As american F16s circle above my city in this otherwise peaceful night, I am filled with curiosity. I wonder about a man so important to have 3500 secret agents, 600 security officers, 200 armed guards, 2 F16s, one helicopter, an army of Croatian police, AVAX plane, a war boat docked at stand by on the Adriatic, a nearby NATO base on stand by and more.. protecting him. George Bush is a man accused of many things, from countless deaths and chaos in Iraq to pushing the world into this invisible yet potentially devastating and perpetual “war on terror”.
But I wonder.. about a man who hugs a “bunny” while people mourn the deaths of their soldiers in Iraq..
Bush is just one small link in a chain that is the US, and most other societies. He just happens to be in the public eye the most. He just happens to talk the most and therefore happens to be the one blamed and scapegoated the most. It is the system, however, that let the evils that happened happen - and YOU are a part of the system.
This interview is most illuminating. Listening to Bush speak makes me think that he actually believes what he is saying and what he is doing. How deeply does he believe it I don’t know. Even if he merely thinks that way because he or his coleagues brainwashed him into it does not necessarily change the fact that he believes it. And he believes he is doing good, no matter how incredibly illogical that view may sound to the rest of us. It would not be the first time to see someone do absolute horrors while actually believing they are for some good - to better the world.
It therefore becomes useless and in fact irresponsible to go around shouting and screaming how evil Bush is and how he is “garbage”, a “dick” or whatever else I keep hearing, when you consider the fact that he is a product of the system, nothing more and nothing else. Mind you, I am not saying that he is not still largely responsible for many of those evils. I am saying that the problem is much more fundamental than Bush (or any particular president or politician himself). And I am saying that the problem has much more to do with consentual citizens of the state than people think.
It is the easiest thing to do, point a finger, shout and scapegoat someone. It takes more wisdom to look deeper, into the more fundamental reasoning. It is indeed rare for people to actually look back at themselves and ask themselves what they might have done to let things be the way they are in their country and the world at large.
Masses of people continue to believe totally incredible things, like that aggression is necessary to protect from aggression, that your nation is better than other nations, that we are being taxed by the state for the common good regardless of having no control over the money we pay for that “good”, that ignorance is strenght because “politics is boring and you’d just rather spend your life having as much fun as possible”, that slavery is freedom because they protect you from threats, that war is peace as long as they’re showing you enough images of a plane crashing into a skyscraper…
Tell me.. who is the evil one here? Some of us could blame ourselves as much as we could blame Bush. For our stupidity, ignorance, closed mindedness, idiocy and apathy. Interestingly some of those terms fit very well to Bush as well, because, after all, he is fundamentally no different than you.
I was bashing on Croatia entering NATO and EU in my last post, without asking the people for opinion and I was saying that democracy is a sham. It indeed is, but it is not only the people in the government that we can blame for such a state of things, we can blame everyone whose belief, consent and support led us to such a state. This is our world. It is not a world built only by the presidents, dictators and big corporations - it is the world built by all of the people living in it. The power that is being concentrated is only the consequence of people being incapable to believe in power of their own, in true freedom and individuality of their own and in the responsibility which that carries.
That said, NATO, EU, ongoing power grabs between super powers - it can hardly be stopped so easily. In fact, considering the context of the world we’ve built, it is even to an extent understandable why does a military alliance like NATO exist, why are countries such as Croatia so eager to join EU. It only takes looking at the global picture of the world as it is to understand the reasons. And if you don’t like it, what are you gonna do about it? Shout angrily on the streets with immature parolas like “Fuck Bush”? It might make you temporarily feel better, but it will not move you an inch towards the solution.
The solution is something more fundamental, but we have to accept that what took us or our predecessors centuries to build cannot and should not be teared down over night. Not only would that be disastrous, but it would lead us into an even worse situation for which, again, we could blame ourselves, not just the power hungry politicians seizing their opportunities. We have to learn to be wise adapters and world changers at the same time, balancing between the two. You build your freedom and success in the world little by little through a careful balancing act between using the system and defying the system while spreading the truly world changing ideas whenever possible and sufficiently safe.
We have to start the process and be firm in pursuing its continuation. We have to make changing the world a part of our lifestyle. And we have to know our direction in order for that pursuit to have any meaning (which immediately writes off the angry mobs of “anti-globalists”).
The world sucks? Well, maybe it is partly because you suck too. How about that? Now what are you gonna do about it? Shout at someone or change yourself?
I believe that to change the world we first have to change ourselves. Humanity is nothing but a consistence of human individuals. If it sucks, it just means too many of us suck and need to become better.
April 5th, 2008 at 7:56 am
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today on Blame Bush. Blame yourself too.Here’s a quick excerptGeorge Bush is a man accused of many things, from countless deaths and chaos in Iraq to pushing the world into this invisible yet potentially devastating and perpetual “war on terror”. But I wonder.. about a man who hugs a “bunny” while … [...]
