THE US DOESN'T WORK AND PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS

By Andrew Williams

"The lack of objectivity, as far as foreign nations are concerned, is

notorious. From one day to another, another nation is made out to be

utterly depraved and fiendish, while one's own nation stands for

everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by

one standard--every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the

enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive

us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our

noble goals which they serve. Indeed, if one examines the relationship

between nations, as well as between individuals, one comes to the

conclusion that objectivity is the exception, and a greater or lesser

degree of narcissistic distortion is the rule."--Erich Fromm, "The Art of

Loving"

Does this sounds familiar? Granted, this statement could apply to any

country at any time in recorded history--and Fromm undoubtedly had Nazi

Germany in mind--but it obviously applies to America, right now, to the

letter. A country is made of individuals acting more or less in concert

toward specific goals. Individuals can develop mental disorders or, in

linguistic terms, semantic misevaluations of environment. And since a

country is made up of presumed individuals, no country is immune to such

distortions.

In the 1960s, Frank Zappa used to say to European reporters that America

"has bad mental health." The same is true today. Our government, as the

result of a convenient act of terror, has turned on its citizens with a

ferocity not seen since the eras of McCarthy and Nixon. The American

public is being spied-on to a previously unheard-of degree. We are in a

police state--"guilty until proven innocent." And everyone has something

to hide--including those paid to watch us.

In psychoanalytic terms--specifically, transactional analysis--the Bush

Administration is playing a dangerous game called "Now I've Got You, You

Son of a Bitch." Since we've been hurt, we think ourselves entitled to the

role of martyrs, with the 'right' to unleash our righteous anger,

spiraling upward into hysterical rage and violent reprisals against the

no-good shits who did this to us. But hey, we're living on the Planet of

the Naked Apes. What else could you expect?

Well, apes we still are--by and large--but we also have the capacity to

transcend parts of our primate programming which do not facilitate mental

evolution and spiritual growth. We can take it upon ourselves to

understand that we are not the first country to be attacked in such a

fashion; we can acknowledge that we brought on these actions by our own

military actions; we can attempt to atone and make amends.

In the interregnum between September 11, 2001 and the commencement of food

and carpet bombing in Afghanistan and elsewhere, I was hoping that Mr.

Bush had taken our history in the Middle East into account when

calculating a response to the terrorist acts. I was actually hoping--and

feel free to laugh--that he might find a diplomatic response that would

acknowledge our transgressions in the region, apologize for them, and take

the first steps towards rapproachment. Of course, I was disappointed. But,

like you, I keep forgetting that I live on the Planet of the Naked Apes,

where the law is "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

And perhaps these thoughts are equally naive, but how will we break out of

these vicious cycles of violence unless someone from some nation steps up

and says, "What we did was wrong. We're sorry. We'll work to make things

better." Is that too simple? Does everything in government have to operate

by Machiavellian principles? Have we changed so little in the intervening

centuries since "The Prince" was written? Have we learned so little? Will

we ever learn the principles taught by Buckminster Fuller in his World

Game--"advantage all without disadvantaging any?" Or will we continue to

be the puppets of Janus-faced corporations and politicians?

The Bible says, "Blessed are the peacemakers." In America, we print their

pictures on flyers with the heading, "Open Season." Millions of dollars

for defense, not one cent for an Institute for Peace Studies.

With all the monkey-wrenching we've done in other countries--removing duly

elected leaders here, assassinating troublesome dissidents there--it was

only a matter of time before we got paid back. And so far, quite frankly,

we've gotten off light. But unless accountability, not deniability,

becomes the watchword in the Nation's Capitol, the shitstorm is going to

get hot and heavy. (Literally, as today's Washington Post headline

demonstrates.)

The US has issues. It needs to find a good therapist--preferably a

cognitive psychiatrist or pyschoanalyst, one who listens to patients

instead of dispensing psycho-pharmacological panaceas--and start talking

all this out. We need to confess to the charges of narcisstic distortions.

We need to acknowledge our bullying tactics and their karmic damages. We

need to work on curbing our adolescent delusions of grandeur and

indestructibility. We need to stop playing dangerous, self-destructive

games. If we don't then the saner nations of the world will be confirmed

in their observation that we have lost our collective minds and become our

own worst enemies.

Erich Fromm--"The Art of Loving"

Olaf Stapledon--"Last and First Men"

Eric Berne--"Games People Play"

Desmond Morris--"The Naked Ape"