David McGowan
Functionally insane Americans
Sun Aug 3 12:33:00 2003
67.1.138.245


http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/080203McGowan/080203mcgowan.html
Functionally insane Americans

By David McGowan
The Center for an Informed America

August 2, 2003-There have been many attempts made, by both the legal and
mental health communities, to define "insanity." But it seems to me that
that term can be most succinctly defined as: "a disconnection from
reality." And the severity of any individual's insanity is a function of
the degree of that person's disconnection from reality.

That definition, of course, is entirely dependent on how "reality" is
defined. From the point of view of the state, "reality" is whatever the
shapers of public opinion say it is. Anyone who disagrees with the
voices of authority is, therefore, insane. From that perspective, people
such as, for instance, yours truly, are completely bonkers.

But if we base our definition on a relatively objective reality, then
most of the people that I know are, without question, insane. Most of my
relatives are insane. Most of my friends are insane. Most of the people
that I work with are insane. Damn near everyone in the country is at
least mildly insane. A very large majority are moderately to severely
insane. And according to polls, at least a third are stark raving mad.

These people hold beliefs that are clearly delusional-that have
absolutely no connection to reality. And they persist in holding these
beliefs even when not a shred of evidence can be produced to support
them. And no, I'm not talking about people who believe in UFOs,
reincarnation, and the Loch Ness Monster. And I'm also not talking about
people who believe in some supreme spiritual entity.

I'm talking about people who believe that 'weapons of mass destruction'
have been uncovered in Iraq . . . who believe that 'weapons of mass
destruction' were used against our troops over there . . . who even
believe that 'weapons of mass destruction' is something other than a
arbitrary term cooked up recently by Uncle Sam to describe weapons
systems possessed by our 'enemies,' regardless of the actual destructive
capability of those systems.

The functionally insane also believe that Iraqis were among the
hijackers who allegedly commandeered the planes on September 11, 2001.
It is difficult to fathom, but these people are so crazed that they have
actually taken the government's already fanciful conspiracy theory,
which is itself totally disconnected from reality, and they have made it
even more ludicrous by adding some Iraqis to the mix. I'm betting that a
few years down the road these same people will also believe that there
were a couple of Liberians on one of the planes, as well as an Iranian
guy, a couple of North Koreans, a Syrian, and perhaps a Cuban or two.
Maybe even a French couple.

It's the damnedest thing, but in addition to holding these bizarre
beliefs, these people can't even seem to see the walls going up. Perhaps
that is the silver lining in being completely insane: when you are that
thoroughly disconnected from reality, you don't even know that you are
living in an asylum.

And so it is that we see the functionally insane behaving as though they
still live outside the walls .. as though nothing has changed in their
lives . . . as though their children haven't been stripped of any sort
of meaningful future. You see these people everywhere, walking around
without a care in the world, discussing who should have won the last
American Idol, who the newest Bachelor should choose as his soul mate,
whether a professional bodybuilder would make a better or worse governor
than a professional wrestler, and whether Dr. Phil gives better
relationship advice than Dr. Laura.

The beliefs of the functionally insane are not, by definition, based on
objective facts, so it can be quite frustrating trying to communicate
with one of them on anything other than a superficial level. Fully
documented facts will either be dismissed out-of-hand or explained away
using the exact same verbiage that spills from the cable 'news'
programs-as though these people's minds are mere tape-recorders, rather
than tools for analysis. It is not uncommon for the most severely insane
to greet inconvenient facts with a practiced look that seems to say,
more or less: "What are you-some kind of an idiot? Obviously you don't
watch Fox News, 'cause if you did, we wouldn't need to have this
conversation!"

One of the more bizarre ideas that seems to have recently taken root in
the minds of the functionally insane is that the question of whether the
Bush administration lied to the American people during the selling of
the Iraq war hinges entirely on a mere 16 words inserted into the State
of the Union Address-overlooking the rather obvious fact that every
official on the Bush team knowingly and quite deliberately lied pretty
much every time they stepped up to the plate to offer some imaginary
justification for the war.

Another strange belief that has taken hold is that if Team Bush-at the
very time that the media had actually called them on one lie out of
thousands, and at the very time that the congressional 9-11 committee
had released a heavily whitewashed but still damaging report, and at the
very time that U.S. troop morale had sunk to levels that could soon see
the American people reintroduced to the term "fragging"-suddenly
announces that a band of its great and noble warriors have slain the
sons of the evil one, then it must be true.

About the only thing that seems to be required for a fallacious fact to
take root in the minds of the functionally insane is for a known liar in
Washington and/or the media to have authoritatively uttered it. It
matters not if the fallacious fact is later retracted and/or completely
discredited. It matters not if the fallacious fact represents a brazen
rewriting of history just weeks after that history was recorded. And it
matters not if belief in the fallacious fact requires belief in a whole
host of other fallacious facts that are internally inconsistent and
completely lacking in logic.

