Thursday, July 08, 2004 America’s Self Image By Wayne Bent
I have been strangely curious at how it is, that America thinks so much of herself. America is not any “freer” than most societies, but believes itself to be more free than any other nation on earth. In some ways, America is far less free than some societies, but that is another topic.
It is true that most Arab countries, and Israel, do not allow Christian evangelism of their people, and that Israel is one of the most closed and racist societies that ever existed. Tariq Aziz, the previous Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, a Muslim state, was a Christian, and was in the highest level of Iraqi affairs, but it will be when hell freezes over that a Christian is ever Deputy Prime Minister of Israel. America picks the strangest bedfellows. America is married to the very one who has vowed to kill her Jesus Christ, yet America thinks so much of herself, she is blinded. She is blinded by her own flag, her own self, which she worships with all her heart.
It is true that in America, one can babble just about anything, and not be imprisoned for it. In contrast with the Semitic states, America does seem much more free. But this freedom has also allowed for America to be the porn capitol of the world. America’s “freedom” has cost America its morality, its integrity and its sanity. America is free to be immoral in most ways, but not so free when it comes to public education.
These things aside, with their positives and negatives, it is of great interest how Americans have no true perception of reality, but base reality purely on their own view of themselves. In most mental health circles this self focus would be akin to some kind of mental illness. I suppose self focus is true of most people, but it is very dangerous to have the perception of a dog, while housing great amounts of Weapons of Mass Destruction. You no doubt have heard of those WMD. When one does not come from moral reasoning, and from the perspective that he should treat others as he would want to be treated, he can invade any country he sets his sights on, because he is following his own glory and honor. Coming from this motive, one can truly win some glorious battles, but he eventually loses the war.
When reality begins to come home, Americans are the first to go into denial because Americans have been hypnotized into thinking that they are great, or good. In 2003, President Bush spent a good deal of time in his State of the Union message to flatter Americans, telling them how good they were, just before they went into Iraq and blew the arms and legs off of children and anyone else who was in their way. There is nothing more dangerous to man as when he begins to believe he is great, or even good.
When the scandal of Abu Ghraib broke, my first impression was, “Well, that seems par for the course. That seems normal for Americans.” But when all of the denial came from Washington, I was surprised and strangely interested at how Americans could possibly call this an aberration. This “aberration” IS America. Look at the movies that come out of Hollywood by the hundreds. Most of them are full of some kind of mayhem. Look at the video games that American children play with, everyday. I can go into any large American mall and the video arcades all look like Abu Ghraib. All I can think is, “Hello, is anyone home?”
Early this year there was an article in Reader’s Digest that gave the European view of America. When I read it I thought, “Well, that is my view of America, and I live here.” I am white, male, and over 60 years of age. I was raised a Republican conservative. I recognize the European view of America as accurately describing what I was raised to be. The article came out in February of 2004. Here are a few excerpts:
Most Americans would be shocked to learn just how ugly their so-called European allies consider them. Read the press over there, and you’ll discover a United States that is thoroughly racist, a place simultaneously defined by greed and riddled with poverty; where the poor (millions upon millions of them) are oppressed for sport. You’ll learn about the American people, a semiliterate horde of culturally impoverished cretins. You’ll see American foreign policy described as a master plan for controlling the world. And those are the relatively friendly descriptions.
In Europe today, almost no hyperbole is considered illegitimate if employed to denounce the United States or its government. In the days before George W. Bush traveled to Britain last fall, Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, described the American President as “the greatest threat to life on this planet that we’ve most probably ever seen.” More threatening than Hitler? A greater danger than Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot? That’s right, said Livingstone. “The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction.”
…A recent poll of Europeans conducted for the European Commission asked which countries pose a threat to world peace. The United States tied for second, along with North Korea and Iran (Israel won the prize).
…But no less a member of the European establishment than Michael Meacher, a British member of Parliament who for six years served in Tony Blair’s cabinet, wrote an op-ed last year accusing the United States government of welcoming the attacks of September 11. Meacher charged that the US. military had trained some of the hijackers, and may have deliberately ignored the planes as they approached their targets. It was all a conspiracy, Meacher writes, “an ideal pretext to use force to secure its global domination” and control the world’s oil supply.
Some of this seems like a conspiracy theory, but everything is some sort of conspiracy. When the World Trade Center went down, there were some who took pictures of Muslims dancing in the streets, but there were also Jews dancing. At the time of the destruction, I was surprised to read that five Jews were arrested for dancing on a rooftop in celebration of the catastrophe. They were arrested because it seemed odd that someone would celebrate such a disaster of catastrophic proportions, unless he had some part to play in it. Truly, the Twin Towers was a bonanza for Zionists, for it was the very catalyst needed to cause the Americans to move into the Middle East in support of Israel. “All things work for good for those who love Zion.”
