I have seen the Devil

http://www.serendipity.li/wot/conover01.htm

Not so long ago I wrote a piece called 'You've Gotta Read This..." It was about emails sent under the guise of being important. Once opened, you reach for Mr. Clean to disinfect the germs left behind.

The problem with these 'discoveries' is that it can be applied to any leader in world history. It's one thing to criticize Bush and his policies - preferably armed with a strong knowledge of American history. Laugh. But too many opinions are formed without it - and quite another to cross the line into judging him as a human being. They are so broad in their applications it begs for wonder what state of mind these doctors are in.

The anti-Bush rants have gone from mild bantering to abnormal rhetoric. Much of his policies are fair to be criticized or debated but what we are witnessing is not a real debate about America. It's about how we loathe one man. It has become less about him as President and more about the man himself.

In a way, this makes us hypocrites for we are judging a man with a faulty and smug moral apparatus. What brings the whole issue crashing is that most of the time we don't even have our facts straight.

It may as well be as such. Facts and history are the strict domain of the individual now. That is any individual. We strike at will and without prejudice because my word is equal to the next person no matter how absurd.

Which brings me to Crazy Chavez. Listening to him talk like a complete, well, idiot (Venezuelans should be proud. If Bush is a moron what to classify this piece of work?) at the UN two things came to mind. 1) What society would tolerate on their own soil such a verbal attack on their leader? It speaks volumes of the maturity of Americans who do not take to the streets like crazed lunatics. Though, sigh, some are not that far removed from reaching that point. Would China, Cuba or any other nation ignore him like Americans do? And 2) People actually agree with Chavez. This point makes me shutter. Add a third point here. Namely, I can't think of a period in American history where the U.S. has been more unpopular. What more it seems to be more pointed to one man in particular.

Alas, this may all be inconsequential. He speaks with a highly populist agenda and his remarks will find approval in the Third World.

To me, this article is just another example of how we've crossed the Rubicon and willfully challenged, if not broken, unwritten intellectual laws set forth by great minds of the past.