AMERICAN MASS PSYCHOSIS

In this figurative (and I suspect original) sense, "national solipsism" is a belief, still better an attitude, that the world beyond our borders is just what I want it to be and believe it to be, and nothing more. To Bush and his neo-con handlers, ours is an uncomplicated world free of unintended consequences. This world need not be studied in order to be understood – the opinions of experts are of no interest. Rather, the state of the world is best apprehended by gut feeling. So we are free to violate a batch of treaties, to defy the United Nations, and to invade an unthreatening country. And what will the excluded community of nations think of this behavior? How will the Arabic and Islamic nations react? Can they retaliate in any troublesome way? We don't know and we don't care. Anyhow, we can always bribe or bully our way through, as we did when we collected the coalition of the willing. In brief, in the world of the "national solipsists," our nation is the sole actor; all other nations are completely passive.

And

Solipsism, or "subjectivism gone mad," is reflected in Bush's attitude toward science, and in the consequent policies of his administration. According to the Bushevik subjective metaphysic, the physical world is also just what we want it to be, scientific expertise and proof be damned. And so, when the threat of global warming is affirmed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change, consisting of 2000 of the leading atmospheric scientists of the world, and when the IPCC findings are confirmed by the National Academy of Sciences, the Bush regime responds by shooting the messenger – by arranging the firing of the IPCC Chairman, Thomas Watson. Furthermore, the Bush EPA then removes a section on climate change from its annual report. Similarly, Bush energy policy is apparently based on the belief that petroleum reserves are infinite – contrary to scientific information and economic statistics. "We don't want to believe what the scientists tell us, so it ain't so."

This is actually a pretty good read. However, I disagree with the notion that the Bush administration is insane. I believe that things are exactly as they appear: the President is a moron; the right-wing extremists who pull his strings know exactly what they are doing and what the consequences are, but feel completely justified in their actions. In other words, these guys are some cold-hearted, hardcore motherfuckers. Not crazy, just bad.

Besides, we don't really want any ideological foundations being laid for any eventual insanity defenses at any future trials, do we?

Thanks to J. Orlin Grabbe for the link.

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