Saturday, September 29, 2007

Rude Neocon Bullies

Rudeness: The state or quality of being impudent or arrogantly self-confident:

Modern America is a country that displays very little of the “social graces”. Rudeness is the order of the day. Rudeness in modern America has different roots. One way that rudeness propagates is through education, or the lack of it. Young people who grow up in today’s world often have no examples of formal courtesy; formal courtesy is seen to be an anachronism among most Americans today. But rudeness is not just the result of a lack of education, it is actively taught to Americans. The world that the TV viewer sees makes the rude man out to be tough, the rude kid out to be smart, the wife that rudely scoffs at her dumb husband to be understandably fed up. Its just not hip to act politely, and unimportant to even understand how to do so. Table manners are gone, we no longer know how to greet people, when to shake hands or how to write a letter. We don’t know how to make others feel at ease, even when we want to.

But there is another kind of rudeness that is a more worrisome phenomenon. That is intentional, arrogant and hurtful rudeness. This is the rudeness that defines the behavior of a bully. This type of purposeful rudeness is also seen on television, but more often during “news” programs, especially on Fox, but also on the other channels. This type of bullying rudeness seems to be the way that the Neocons interact with anyone with whom they disagree. Of course they do this in situations where they are in control.

The Neocons will debate only in situations in which they are in control because they are all cowards; rude self-absorbed cowards that are full of themselves. Bravery implies humility because bravery implies sacrifice. It means that I will put myself in danger in order to help someone else. Through humility we learn empathy and therefore we shun rudeness. Why would I want to gratuitously offend someone? A brave man or woman wouldn't want to. In fact courageous men and women are polite. But a coward is rude, a coward is either at your throat or at your knees, and that pretty much sums up the characters of Bush and Cheney, Rumsfeld and O'Rielley, Limbaugh and Coulter. Cowards that attack with rudeness, who will always humiliate the weak, but will never sacrifice for the good of others.
Lord in Heaven, forgive me but I hate them from the depths of my soul.

Monday, September 24, 2007

War Is The Enemy Of Liberty

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

–James Madison, Political Observations, Apr. 20, 1795