Don't Blame Bush For This Mess He's Oblivious.
By James T. Moore (05/20/08)
Here is something you won't hear from any other columnist: I am not qualified to write this article.
I have only a superficial knowledge of human nature. I barely got through high school. I never saw the inside of a college classroom. I have only a layman’s grasp of most sciences. And I certainly don’t have a clue as to the intricacies of the human mind.
But I have one thing indigenous to political commentary: insatiable curiosity, an ability to communicate, and most important-- but in small supply these days---commonsense.
With these, admitted limited qualifications, I offer this ballpark analysis of President Bush, and the one thing about him that most Americans know little or nothing about, because it is not evident. It is his blind spot.
Simply put, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who know what they’re doing; and those who don’t know what they’re doing---but don’t know that they don’t know. The former are “normal” people in a psychological sense, are in most cases reasonably successful and harmless. The latter, who by some odd circumstance, are in a state of “denial”, i.e. they are oblivious to certain situations, events, and conditions.
It is Bush’s blind spot---which he is totally unaware of---that literally defines the mental makeup this president. And the only professional who has, in my view, brought Bush’s condition down to an understandable description of it is Paul Levy, a visionary artist, prominent author, and informed activist.
In a ground-breaking analysis of Bush, Levy offers this: “George W. Bush is ill. He has a psycho-spiritual disease that is endemic to our culture and is symptomatic of the times in which we live. It is an illness in the soul of all humanity that has been with us since time immemorial. As such, Bush’s sickness is our own.
Levy makes it clear that Bush’s illness is not schizophrenia, where the personality is fragmented, resulting in internal chaos. Bush can sound and act like a “regular guy” which makes his illness hard to recognize. This is because the healthy part of his personality has been taken over by the illness, and self-organizes itself around a pathological core. Thus, Bush can look, act, and talk genuinely, but being the victim of this malady (which any human being can fall prey to) his obliviousness (blind spot) dominates a large part of his life.
Levy has named this inner sickness “Malignant Egophrenia”, or ME disease, (as compared to schizophrenia). Warns Levy: If ME goes unrecognized and is not contained, it can be very destructive, particularly if the person afflicted is in a position of power.(all italics are mine)
In all fairness, if President Bush did not have the ME disease, that is to say, if he was the “real guy” that he sometimes comes off as, how else could most of his erratic actions as president be explained?
Such as, failure to stop illegal immigrants from swarming into the US? Such as, approving the use of torture in prisoner interrogations? Such as, depleting our army, requiring the service of National Guards? Such as, allowing the North American highway to proceed, thereby threatening U.S. sovereignty? Such as, preemptive strikes on “suspect” nations without even a consultation with Congress? Such as, looking the other way while our seriously war veterans are deprived of immediate and adequate medical attention? Such as, making no effort to end this costly, illegal and unnecessary Iraq war? Such as, doing everything possible to push America into the New World Order? Such as, using media spin to deny that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are all but lost? Such as, doing nothing to reduce the price of gasoline while his friends in the oil business are getting wealthier. Such as, almost shedding tears at his daughters wedding, but grinning at photo-op with a veteran whose face has been hideously burned beyond recognition?
Bush’s ME illness does not enable him to see beyond his own self- created and sustained delusions. But, and here’s the catch, it is important to realize that Bush is merely a deluded human being in a position of great power who is being manipulated like a puppet on a string, which more intelligent, albeit “evil”, people have learned to use the power of the presidency, together with the psychologically diseased president, to accomplish their traitorous ends.
And all the while, because he is oblivious to his sickness, Bush may never come to see why 75% of Americans consider him to be the worst president in U.S. history.
Paul Levy is somewhat kinder: “George W. Bush is what the quality of ignorance would look like if it had a body.”
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