Saturday, August 13, 2005
Sucking Their Thumbs
"In the nearly four years since 9/11, Americans have been like young children ...they have responded to the President's "consistent" message the way a child would -- as a sign that everything's going to be OK, instead of as an adult should -- by comparing the message to the reality and realizing that this president isn't "resolute", he's delusional.
Changing one's mind and one's approach in light of new evidence is what an adult does. Only a child continues to insist that Santa Claus is real even after catching Mommy and Daddy putting the presents under the tree and eating the cookies. But this insistence on believing everything George Bush says is a symptom of the persistent juvenile state in which American adults have wallowed since 9/11. His "consistency" and the petulant way he has of continuing to insist that the Iraq war was the right thing to do are reassuring to adults who are still unable to accept that there's nothing special about our status as Americans that is going to keep us safe in this current world.
It's that reassurance that keeps them from facing the lies that he told about why he wanted to go to war in Iraq. Because if Daddy doesn't know what he's talking about, it feels to many people as if the rug was pulled out from under them. In view of the evidence that has come to light that the war was entered under false pretenses, with information they cooked up themselves, and that they haven't got a clue where to go next, other than to continue the failed tactics we're currently using, Bush supporters are like children after the tornado hits, crouched in the corner in a fetal position, sucking their thumbs and waiting for Daddy's reassurance that the danger is past and everything is OK. In a child, a need for a Daddy who knows everything and who makes them "feel safe" is important and necessary. In an adult, it's pathetic."
--Jill, from Brilliant at Breakfast [see link in sidebar]
Changing one's mind and one's approach in light of new evidence is what an adult does. Only a child continues to insist that Santa Claus is real even after catching Mommy and Daddy putting the presents under the tree and eating the cookies. But this insistence on believing everything George Bush says is a symptom of the persistent juvenile state in which American adults have wallowed since 9/11. His "consistency" and the petulant way he has of continuing to insist that the Iraq war was the right thing to do are reassuring to adults who are still unable to accept that there's nothing special about our status as Americans that is going to keep us safe in this current world.
It's that reassurance that keeps them from facing the lies that he told about why he wanted to go to war in Iraq. Because if Daddy doesn't know what he's talking about, it feels to many people as if the rug was pulled out from under them. In view of the evidence that has come to light that the war was entered under false pretenses, with information they cooked up themselves, and that they haven't got a clue where to go next, other than to continue the failed tactics we're currently using, Bush supporters are like children after the tornado hits, crouched in the corner in a fetal position, sucking their thumbs and waiting for Daddy's reassurance that the danger is past and everything is OK. In a child, a need for a Daddy who knows everything and who makes them "feel safe" is important and necessary. In an adult, it's pathetic."
--Jill, from Brilliant at Breakfast [see link in sidebar]
