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Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
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by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
January 5, 2008
From a political science perspective, the current iteration of the
US system needs to be classified as a commercial empire. Our real
leaders (who consistently ignore electoral politics except to fix
the results and corrupt the process to their benefit) are the heads of the
giant US multinational corporations and the banks that fund them.
Historically, the closest parallel with our empire was that of the
Dutch, who for a while dominated global trade. At one point in the
history of the Dutch empire they started a war with their
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neighbor
France and proceeded to sell France the armaments to pursue this war
against them. When asked, a stadholder (roughly equivalent to one of
our dominant CEOs) explained that the Dutch had to sell arms to their
enemies "because the profits were so good." Apparently it can be
profitable at times to cut your own throat.
This may be one of those cases George Santyana warned us about when
he proclaimed, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it."
In these massively confusing times, only one thing is totally clear to
me about the US. It is being scuttled for the sake of the profits
that are being made in the process of its destruction. This
conclusion is well supported by every aspect of economic and
demographic data available from the
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last few decades. Exporting
industrial capacity, the impoverishment of an ever-larger segment of
society, the failure to support education and health care,
intransigence on the issue of global warming, disastrous wars,
astronomical debt leading to a tanking of the currency, you name it.
When I attempt to have a discussion about this with folks, especially
folks that self-identify as progressive, I often get extremely
negative responses. There's an almost total rejection of the whole idea that
our commercial leadership is deliberately destroying the US in
pursuit of profit. I hear only the emotional response, "What a
ridiculous idea" or "That makes NO sense" -- but never a reasoned
argument supported by evidence to contradict the idea that the
country is being deliberately destroyed by its owners for the sake of
short-term profits.
This is frustrating in the extreme for me, since the reality of the
proposition seems totally supported by all available facts. Why do so
many people fail to see what is so clear? I remind myself that
emotional equilibrium is much more important to the human animal than
the acquisition of any rational insight that might disturb that
equilibrium. Hence, those of us that, for some reason, are able to
keep our emotional equilibrium, such as it is, as well as absorb
disturbing insights have the unsettling experience of trying to warn
people and receiving in return only scorn and annoyance. It's kind of like
being in a crowded theater that is burning
down around the audience, attempting to warn them, and being shouted
down because we are interfering with the show.
Some would say that we are encountering the phenomenon of emotional
denial, but I think it is more than that, and less. It is more than
simple denial because the phenomenon is so widespread. And it is less
than that because, unlike the usual resort to denial, nothing is
threatening these people personally. No loved one has cancer. No
child is an addict. It is just that the story that people want to
hear about that part of their identity that encompasses citizenship,
the narrative about who we are as a nation, has to be a happy one, or
at least one that promises a happy ending.
Unfortunately, in these
sorts of situations there cannot be a happy ending. The best we can
hope for, in the wake of decades of accepting a false understanding
about the politics of our country, is a very painful transition from
pride to punishment.
As long as we continue to be a nation designed for and dedicated to
commerce, as long as pocketbooks rather than consciences are the
crystal balls we consult to evaluate our futures and make political
decisions, then the best we can hope for as a people is that, when we
are finally sold down river, perhaps our new masters will be kind.
There is a sort of poetic justice in all this after all. Live by the
dollar, die by the dollar.
© by the author.
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Unfortunately, in these sorts of situations there cannot be a happy ending.
The best we can hope for, in the wake of decades of accepting a false understanding about the politics of our country, is a very painful transition from pride to punishment.
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