April 5th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I don’t think of Bush as evil. There are leaders that can be called evil because they betrayed their people, and betrayed humanity, but not Bush. George Walker Bush is a man with whom I disagree on oh so many points, and thus I hate seeing him in a position that powerful, but the people of the US promoted him to president. Twice.
You say that he is a product of the system. I have to disagree — the system of the US has produced men of many an opinion. Still, he was of course shaped — by his family, by US democracy, by the US status as superpower. One could say, though, that “the system” crowned him president.
The EU and Croatia’s membership… I personally am a proponent of a united Europe and thus of the EU. There are many aspects of the current EU (especially the nature and power of the commision) that I dislike, but the EU represents human and civil rights and promotes individual and economic freedom inside its borders — it might thus be a good example for an emerging African Union, or at least for African states. In addition, superpowers of all denominations can be (as history shows) VERY dangerous, since the collapse of the Soviet Union there is a profound imbalance in World power. I think that creating a balance of powers with instututions like the EU is a good step. Also, I hope the EU will help unite the way too divided world.
The NATO, on the other hand, is a military alliance created to extend US power during the cold war, and is, IMHO, despicable.
We must change ourselves, and the EU could help Europeans believe in the lack of irrational national borders. In a way, all successful politicians are visionaries of some denomination, but these visions come in many forms: bad, not good, acceptable, reasonable, good, etcetera. If we assume European unity to be desirable because of increased freedom for Europeans, then the EU and unpopular Croatian politicians might well be doing the right things for the wrong reason, and influencing the people for the better.
When I went to FOSDEM in Bruxelles, it wasn’t like going to a foreign country at all. 15 years ago, I would have had to show a passport to enter Belgium, and I would have needed to mess with Belgian francs. This represents the cornerstones of European unity, and can change us as a people.
April 5th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
> You say that he is a product of the system. I have to disagree — the system of the US has produced men of many an opinion. Still, he was of course shaped — by his family, by US democracy, by the US status as superpower.
Well I see that as the system, especially as you mention democracy - it is the part of the system, the way USA functions. And this is obviously dependent on all people who live there and, no matter how little individually, on a larger scale influence their direction. Indeed, crowning Bush is just one of the results - the wrong man at the wrong time (there is no *right* time to do what was done under his presidence).
> but the EU represents human and civil rights and promotes individual and economic freedom inside its borders
USA promotes the same values. Even here in Croatia Bush has said how we share the values of freedom, democracy and that entrepreneurial spirit can produce great things in a free market. Except for the democracy part I find myself pleased by what is being said. But unfortunately cannot escape the distrust that knowing of the context gave me. If I was to judge USA based solely on what people like Bush are saying about it, I would love it!
Even that many of them may genuinely believe that what they are doing is in the name of freedom, I can’t ignore that they are moving in an opposite direction and that their war is still taking lives around the world, especially Iraq.
So I am compelled to have a similar distrust for the EU. You’d be surprised how close the structure of EU actually is to the structure of the United States. What essentially keeps united states together is the Federal Government which has no power to pass laws on individual states. They merely provide financial incentives towards that and I suppose having a single president keeps people in perpetual belief that they are inescepably one country and one nation.
Europe also has a form of centralized government, but gives its members a level of independence. I just don’t see such a long gap between what EU is today and the form of USA. That said we’re likely looking at what could effectively be USA No.2, only it’s United States of Europe.
And stemming from my distrust in governments I can’t possibly trust a central government. These unions would be good if it were solely lassez free markets powered by equal individuals, not over powering politicians and their big interests, that brought them together. How can you trust an union in which you are enterting without any possibility of recourse, of meaningful opposition. I don’t call that freedom.
April 6th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Indeed, the EU is not perfect. The EU is not per definition holier than the US are. The EU probably limits the power the people have, and the EU makes decisions I disagree with. What want to note is that large state Unions decrease segregation of world population. From your point of view, these Unions can be seen in multiple ways, I suppose: firstly, you could say that the limited independence of nations makes it more difficult to create a reference implementation of a perfect anarcho-capitalist zone. You could also argument that to get rid of worldly authority, humanity has to do so in unity, and to act in unity, we must be united. Thus, every step toward unity would be a good one.
April 6th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Yes, agreed, except for the last part.
The more people live in an union under some sort of a central government the greater number of people we’d need to achieve enough critical mass for that government to cease having power support. Even if that government has limited power, it can still make things difficult once a subjected country wishes to abolish authority over itself.
If however, a given country is independent it takes less people to convince and is hence quickier to establish an anarcho-capitalist society and show the world that it works - which then starts a perhaps slow, but large scale chain reaction as people believe governments and democracy might actually not be a necessity.
So unions, the stronger they are, harder it is to establish a free society. Strong unions with central governments bear too high a risk of centralized power concentration. Hence the only way to unite yet avoid that risk is to maintain a fully distributed system of governance - countries unite, but form no additional government to preside over the union. EU obviously is not that.