Perverse Priorities in a World of Lies. In many essays, I’ve talked about the immense difficulty of trying to discuss any issue of genuine importance in today’s cultural atmosphere. Among the primary reasons for the near impossibility of talking about any subject that actually matters is the fact that the overwhelming majority of people are entirely comfortable existing on a steady diet of lies — lies about the genuine nature of the U.S. government’s actions, lies about “the good guy” American, lies about the ruling class, lies about racism as a core element in America’s history…the lies are endless, and most people swallow all of them.
Almost no one in national political life, and almost no writer of prominence, will acknowledge the full meaning of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq: because Iraq never constituted a serious threat to the U.S., and because that fact was readily apparent in the winter and spring of 2002-2003 (even to an honest citizen with no “expert” specialized knowledge), the U.S. invasion was a criminal act of aggression, identical in principle to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. This foundational fact has many further implications, and one of them is critical in evaluating the two major presidential candidates: since the invasion was a criminal act of aggression, the U.S. occupation of Iraq is similarly an ongoing series of monstrous war crimes. To vote to fund the continuing occupation is to be an accomplice to genocide and to the destruction of an entire nation and its peoples, and thus to be a war criminal.
Most Americans who vote this November, and probably many of you reading this, will vote for one of these war criminals. I no longer care what rationalizations people use to justify such a detestable choice — that one war criminal is not quite as bad as the other for some unspecified reason, that one of these bastards speechifies more prettily than the other and touches some inchoate, indefinable emotional chord in your stunted soul, that (as a friend of mine recently observed to me privately) we’ve had white assholes governing this country for so long that it’s only “fair” to have a black asshole in charge for a change. I don’t give a damn what reason you give yourself for your embrace of evil, for only one fact matters:
If you vote for McCain or Obama, you’re voting for a war criminal.
[…]
For the reasons I have stated repeatedly, I refuse to vote for either McCain or Obama. McCain fully supports the U.S. drive to world hegemony, with all the death and chaos that requires. And even though Palin remains a bit more human at the moment, if she should rise to the national level in politics, her own hands will be drenched with the blood of innocents soon enough. As for Obama and Biden: they are swimming in blood, and none of their supporters seem to mind that to any noticeable extent. And they speak so well!
Never mind that almost every word they speak is a lie. Never mind the lives they so heedlessly and criminally throw away, as they eagerly pay for a military that will rip apart the bodies of more than a million innocent people.
But you can comfort yourselves with the pretty words and the empty phrases, as the flames engulf us and we drown in blood.
Lies are all most Americans know, and lies are all they will accept. Truth is the enemy, and truth must be destroyed, along with life, joy and meaning. But the devil will certainly turn a lovely phrase, as he leads you directly into hell. [Once Upon a Time…]
I am entirely in agreement with Arthur Silber on this, and I’ll also note that his essay is somewhat longer and more detailed than the excerpt I’ve included and is definitely worth reading in its entirety.
In the past I’ve voted for the Libertarian candidate; not with any expectation that he would win, because that was always impossible, but as a way of thumbing my nose at the Boot On Your Neck Party. With the Conservative Republican takeover of the Libertarian Party, that’s no longer an option.
