A Dying City Upon a Hill

I live in a nation where it ain't what's physical that fights us
Now it's silent strikes from political insiders
- Deacon the Villain, Cunninlynguists - "Dying Nation"

When tragedy strikes a people, it's easy to look outside for a cause to explain the sudden event. It could be an ideology, a nation, a religion, or, supposedly, a network of terror cells who will die for all three. But rarely do a people look inward, and respond to the situation out of understanding and compassion rather than fear and hatred. Today, tragedy again struck America, in Fort Hood, a military base in Texas, and the new ground zero for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The killing of soldiers on American soil is an uncommonly violent sight, it has shook even those resistant to the wars in Middle East to ask if these wars are, in fact, legitimate and necessary. But others have become even more enraged at the bloody conflicts overseas and view this unfortunate incident as the natural consequence of a destructive foreign policy. I agree with the second cast of anti-war activists. These are the costs of war. Lives are lost, and entire nations become hostage to the inflamed wrath of men. This is what suffering entails - London was under fire during WWII, but it survived. America will survive too, but not without struggle and tragedy. Overseas, two entire countries are besieged, millions have lost their homes, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, some have lost their entire families. Iraqis and Afghans have suffered much grief in this last decade, during which most Americans were presented with war as a video game.

America's destruction of homes and families in Iraq and Afghanistan is very rarely expressed by the news personalities on television, or the president, or really anybody. War, for good reason, is a silent matter in America. This blatant omission of reality by the pentagon and the propagandist media reflects the establishment's demented view that America's wars must be won without the sight of American blood, and grief, because the American people may actually feel something if they see what their complacency produces and do something about it. Such tyrannical hopes by the military and financial establishment are more than delusional, though, they are dangerous. War, if anything, means endless pain and death. And Americans are modern masters of it.

Let’s not forget that drone attacks cause the same amount of human suffering that was inflicted against soldiers stationed in Fort Hood yesterday, the only difference in this case is that judgment to kill was not made by men thousands of miles away from the scene of the crime, but by a man who was engulfed in the horror of war and decided to act out violently at the same place where he heard stories of trauma and blood. Despite never being deployed in a war zone, Nidal Malik Hasan was more battle-hardened than many military personnel. That, of course, doesn’t excuse his unforgivable actions, but it does help explain them.

The sad reality to accept is that the military trains murderers. And this is true of any military. To kill for profit is their raison d'etre. The Armed Forces, like other branches of the State, is an investment. As Gunter Grass said, after discovering Döblin's novel, Walllenstein, "we're still unwilling to recognize that Hitler didn't take over industry, but that the industrialists - Wallenstein's adepts - bought themselves their Hitler," (Grass, On Writing and Politics, p. 14). Forget the misplaced sentimentality. Those who wear the uniform are not heroes, but employees of a war machine owned by ungodly oligarchs, whose job is to kill, destroy, and take the lives of anyone deemed the enemy by the bosses.

Two years ago, when a similar tragedy struck the campus of Virgina Tech, Arthur Silber made some remarks in an essay entitled, "The United States as Cho Seung-Hui: How the State Sanctifies Murder," that are applicable for today:

In our blindness, we have brought ourselves as close to perfection as is possible for human beings: we obliterate and distort the past, we render ourselves incapable of grasping the present, and we blindly plunge into an increasingly desolate future, with all our cognitive abilities rendered permanently disabled.

Further on, Silber adds:

Cho was a detestable, sickening amateur. The governing class of the United States, together with its military of unprecedented strength, are professional killers.

There are hundreds of Hasans in military uniform overseas, and they inflict the same horror on innocent victims in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will again say what needs to be said; these men and women in uniform who are deployed in war zones are not heroes, despite their personal bravery and honor, but killers for the United States oligarchy. That is a simple fact. They are not defending our lives; our liberties, or our values. If my country was invaded tomorrow by an invading army, then I would physically fight and not wait for the military to defend my family, friends, and country. Modern armies do not defend the people, but enslave them.

