experience
fairness. Rather than having fairness as a bottom line, it has
become the reciprocal of greed (greed up, fairness down). As
the driving force of capitalism, greed has been increasingly
in dominion since World War II, maxing out with the current Bush
administration.
Here we are, a nation birthed from the
concepts of fairness and equality, and we have recently produced
the largest gap between the rich and poor in the history of the
human race. The fact that the religious right wing accepts this
as the proper norm for the entire world is really all the proof
needed that the religious right has never been able to grasp
the concepts of fairness and equality. Given our purported American
role of nourishing Democracy at home and abroad, this outcome
ought really be explained to the American citizens so that they
might better appreciate the job their government is doing for
them in the name of fairness.
In sorry truth, our American grasp of
human fairness and equality is right up there with our grasp
of human sexuality, not having a clue what that is about either.
We are, as a nation, rather obsessed lately with the adolescent
notion that penile size matters in sex (yes, "you have mail").
Never mind Whoopi Goldberg's sage advice to men, that they ought
stick their tongues through the hole in a LifeSaver™ and
thats "all I wanna see." Viagra™, likewise, will
never make much of an impact among the lesbian set. Somehow over
the past few millennia, men have simply missed the self-evident
fact that the primary sensual apparatus on the female body is
situated externally. Somehow over the past few millennia, men
have simply missed the simple truth that if you are not making
love with the entire woman, body, mind and soul, then you simply
ain't all the way in anyway. Beneath this "American"
view, my friends, is mythology, ignorance beyond empirical and
experiential comprehension. Men have simply not gotten the message,
have they?
We are, likewise, rather obsessed lately
with the pathetic notion that "greed is good," that
greed is central to the nourishment of democracy in America.
Never mind Kenneth Lay and American dominion by corrupt middlemen
who create or produce nothing themselves. Never mind eating up
the poor to eke a little more money out for the rich. Somehow
over the past two millennia, the right wing has missed the self-evident
fact that the primary causes of unfairness and inequality in
the world are greed and self-righteousness. Somehow over the
past few millennia, the right wing has missed the self-evident
fact that "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could not have existed
if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital,
and deserves much the higher consideration" (Lincoln). Beneath
this right view, my friends, is mythology, ignorance beyond empirical
and experiential comprehension." The right wing have simply
not gotten the message, have they?
Consider the various contributors to
America, for better or worse. On the one hand, we have had leadership
in America which took us in the direction of fairness and equality
in the interest of the values of nascent Christianity and Democracy,
e.g., Jefferson and Lincoln. On the other hand, we have had "leadership"
in America which has taken us in the direction of unfairness
and inequality in the name of the values of Republican crony
capitalism and "compassionate" conservatism, e.g.,
Bush and Cheney. Between these extremes, we can consider the
concept of relative human worth. That range embraces everything
from human genius to human criminality, from knowledgeable creativity
to ignorant destruction, from human healers to human hucksters.
The majority of us live in between these
extremes, aspiring to be neither saints or sinners, being kindly
one day and maybe not so kindly the next, just trying to survive
the unfairness of a harshly competitive, mindless socioeconomic
system. We mostly just vacillate between acceptance and judgement,
indifference and outrage. It is the few at the extremes who provide
our saints and our sinners, either by encouraging us to think
for ourselves, or by encouraging us to allow others ("them")
to think for us, respectively. Speaking directly to this dichotomy
in leadership, Jefferson put it this way in a letter to DuPont
de Nemours, "We both consider the people as our children,
and love them with parental affection. But you love them as infants
whom you are afraid to trust without nurses; and I as adults
to whom I freely leave to self-government."
With the right wing Republican takeover
of American government, capitalism has come to transcend the
traditional western dialectic between liberal (empiricist, New
Testament) and conservative (transcendentalist, Old Testament)
viewpoints, replacing traditional notions of relative human worth
with notions of personal net worth. We have become a nation in
which everything revolves around money, decidedly in service
to mammon (Common knowledge here, people. Deal with it).
