Theirs was an irrational attempt to erase the previous several years of world history and go back to an earlier time — before the Depression, before World War II — when they had felt more secure. It didn’t sink in that that old feeling of security had been delusional.

We can see this same thing in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Shortly thereafter, and continuing for years, you could scarcely go a day without hearing someone–be it locally or through the news or what have you–say “9/11 changed everything!” or some rather direct derivative of the phrase. I remember, for myself, being plunged into a world of confusion about this. People who i took to be sensible, honest, and pragmatic were suddenly suggesting that the entire world was warped drastically on one day.

How could they, i thought, truly believe this to be true? It isn’t as though Al Queda was some aberration, or that they had suddenly sprung up from nothing to become the evil demons hiding under your bed. It isn’t as though people hadn’t tried to commit–and succeeded in committing–serious terrorist attacks against the United States before. True, not on the same scale–but scale alone was not sufficient to warrant such a drastic change in these people. Something has to be the worst terrorist attack in our history, and given enough time that will eventually be eclipsed by an even bigger.

Furthermore, i was shocked by how many people suddenly became security-paranoid. As a professional fretter-about-security i couldn’t believe how safe they thought they were–or more accurately, had been. Did they really not think people could not slip through the cracks like that? Did they not read anything, ever? Were they all blind and deaf and just concealing it remarkably well?

I still don’t understand it, except as a time when an enormous group of people in our country had their illusions–illusions of American supremacy and invincibility–shattered. And instead of going to seek the truth, they sought new illusions; illusions which the Bush administration were happy to supply. (In the form of psychotic “safety” personnel with combat-level rifles being implanted into our airports, among other things.)

Another thing is that, i think, part of the reason we so often can’t figure out how to fix this mess of domination-by-the-deranged that we find ourselves in is that we do not understand the true nature–or depth, both in terms of penetration into our culture and the depths of history into which we must delve to find the true source–of the threat we face.

I have my own theory that the current “conservative” madness is merely the latest manifestation of an ideological thread–a meme, or idea that spreads through a culture through “replication” despite the fact that those who hold the idea do not truly understand it or its implications–which has been in existence for not decades or even centuries but rather for thousands of years. Possibly it has existed since we first developed language, or even before that.

We can see this same story play out–even as though it were fresh today–in, for instance, the trial and death of Socrates. So much so that i, if i did not know better, could scarcely believe the story was truly written in those ancient times instead of being a much more modern fraud. This madness which we are fighting is not new, and it is not (to my sight) a natural state of human affairs. Madness, itself, is its own goal. But we are not talking about madness in the sense that psychologists, for instance, discuss it. It is not some disorder of the brain, or a dysfunction of thought that is readily apparent and obvious. It is a philosophical, and not psychological (or perhaps more accurately: scientific) insanity that causes the thoughts, and not the mind, to become lost in itself.

I know that sounds pretty dramatic and outrageous–i have serious doubts about my correctness on this matter, myself–particularly since it appears the whole world has a similar neurosis, but that i have only been able to trace an unbroken thread back to around the time and region of the Greeks–but it fits my understanding and is a clear explanation for why we are where we are and why we have had so much trouble eradicating it.

This is already too long, so i will not continue onwards–what to do about it, which should become clear with thought, and whether or not i am actually right (that is: what is the unbroken chain we are now a part of?)–but it may be helpful.

Anyway, i know this was long and a few months late. But here it is, nonetheless.

It looks innocent enough, but what is going to happen? Once the fighting begins again–as Scarborough openly hopes for here–what do you think will happen? Do you think he will be cheering for the Democrats, or for President Bush? If (i think “when”) the differences between Bush/the hardcore Republicans and the Democrats (along with a substantial chunk of the rest of the world)–differences Scarborough admits exist, as he admits his own allegiances even while he admits the destruction those allegiances have wrought–when those differences come to a serious point, with an inevitably brutal conclusion (likely impeachment and/or other legal trials), where do you think Scarborough is going to come in on?

I read that piece by Scarborough as hoping there will be a war between the Democrats and Republicans so that he can, once again, go back to ignoring the corrosive effect he and his friends are having on American and the world and going back to blaming the Democrats for everything. It fills me with a still and shallow lake of fear for the future.

1) they support the individual against the collective (“Collectivism” is one of their hated forces) BUT they love the corporation and the interests of big business–the corporation being the one of the most powerful “collectives” in modern America.

