XPost: soc.culture.bulgaria, soc.culture.canada, soc.culture.german   
   XPost: soc.culture.polish   
   From: mr.alistair.sim@gmail.com   
      
   --   
   Alistair Sim   
      
      
      
      
   "I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I   
   know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and   
   women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless   
   terrors of which they dare not speak."   
      
      
      
      
   They seek him here   
   They seek him there.   
   Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.   
   Is he in heaven?   
   Or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel!   
      
      
   "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the   
   impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"   
      
      
      
      
   The little things are infinitely more important."   
      
      
      
      
      
   "I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for   
   trifles."   
      
   "Alistair Sim"  wrote in message news:...   
   >   
   > The Fundamentalist Shadow of George W. Bush   
   >      Monday, 19 September 2005, 2:34 pm   
   >      Opinion: John D. Goldhammer   
   >   
   > Dr. Bush and Mr. Hyde:   
   > The Fundamentalist Shadow of George W. Bush   
   >   
   > By John D. Goldhammer   
   >   
   >  A mouth that prays, a hand that kills.   
   >  - Arabian proverb   
   > "How do you find a lion that has swallowed you?" asked Swiss   
   > psychologist,   
   > Carl Jung, commenting on the moral dilemma posed by the "shadow,"   
   > his   
   > insightful term for the dark, hidden side of the human psyche. The   
   > answer to   
   > Jung's questions is "you can't find or see that lion"-not as long as   
   > you are   
   > inside the beast. And therein resides the essential dilemma of a   
   > group's   
   > dark side or shadow: it is nearly impossible for those caught inside   
   > a group's   
   > belief system to see their own dark side with any clarity or   
   > objectivity.   
   > This hidden side grows over time, regressing, becoming more and more   
   > aggressive. It's the "long bag we drag behind us," says poet Robert   
   > Bly-where, as individuals, we dispose of all those things that are   
   > too   
   > uncomfortable to look at. "The long-repressed shadow of Dr. Jekyll   
   > rises up   
   > in the shape of Mr. Hyde, deformed, an ape-like figure glimpsed   
   > against the   
   > alley wall."[1] Now imagine millions of Mr. Hydes and you have a   
   > sense of   
   > the group shadow of fundamentalist, right wing extremists dressed up   
   > as   
   > "compassionate conservatives," led by George W. Bush. It's like   
   > shifting   
   > from a hand gun to a nuclear bomb. And it began long ago in both the   
   > Moslem   
   > and Christian worlds.   
   >   
   > The invasion of American Democratic institutions by fundamentalist,   
   > historically militant (as in crusades,[*] witch hunts, inquisitions,   
   > and   
   > support of slavery) Christianity has significantly increased the   
   > stench   
   > coming from the already disturbing dark side of U.S. politics. It's   
   > like a   
   > nightmarish replay of the Christian crusades-politics with a   
   > militant,   
   > convert-the-heathens dark side. Potent, cult-like group dynamics   
   > combine   
   > with unacknowledged and unseen shadow qualities to easily overwhelm   
   > the   
   > individual's sense of right and wrong, often unleashing pure evil en   
   > masse.   
   >   
   > As the political world and the media divided the U.S. into red and   
   > blue   
   > states, I found myself feeling uncomfortable even thinking about   
   > driving   
   > through one of those "red" states. I would imagine that every   
   > red-state   
   > person must be a card-carrying, right wing fundamentalist. From the   
   > other   
   > side of the mountain, those "blue" states are full of liberal,   
   > soft-on-terrorism, big government socialists. Both are examples of   
   > projecting our group's shadow onto the "enemy." And both views   
   > prevent us   
   > from "seeing" individual human beings. We see only that group, those   
   > people.   
   > With remarkable ease, we slide into a "programmed," either-or,   
   > group-think:   
   > we're the good guys, they're the bad guys. The group mind set is   
   > pulling the   
   > levers, directing individual reasoning and logic. It's like seeing   
   > everything through red or blue-tinted glasses that color all we see   
   > and   
   > think-we've been swallowed. The blind lead the blinded with   
   > ludicrous   
   > comments like this: "I think all foreigners should stop interfering   
   > in the   
   > internal affairs of Iraq,"[2] Paul Wolfowitz declared, clearly not   
   > seeing   
   > his missionary, neoconservative dark side-the U.S. invasion and   
   > occupation   
   > of Iraq.   
   >   
   > Fundamentalists use labels as weapons, dialogue-diverting   
   > smokescreens that   
   > reveal a lot about their own shadow. For example, they have   
   > demonized   
   > Liberal Democrats using phrases like "the Liberal elite," repeated   
   > over and   
   > over, who they claim are part of some "vast liberal media   
   > conspiracy." In   
   > fact, there is an actual conspiracy underway and it is the   
   > fundamentalist   
   > Christian cult's shadowy, carefully planned, two-decade-long   
   > infiltration   
   > and gradual takeover of the Republican Party from the grassroots-up.   
   > "Elitism," in reality, is at the core of the Bush administration's   
   > dark   
   > side, especially their pretentious, religious and political elitism.   
   >   
   > George W's elite base includes the wealthy and the powerful. They   
   > are the   
   > hidden people he really represents, those economically "elite,"   
   > special   
   > interest bosses he described so accurately in a speech at one of his   
   > private, campaign fund raising dinners: "You're my base: the haves   
   > and the   
   > have mores." They must have been some of the people he was referring   
   > to at a   
   > 2002 meeting with his economic squad about a second round of tax   
   > cuts:   
   > "Haven't we already given money to rich people?"   
   >   
   > The Bush administration's obsession with "activist" judges is a bona   
   > fide   
   > tar pit; it's their own projected shadow transforming judges (and   
   > "trial   
   > lawyers") into another "evil enemy." Again, the dark side is so   
   > obvious:   
   > project our own "activism" onto the justice system. Bush and his   
   > religious   
   > cohorts are in-deed fundamentalist political "activists" in the   
   > truest sense   
   > of the word. Consider the Lawless, unjust treatment of U.S.   
   > citizens,   
   > suspected terrorists and prisoners, justified by scary group jargon   
   > like   
   > "national security" or "we're in a war"-Bush's "war" that is at once   
   > everywhere and nowhere, making a mockery of the inscription above   
   > the   
   > entrance to the United States Supreme Court: "Equal Justice Under   
   > Law." In a   
   > remarkable statement, James Dobson, the fundamentalist, right wing   
   > Christian   
   > chairman of Focus on the Family, clarified this agenda (quoted in   
   > The   
   > Washington Post): "The courts majority," Dobson said, "are unelected   
   > and   
   > unaccountable and arrogant and imperious and determined to redesign   
   > the   
   > culture according to their own biases and values, and they're out of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)