Some people know where they stand. These humans see, know, and realize. They adore their own faces, and some mirrors are crystal clear. To them, there is purpose, there is meaning, and there is a determination to pour our collective natural environment into a specific ideological container. These visionaries have names like Wolfowitz, Zawahiri, Cheney, Bin Laden, Rove, Hussein, and Rumsfeld.
“They exist within a culture of confusion.” -manager/producer David Eliade on the band Fucked Up
Some people know where they stand. These humans see, know, and realize. They adore their own faces, and some mirrors are crystal clear. To them, there is purpose, there is meaning, and there is a determination to pour our collective natural environment into a specific ideological container. These visionaries have names like Wolfowitz, Zawahiri, Cheney, Bin Laden, Rove, Hussein, and Rumsfeld.
They exist in a chinkless suit of armor, and most importantly, they have an unconquerable perspective. It is difficult for unwavering ideology to triumph over real-world truths, but these gifted individuals have a remarkable ability to simplify the complex, to subdue the alternatives, and to remain unconfused.
I cannot do it. I cannot get with a distinct worldview. As appealing and comforting as it would be to have solutions for all possible problems, my mind will not work that way. There are things I don’t know, and even worse, there are questions to which I believe there are no correct answers.
This is my perspective, and it is weak. Of course I have strong feelings about many things; however, I recognize them as feelings. I understand I am tainted by all I touch, and that the things that appear so obvious may have no correspondence to real-world truths.
I understand that the thoughts in my brain are made of emotion, not politics, and the combined mental reality of this planet is an amalgam of a billion unique, self-contained realities.
And this is the point of democracy. Because we are a diverse group of humans with an unlimited number of experiences, perspectives, and belief systems, the closest possible conception of truth should be the only thing left standing after all is said and the falsities on every side have cancelled out.
In fact, I believe this is the definition of truth. It is not a single idea, but a collection of ideas, a summation of an immeasurable series of data. No individual knows the whole reality of how things are, but together we can all know it. And it would be obvious — if we were able to stop and listen.
The most recent National Intelligence Estimate (or at least the four pages that have been declassified) directly refutes the Bush Administration’s claims concerning the War on Terror. It also tears apart the philosophy, strategy, and tactics directing the War.
Yet, despite the contrary on-record opinion from the intelligence agencies that this same administration has staffed, Rove & Co. continues to assert that we are winning, and not only are we winning, but to suggest otherwise is treacherous. I often doubt these people really buy into it. I doubt they understand that this is the line of the typical pre-fascist state. I doubt they think of themselves as potential autocrats. Then I look into their eyes, and I wonder.
In 1942, President Roosevelt decided to suspend the rights guaranteed under the Constitution for a large segment of the American population. Due to the imminent threat of potential spy networks, Japanese Americans were detained in concentration camps until after the surrender of Japan.
Despite the illegality of the directive, both the Roosevelt Administration and the Supreme Court, which upheld the order, defended themselves, saying the possibility of the threat justified the disregard of these Americans’ Constitutional rights. The directive is still being debated; however, the dispute was made irrelevant the moment the first Japanese-American was locked behind a fence. When the President stripped certain people of their rights, he simultaneously stripped all power from the document made to be the Supreme Power. With a signature he turned the thing that rules these lands into a cheap knickknack. Because the document did not stand when it was really tested-when it was supposed to be at its strongest-and because the rules were not followed when they were no longer seen as helpful to the powers that be, the Constitution of the United States of America was shown to be an incompetent fraud.
What was true then is true now. Are we surprised when pieces of legislation like the Terrorist Detainee Bill are passed? It was passed because this whole thing is pretend. The Constitution is a piece of paper in a glass box in a fancy building in Washington, D.C. It is a cheap thrill for people who happen to pay a small admission fee and walk by. It is the bearded lady of the National Archives. It is there with the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Confederation and other obsolete records of a former time. Its only real function is to subdue confusion. Because all the rules are written down and because everybody has a copy, we need never forget how the game is played.
But the game is fixed, and we should be upset. We should be uneasy and insecure, if for no other reason than the Administration’s assertions of pure clarity. They know exactly what they want and exactly how they want it, and they will not have inconveniences slow them down. When they stare into the quagmire that is Iraq, Afghanistan, and the majority of the Muslim World, they feel no uncertainty, and they will not stray from the course. And I find myself trapped in a culture of confusion because I cannot believe it is safe to embrace a world dominated by fanatics.
-Andrew Williams
Illustration by Sacha Eckes