The Digest article poked fun at how Europeans were accusing the U.S. of fascism while it is Europe that has hosted all of the dictators and fiends. It is true that Europe has had a lot of experience with fascism and dictatorships, but that is all the more reason to respect their view. America has had no experience with anything, but to blindly move ahead in glory, and mow down the imagined enemy of their prosperity, and to press ahead, making the world see how gloriously righteous America is. The Europeans see well, that danger of which most Americans are completely blind.
There are many conspiracies concerning the new world order, and America taking control of the world’s oil supply through aggression. One can dismiss all of the conspiracy theories. Who needs them? Just look at what is happening. One need only to open his eyes. What is happening around the world is not a theory. America has complete control of much of the oil in the Middle East. America has invaded the Middle East. This occurred after the Jews invaded the Middle East in 1948. America tortures prisoners. America mows down its enemies. Hello, anybody home?
I need no conspiracy theory to tell me what is happening. All I need are eyes. America wants the oil pipeline to go through Afghanistan. America attacks Afghanistan and sets up a government there. Now the pipeline will proceed. Why is it that Americans reject the idea that there is a Jewish and American conspiracy in the Middle East, but none of them disbelieve the al-Qaida conspiracy. “Oh,” they say, “But we have good evidence of an al-Qaida conspiracy.” And tell me, don’t we have equally good evidence of an American and Jewish conspiracy? Everyone is conspiring for what they want, on either side of the Atlantic.
The U.N. voted to approve a nation for the Jews. Do you really and actually believe that this vote just popped out of the air one day in the Security Council? Do you actually believe that someone said, “Oh, by the way, I just thought of something. Let us give the Jews a country of their own.” Who else on this old world got the nations of the earth to hand over to them a country? Hello, anyone home? Ding, ding!!
It is the American who is not home. He stands in his own light and says, “Look at me, am I not gloriously bright? Am I not God’s gift to men?” If there was ever a false christ, it is the American. I know of what I speak, for I am an American, and I used to think this way. What a deception I was in. What a cult of religious self-righteous fervor. The American blood cult must sacrifice humans occasionally in its blood lust, its religion of scull and bones, but it cannot see itself for what it is. Its view of itself is as one who is hypnotized. Many Americans need to be de-programmed, but there is no one who knows how.
The current push into world dominance is a religion. It is worshipped by not only Americans, but non-Americans as well. The whole earth seems polarized in its furious agenda. In every country there are those who see the President of the United States as the great Satan, but there are other millions who virtually worship this man Bush, as a Savior, a Christ, coming upon the scene to deliver the world from evil. This is true worldwide, and it does not even exclude some Muslims.
I look out onto the nation and say, “Why can’t they see?” They look back at me and say, “Don’t you see what a wonderful thing Mr. Bush is doing?” I look at the pictures of young children with their arms blown off, the lies and the tortures, and they look at a striped flag waving in the wind. I say, “Hello, look down here at these severed arms.” They say, “Hello, look up here at this pretty flag. We are a righteous nation, ridding the world of evil.” I still cannot put together how ridding the world of evil is blowing the arms off of children or torturing your prisoners of war. I somehow can’t get it, but as a youth, I would have been able to get it. When one worships their country, their flag, or themselves, they cannot be sensitive to human suffering. One thinks that lying for a “good cause” is justified, for “the end justifies the means.” The first lie told is to themselves, that blowing the arms off someone is good and righteous. I was not sensitive to human suffering as a youth, either. I could not understand what all this sensitivity was about until I started feeling people’s hearts.
The nation has swung on the pendulum again. It was liberal, but now it is conservative. The conservative sees himself and his conservatism as righteous. Conservatism is actually self-righteousness, the most dangerous motivation that ever existed. It is the worship of one’s self. This “conservatism” is what is at the root of the destruction of the world. “Conservatism” is the motivating force of the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” It was the root of Nazism. It was at the root of the Bolshevik revolution. Conservatism crucified Christ and then went on to destroy Jerusalem. It feels so right and glorious to those caught up in it, but it is so wrong. It is the destroyer, the devil, that is come down in great wrath, for he knows he only has a short time to pull off his agenda.
That word “devil” in Revelation 12:12, comes from the Greek word, “dee-ab´-ol-os” which is precisely translated, “false accuser” and “slanderer.” These two words precisely describe the American spirit in regard to Iraq. The President falsely accused Iraq of having weapons of mass destruction and then grossly slandered its leaders who had put away the development of those weapons. That Bible verse could very well apply to the present situation. “Therefore rejoice, you who dwell in the Spirit but woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the false accuser and slanderer is come upon you, having great indignation and breathing real hard, because he knows that he hath but a short time to pull off his plan.” Rev. 12:12.
So, this Armageddon is being waged, but the enemy that is now going out into the earth, falsely accusing and slandering, thinks he is very bright. He cannot see himself. The “ugly American” thinks he is God’s gift to mankind, but he will prove himself the destroyer, for America has joined forces with the adversary of God and man.