Never mind, for example, that it is extremely unlikely that the Hussein
brothers would be holed up in a Kurdish stronghold, where they are,
according to Team Bush, universally despised. Never mind that it is
equally unlikely that the pair would be holed up, together, in an
unsecured location with no means of escape. Never mind as well that it
is very unlikely that, between the two of them, they had just a single
guard. Never mind that it is unlikely that the two would seek refuge in
the home of a man who apparently sometimes claimed to be a relative, but
actually was not. And never mind that that home has already been
bulldozed, thus destroying all evidence of what happened there.

Never mind as well that neither Hussein brother was known to wear a full
beard. That new look, according to U.S. officials, was part of their
disguises. And that is a reasonable enough claim, I suppose, but is it
also reasonable to assume that the two have been on a three-month
feeding frenzy in order to pack on some extra pounds, also as part of
their disguises? And never mind, I should add here, that the corpse
identified as Uday appears to be sporting a beard that was created with
a black magic marker. And never mind that we are left to conclude that
the extra weight and facial hair enabled the two to live unrecognized in
enemy territory, but will not prevent their corpses from being
identified by the Iraqi people.

Never mind that officials at the scene of the firefight initially said
that the recovered bodies were too badly damaged to be visually
identified, which would be expected given the firepower that was
unleashed upon them, but which was, nonetheless, directly contradicted
by the release of the photos. And never mind that while Team Bush claims
that captured Iraqi officials have positively identified the bodies,
those same alleged officials have never been paraded before the Iraqi
people, or the American people, despite claims that such displays are
necessary to reassure everyone that the old regime is no longer in
charge.

Never mind that no attempt was made to take the Hussein brothers alive,
despite the fact that the real Uday and Kusai would be invaluable
intelligence assets, since they presumably know where all the bodies are
buried, and where all the mythical WMDs are hidden, and where all the
fugitive Baathists, including their father, are in hiding. And never
mind that live prisoners would have been far more convincing than
photographic images of mutilated corpses. And never mind that it is
decidedly more difficult to pass off a live impersonator than it is to
falsely identify an altered corpse.

And never mind, finally, that there is something seriously wrong with
the claim that it took 200 or more of Rummy's best fighting men-armed
with state-of-the-art missiles, grenades and guns, and accompanied by
the world's most deadly helicopters, airplanes and tanks-several hours
and millions of dollars worth of munitions to defeat an enemy force of
two able-bodied adults, one disabled adult and one young teenager, armed
only with AK-47s and pinned down in what could hardly be described (and
yet still was) as a fortified location.

Never mind all of that because the Bushmen do not lie, so if they claim
to have slain a couple of dragons, then it must be true. And if they
claim that doing so marked a major turning point in 'post-war'
operations, then that must be true as well. Clearly, we are winning the
War on Terr'ism. America is standing tall.

Never mind that nothing has really changed in Iraq. The 'diehard
resistance' will continue to fight-indefinitely. U.S. troops will
continue to die. Troop morale will continue to plummet as it becomes
ever more apparent to our soldiers that they have put their lives on the
line and lost a part of their souls to serve not as liberators, but as
occupiers.

In the asylum, it is now firmly ingrained in the national psyche that
the Sons of Saddam are dead-and that is cause for joyous celebration.
This is not the time for doubts about what is in that congressional
report on 9-11. Nor about whether the Bushettes lied to sell their war.
And pay no attention to those distracting little stories that sometimes
pop up, usually only briefly, in the news. Who cares, for example, that
some Brit whistleblower decided to kill himself? Or that Bush's nominee
to head the Navy also decided to kill himself? Or that Guantanamo is
morphing from a concentration camp into a death camp? Or that someone
shot a councilman in council chambers despite elaborate post-9-11
security measures? Or that the gunman was then picked off in a crowd by
an uncannily accurate plainclothes officer who just happened to be on
hand and who was able to immediately assess the chaotic situation and
know within seconds exactly what to do?

In the asylum, none of that matters because nothing is real unless our
masters tell us that it is, and then it only remains real until it
becomes necessary to render a new reality. And the functionally insane
nod their heads in agreement, their eyes never betraying a hint of
confusion over the ever-shifting reality being created for them.

And the walls, meanwhile, get a little bit higher. Can you see them yet?

David McGowan is the author of "Derailing Democracy" and "Understand the
F-Word: American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion."


--
"Having A Free Thought Is The Most Radical Act You Can Commit! "
"Expressing That Free Thought Is Your Right As A Human Being!"

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