Without money, you are no one, you are
nothing, you have no "rights." The concept of personal
character hasn't been recognized by American financial institutions
for decades. Even with an income of $200,000 per annum, you are
next to nothing under "influence-for-a-fee" crony capitalism.
You simply do not have adequate means to be a viable contributor
to the right wing political agenda. You do not have enough chips
to gamble at the crony capitalist table.
Employing a purely fiscal approach to
relative human worth, Bush's self-enabled tax break for 2003
will be the equivalent of what can be earned by working full
time at $20 per hour, a tax savings for Bush more than most Americans
can even earn by working. Not bad for a man who is so self-evidently
challenged in the intellectual, moral and spiritual realms. Bush
is pretty special. Cheney's tax break for 2003 will be the equivalent
of what can be earned by working full time at $150 per hour,
more than the average physician can make by working. Cheney is
enormously special.
And that IS the problem. Cheney is just
too special for human belief, but that doesn't matter to the
self-righteous who question not how they became so special. They
embrace only the notion that they are special, by the grace of
their god. Downplaying every notion of meritocracy is essential
to this embrace.
There simply is no empirical or logical
basis for taking personal fiscal worth as any criterion at all
for evaluating relative human worth. Even the first Christian,
the abused and ignored savior of right wing religion, died penniless.
Even Jefferson accomplished perfection in leaving this life with
pretty much what he had when he entered it, abiding by the self-evident
notion that "you can't take it with you," and failing
to abide by the notion that his offspring were so remarkably
blessed that they ought not have to contribute for a livelihood.
The only rationale for using money as a measure of human worth
comes from the traditional right wing religious notion that personal
wealth is an indication of heavenly favoritism which, in turn,
provides justification for self-righteousness and belligerence
in one's own name and interest. Accordingly, any growing gap
between the rich and poor is necessarily seen as god's will,
never-mind the will of the people.
This approach to self-justification is
the practical equivalent of psychosis insofar as it is a refutation
of empirical reality, a refutation of human reason and a denial
of human history. As Saint Bernard pointed out, "No more
vain than insane." This religious effort to be "right"
for the sake of being "right" is characteristic of
fanatical and criminal thought, characteristic of fundamentalist
religious thought regardless of brand name (William Raspberry,
Uncontested Zealotry gives GOP an Edge, Seattle Times, June 3,
2003). This approach is necessarily devoid of reason because
it sees "special" people as being worth literally hundreds
and thousands times more than a minimum wage worker. This all
makes perfectly good sense to the self-righteous religious right
wing.
To Jefferson, this was utter nonsense.
The members of his American Philosophical Society covered the
range from established scientists and physicians to creative
craftsmen and naturalist farmers. To Jefferson, it was not whom
you knew but what you knew that made you human and worthy of
being a citizen in America. Indeed, the evidence would have it
that America's intellectual fathers were rather modest men, hoping
to convince with logic rather than spin. Jefferson's tombstone
does not even mention that he was president.
Is getting an honest, realistic handle
on the concepts of fairness and meritocracy just too tough for
right wing comprehension? If so, we are going to have to dump
them from the political scene, no other option in a world needing
a little fairness. But not to worry, as the right wing seems
to be doing everything possible to ensure that end on their own.
"The people who should worry most about the credibility
gap are those who support Bush's foreign policy (E.J. Dionne,
Jr., Spinning Away Trust, Washington Post, June 6, 2003)."
Democracy, my friends, is built on trust,
trust in human rights and trust in our fellow humans. Human rights
transcend a posteriori religious law looking for someone to punish.
The most important laws in a democracy are a priori laws designed
to prevent people from falling through tears in the social fabric
(remember the 60s?). The only absolute law in a true democracy
is the law that you must think for yourself and make your own
decisions. Everything else follows from that one law in a government
of, by and for the people.
Dr. Gerry Lower
lives in Keystone, South Dakota. He can be reached at: tisland@enetis.net
Weekend
Edition Features
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
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