If I knew my life was in jeopardy from an approaching enemy, I would not depend on men in uniform to protect me, because that is not their job. In a perfect world, these armies would be destroyed. They are not needed for the defense of nations. Citizens of nations, when threatened by foreign intrusion, must, according to natural duty, take up arms and defeat the enemy. And no such enemy has existed since the Nazis. Al Qaeda does not have a navy ship in the banks of Newfoundland. If they did, I would not be writing right now but fighting.

The real enemies modern civilization faces are the hidden manipulators of our various governments, and their desire to implement a world dictatorship is far more threatening than any wish the Muslim genie may have at this moment in history. The corporate system in America has bred a plutocracy, a generation of psychopathic fascists, whose wealth and power rivals the kings and ruling families of the feudal period. These individuals are hell bent on destroying the last vestiges of the country's sacred document, the Constitution, which demands that the government upholds the God-given rights of the people, or else be abolished.

II.

At one time America attracted the eyes of the world for her self-reliance and dedication to do good for her citizens. Today, the country is more like a volcano than a city, and the hill is held up by layers of human carcasses. As Paul Craig Roberts wrote more than two years ago:

The eyes of all peoples are still upon us, only for different reasons. Whom will we attack next? When will we be bankrupt? What good is the American consumer market when the mass of the people are employed in third world jobs? How much longer will those trillions of dollars held by foreign governments be worth anything? How long before Americans will be knocking on European doors claiming political asylum.

Once the purpose of America's mission was forsaken, it was certain that the land of the free would become the absolute antithesis of its founding image. No longer a safe haven for dreamers, the United States today is the home of horror, a nation led by mass murderers living out a Wes Craven script. America's grand promise of liberty was only great because it was born in act of revolution against corrupt tyrants. We admire Jefferson and Washington equally, one without the other is unimaginable. The people of America have aspired to moral heights while at the same time committing cruel acts against their own countrymen, whose color signified an invisible barrier to progress, a barrier that was more devastating in nature than any wall. And if the country has delivered on any of her promises, it is only due to the courage and intelligence of her enlightened citizens, and their uncompromising resistance to the policies of their government during their day. But those moments of resistance were rare. For the most part, America has been a quiet nation.

This promise was, at bottom, a promise against power, made by a political class of men who were inspired by the ancients to re-imagine the ideal of human perfection, and whose intelligence and seriousness far exceeded the challenges of their time. Jefferson, with a swoosh of a pen, affirmed to the whole world that humankind is destined for freedom and the good life, and that America would fulfill this living promise as long as its people kept in agreement with their government. If he were alive today, he would have no words to write on the massive transformations that have taken place.

Washington, too, would be dazzled, for he understood, above all, that power is greedy and brings countries to ruin if it is not put in constant check. It is doubtful that we will ever put the State in checkmate, all the lessons we can draw from history tells us one thing; power conspires to the point of defeat, but once defeated, quickly forgets, and begins to conspire all over again. Jefferson wasn't trying to be a romantic when he suggested a new revolution for every coming generation.

All Americans, of whatever ability or heritage, understand the inherent goodness of this promise; the current puppet in chief sealed his election by identifying himself with it, and the military's growth is predicated on protecting it. And when this promise is spoken, as it has by poets, pastors, and presidents, it has the ability of transforming men into saints, and the future into a shared reality. It is because of this promise that no other people in the modern world have shaped history as much as Americans, and in this sense they can be compared to the Greeks, though, unlike their ancient predecessors Americans are severely lacking in a tragic sensibility.

III.

What is required in our own dangerous times is not an entirely new political philosophy, but simply a redeclaration of independence, as well as a little bit of guts. And some blood, if necessary. Jefferson's words will guide us still, but it will be our neighbors and friends who will inspire us to do good and fight, which in my eyes, are one and the same. We may even need to put aside Jefferson's words and invent new images and promises to serve us in the trials approaching ahead. And while only the dead truly inhabit the shinning city on the hill, it is also our living fate to try and make that city come to life on Earth's ground, which is no less sacred. Before we reach that pedestal, however, we must reflect on our failure to move on from historical tragedies and accept change, especially on an individual level, and on this point I am as much a coward as any other man there is. Change takes a lifetime to accept, that is clear, even for the greatest minds like Goethe, who had to conceive poetry in order to come to terms with the abruptness of modernity.

