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Chosen People
Dec. 30th, 2009 04:21 pmSee, here's precisely what's wrong with the United States: 'To cite only the most obvious example, giving Interpol free rein to act within this country could subject U.S. military, diplomatic, and intelligence personnel to the prospect of being taken into custody and hauled before the International Criminal Court as "war criminals."' —The Washington Examiner editorial taking exception to Mr. Obama's Executive Order 12425, 'Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities.'
This outlook seems to me both ghastly and normal. It seems like what everybody in America thinks about America: that nothing we do, by virtue of our doing it, could be wrong. That we are, and should be, above the law.
If this were portrayed on a micro scale in any popular fiction—imagine, say, an apartment building in which a single occupant broke into any other apartment at will and murdered neighbors and stole their property and in all ways ignored or even gleefully disdained his neighbors' wishes—that character would be rightly perceived as a terrifying villain. How are we not that?
Of course, there are nuances, starting with the standard recourse to 'defense'. (Remember what that word used to mean?) But all the nuances in the world cannot excuse the prevailing attitude, one that I was taught from earliest childhood to disdain as immoral and generally not nice: MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.
Of all the psychological and behavioral horrors to which our species is prone, perhaps the most pernicious is its tendency to self-exaltation—mostly, though not entirely, abetted by the feeling (or the formulated argument) that I/we are beloved of 'god'. From ancient Israel to evangelical America, too many humans are predisposed to think themselves above reproach because they suck some sky spirit's (metaphoric) cock real good. Why, just look: our conservative brethren—the same ones who have long touted America's 'right' to seize anybody from anywhere on the planet, throw them in a U.S. dungeon, and hold them there indefinitely without any sort of legal recourse—are now giving themselves fits over the idea that an American citizen involved in shady wartime activity could be hauled off and subjected to an actual, established, respected global judicial process.
I wonder if they're worried about Dick Cheney being dragged out of bed at 3 a.m. I know I am. I'm so worried I need to go masturbate over the idea.
This outlook seems to me both ghastly and normal. It seems like what everybody in America thinks about America: that nothing we do, by virtue of our doing it, could be wrong. That we are, and should be, above the law.
If this were portrayed on a micro scale in any popular fiction—imagine, say, an apartment building in which a single occupant broke into any other apartment at will and murdered neighbors and stole their property and in all ways ignored or even gleefully disdained his neighbors' wishes—that character would be rightly perceived as a terrifying villain. How are we not that?
Of course, there are nuances, starting with the standard recourse to 'defense'. (Remember what that word used to mean?) But all the nuances in the world cannot excuse the prevailing attitude, one that I was taught from earliest childhood to disdain as immoral and generally not nice: MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.
Of all the psychological and behavioral horrors to which our species is prone, perhaps the most pernicious is its tendency to self-exaltation—mostly, though not entirely, abetted by the feeling (or the formulated argument) that I/we are beloved of 'god'. From ancient Israel to evangelical America, too many humans are predisposed to think themselves above reproach because they suck some sky spirit's (metaphoric) cock real good. Why, just look: our conservative brethren—the same ones who have long touted America's 'right' to seize anybody from anywhere on the planet, throw them in a U.S. dungeon, and hold them there indefinitely without any sort of legal recourse—are now giving themselves fits over the idea that an American citizen involved in shady wartime activity could be hauled off and subjected to an actual, established, respected global judicial process.
I wonder if they're worried about Dick Cheney being dragged out of bed at 3 a.m. I know I am. I'm so worried I need to go masturbate over the idea.