2) they hate “the State” and its depredation of individual liberty BUT they support the largest contributor to the growth of the modern state: expenditures for “defense” and “national security”.

3) they oppose “the State” and its growing interference with inividual liberty BUT they want the state to outlaw abortion, regulate whether people can be removed from life support, outlaw same sex marriage–as 87 years ago they wanted the State to outlaw alcoholic beverages thus greatly increasing the size and power of the federal law enforcement bureaucracy.

I have more at “Why “Conservatives” Can’t Do Foreign Policy”.

Some things come early, like: Fix the FCC regs on ownership to loosen up the echo chamber. Investigate, indict, impeach, clean out the corruption little by little.

Dean has it right with the 50 state strategy. Do the necessary job in the obvious way to help the country over the long term.

The Enron business model is Republican to it’s core. Deregulate so that they can loot the customers even faster with no regard for the consequences. It’s a criminal enterprise that is a reverse Robin Hood. Give as little product or service for as much money as you can get away with even though it means that in the long run your business will no longer exist and you may be jailed…but they don’t even think about that, they think they will get away with it and with Republicans in office they usually do for much longer than they should.

How many of you know of children who are the same, they’ll eat candy for their three meals a day and snacks too if you let them. They don’t consider that they will get sick and lose all their teeth. Or how many of you know of a teen or two who goes and vandalizes the school, or burglarizes a neighbors home, has unprotected sex, or the zillions of other ways that kids get into trouble thinking they’ll never get caught or never pay any price.

The same goes for the polluters. They obviously haven’t thought about the world they will be leaving for their children and grandchildren, it’s all about short term profits and pocketing them as fast as possible with no regard for anyone else.

I have three herniated discs in my neck, so I belong to an online chronic pain support group. In that group I met a woman who is living in Sweden for the free medical care. She can’t afford it in the US. All she does is bash the Swedes in particular and Europeans in general. She one of those RAH RAH Republicans who think America is perfect and Europe is socialist trash. (And she wonders why she is so lonely and none of those Swedish snobs wants to befriend her) Anyone see a childish disconnect here? You can bet she would never advocate for universal healthcare here, but has no problem taking advantage of it over there. My point is that they see no advantage to welfare or other programs that advance the public good as a whole, even when they want to take advantage of those programs themselves. It’s like a little kid who doesn’t want another kid to have something they don’t, so out of spite they make sure no one has it.

Talk to Republican family or friends and you see it pretty clearly. They havent thought about what this deficit will do to their children, they think somehow if they wish hard enough it will take care of itself, but at least they got a couple hundred tax rebate in the short term. Their overwhelming greed, ignorance, and fear leaves them open to all kinds of scams. It’s why simple marketing techniques are so successful with them, just like it is with children. They are the ones who thought ARMs were a good idea to finance their homes, so they can get the big McMansion now and don’t think about the future and will be crying and whining when the foreclosure notice comes.

It’s liberals who think long term, who know that running up the national credit card is like running up the credit card at home. Hard times are coming and possibly bankruptcy. We knew that low interest rates were propping up the Bushies rotten economy and would not last, so we didn’t get ARMs. We know that a surplus is a good thing to have since you never know what will happen in the future. It sure would be nice to have that “nest egg” now to pay for the gulf coast reconstruction, just like having one at home is nice if the refrigerator dies, or the roof needs repairs, etc.

It seems that two things are going on simultaneously: the right is foundering as their grand plans have hit the rocks, while simultaneously the left is wising up to their tactics, their origins, their aims, and their essential bankruptcy, in so many dimensions. They’re seeming far less invincible than they were a few years ago. The net is closing in around them, both as they falter and as we understand them better.

There still is work to be done in understanding the enemy – and yes, that’s what they are, even though I have family who are Republicans. I’m speaking primarily of the ringleaders and enablers who, whether they know it or not are out to destroy my country, as Hofstadter spoke about.

One of the big tasks remaining is defining and naming things correctly. For example, someone brought up the idea that they really aren’t conservatives, and yet we have no good, consistently agreed-to name or widely accepted understanding for what they really are.

I use this particular ambiguity – if they’re not conservatives, what are they – as an example – once we can get this right wing phenomenon sufficiently understood, defined and named in the aspects that matter, it’s pretty much over, but for the cleanup. This process of understanding, defining, and effectively naming the opposition is like orphaning them onto an island, or circling them with troops. We then have effective memes and labels we can attack, and sink them with.

And so all this psychology is important toward understanding and ultimately defeating this national pathology. Knowledge is indeed power.