Goethe realized, through the study of nature, the inborn ability of Man to live out his inner voice. "Man's nature," said Goethe, speaking to Eckermann, "contains some wonderful powers, and it has something good in store for us just when we are the least hopeful." And these wonderful powers still exist in America at the end of the first decade of the twentieth-first century. For the past sixty years, that beautiful country has been tied like a dog of war to an ancient tree, and more mercilessly than other countries because of her unchanging promise that is still possible to be fulfilled, if her powers for good are unleashed.

Also, more than any other country, America embodies the figure of Goethe's Faust. What Nicholas Boyle, an English biographer of Goethe, said of "Faust: Part Two" also rings true of America's national life:

Faust makes fleeting contact with the spirit of antiquity and is inspired with a vision of Arcadian life which was once, and should still be, the true perfection of humanity. But that too he shakes off to pursue 'power and property' and to establish his own counter-image of humanity, in the contemplation of which he dies: a wholly artificial society maintaining itself only by endless collective effort under the permanent threat of mass extinction." (J. W. Von Goethe, Selected Works; From Introduction by Nicholas Boyle, li.)

America began as an agrarian wonderland for the striving and starving people of the world, inspired by former republics in history, but has since then been transformed into a totalitarian corporation that is driven to commit evil and mass misery. And its black citizens were caught in the underbelly of this trajectory from the beginning of the nation's inception. But, not all of America has joined in the pursuit of 'power and property,' many Americans throughout the nation's history have contributed to the betterment of their own society as well as others. In the middle of its transformation to tyranny, America produced some of the greatest human beings in world history. Alfred North Whitehead shared a similar appreciation for America. In his Dialogues, recorded by American journalist Lucien Price, Whitehead said of the United States:

Your diffusion of literacy and average comfort and well-being among the masses, in my opinion, is one of the major achievements in human history. In previous lands and times, even under the best conditions, the diffusion of culture was to only a small stratum at the top, never more than twenty per cent at the most. I think this extending to the multitude of at least a decent standard of living is an enormous contribution to civilization. (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, p. 55).

But that same country has also created the meanest elite to ever appear in human history. Whitehead acknowledged the shifty class identifications in America for this development, saying that because Americans "leave their class behind," "American democracy is creating an aristocracy." And this aristocracy has designed a plan for America that is wholly opposed to human betterment and mass liberation. An emerging crisis will put this design into complete action.

Fortunately, though, Americans are beginning to sense that the real enemy is behind the gates, preparing to destroy their country; a divinely-inspired creation to be replaced by a synthetic order of government. The New World Order has been envisioned to be a band-aid in the wings of terror and conflict. And along with it comes political, economic, and psychological slavery of the people, but that, of course, is not advertised. It is meant to be the last word for a lost world. But, all is not lost. A conscious resistance is mounting. Americans have had years to reflect on the ongoing corruption at the heart of their government, and it is only a matter of time before the irate people take back their country for good.

The countless trials and tragedies America has had to face, and the many more to come, are necessary for her citizens to realize the full potential of their country. A new direction must clearly be taken, but all the current leaders of the country are either unwilling to make this change, or are intent on suppressing it. Soon, however, the luxury of hiding behind slogans will be gone, and a new crop of leaders will emerge to propel the country forward in this time of crisis. Obama has proven to be a gutless fraud. By all estimations, he is not a free leader. What he says no longer resonates because he has shown himself to be a mannequin. Words are never enough, even poets realize that they must act if they believe in what they write. I believe America's original promise must be carried out, or else humanity will not see much progress in this century. "Woe to the race," said Ortega, "which does not stop at the crossroads before continuing on its way, which does not make a problem out of its own inner life, which does not feel the heroic necessity of justifying its destiny and of throwing light on its mission in history!" (Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Meditations on Quixote, p. 103).

Cunninlynguists - Dying Nation


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