The Rise and Fall of Euphoria: A Fable of the Third World.Sep 02 '05 (Updated Sep 16 '05) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line As part of "the ed grover write-off," conducted by eplovejoy, I offer this reaction to the events of the last five years, the last week in particular.
Once upon a time, in a far place, a large former colony lay in the August sun. Euphoria was a land once rich in material resources, but the resources had been exploited by the colonialists, who slaughtered the indigenous people, and imported slaves to dig out its riches. A mountain of iron in a northern province had been used up in a little over a hundred years. Gold discovered on its western coast had created new fortunes, and given hope to many who flooded into the land, but that was long gone. Yet, despite civil strife, industries were built which encouraged the established nations of the world to invest in the land. A railway system was financed and constructed to bring wheat, beef, timber and minerals from the western provinces to build and sustain the growing industrial cities of the East. And in the last century, the remains of the colony's oil and steel, along with the courage of its farmboys, of the sons of its factory workers, of its emigrants, had helped tip the balance for Democracy (such is our dream) in several great wars. As in any primitive former colonial nation, large numbers of barbarians had swaggered through Euphoria's various provinces, befouling the landscape, raping the women, enslaving the children, insisting that families bow down to weird tribal gods, forcing the able-bodied peasant men to beg for jobs and work for pennies. Then, for a period of 30 years, contending economic theories destroyed the old colonial order abroad, and threatened the position of the Eastern banks, not to mention the venture capital of cowboy entrepreneurs in the South and West at home. But ordinary peasants enjoyed a growing new prosperity and security they had never known previously nor, in quite the same way, would ever know again. The soldiers returning from the big wars were given opportunity to go to college. Unions were allowed and grew strong, and ordinary men had respectable work. Even the native people, the conquered peoples of the Southwest, and the former slaves of color were allowed to take other than menial jobs. Women were urged to seek serious educations and make careers outside the home. People who had curious ideas or lived in ways different from the old tribal customs were no longer stoned, shot and lynched, as had happened previously to the natives, the conquered, and the former slaves, on a weekly basis. As in much of the rest of the World, the former colony had adopted the popular republican form of government, indeed had championed the long discarded Greek notion of democracy. But in fact, as was true in most modern monarchies, dictatorships, and republics, Euphoria was ruled by a process known as "democratic centralism," which meant that the peasants were encouraged, within limits, to make suggestions -- indeed "to vent," as the bureaucratic class liked to say -- but most important decisions, those not easily finessed among the populace, had already been determined by the leaders, and were accomplished by fiat or by quasi- and extra-legal means. Much clothing of exotic colors, ingenious gadgets, and pretty glass beads were distributed. Bread, games and circuses were produced to help the populace forget the past and not consider the future. If all reasonable cooptive methods failed, the cops were sent in to break heads, or the Guard was called up to simply shoot dissenters. Still, as the World, like a large pan of frogs in a microwave, ignored the fact that we were all being cooked -- eventually to be incinerated, due to the general greed and carelessness of the species -- the people of Euphoria were seduced into seeing themselves slim, lucky and happy. A large industry, enabled by smoke and mirrors, rose up to placate those malcontents not with the program who thought themselves fat, unlucky and dissatisfied. Therapists, both political and professional, led the pacific mantra: "We are the best, the slimmest, the luckiest, who ever lived. And if we're not, we can buy all that, for only $199 on the Internet!" Those who rejected the pacifiers were said to be discontents, whiners, and most recently, just plain traitors. At home, the song was "Don't Worry, Be Happy." And around the World, our smoke and mirrors broadcasting system trilled: "Aren't We Wonderful?" But then, at the height of its emergence, just as the rest of the world was convinced into thinking well of Euphoria, beginning to conclude the former colony might amount to something, as so often happens, a madness overcame the leaders of the land. After the removal of the Communist threat, a squeezing of profit for the economic elite; a shortage of the fuel that the World had come to depend upon; the economic rise of the last great undeveloped land mass on earth; a blowback from the Middle East caused by Euphoria's "Aren't We Wonderful?" song -- all combined to spread fear in the former colony. Like so many Alexander's of the past, the hinterland son of an Eastern banker and Western cowboy -- from a family heavily invested in prisons, oil and worldwide construction projects -- the grandson of a Nazi sympathizer and supporter of Eugenics -- was elevated to the position, so admired in bars and boardrooms, of Fearless Leader. He didn't look like much, but he was "Our" fearless leader. A reborn religionist, former drunk and dope addict, Fearless Leader had actually failed in everything he had ever tried accomplish on his own. But as was often remarked, "He would have been a helluva a guy [in his salad days, at least] to play pool and drink beer with." As it turned out, he was a pretty good poker player, too, and around him he gathered a group of brilliant fanatics (devotees to "The Noble Lie" of Leo Strauss), many of whom had served up fantasies in former administrations, and who gradually revealed themselves as being shrewder and more politically ept; even more narrow, anti-democratic, and incompetent, than he was. Among them, were seers and oracles who envisioned the former colony, like Alexander's Macedon, rising up to conquer the World. Saw the Fearless Leader, like Alexander, spreading "Shock and Awe" across the Earth, and perhaps becoming the New Christ. The former colony, the dismissed province, would become the Greatest Empire the World Had Ever Known. They really WERE NUTS! Though, before his elevation, Fearless Leader had told a potential biographer that a good war was important for a successful reputation in history, he gestated for nine months while an economic boom spun out of computer fantasies went into free fall. Instead of taking conventional prudent fiscal, political and foreign policy steps, he lowered taxes. He wiped out one of the few fiscal surpluses Euphoria had enjoyed since The Great War, while raising the budget limits again, and driving the balance of payments deficit to new depths; taking the National Debt to fresh heights. He opted out of the World Court, and abrogated many hard won treaties with the World Community. Fearless Leader showed his contempt for the United Nations, and he rejected the latest report of an International group of World scientists, who after over 30 years of study, had concluded that Global Warming was melting the Polar Caps and raising the temperature of the oceans. We might, they said, expect more powerful hurricanes, a flooding of coastal plains and lowlands. Fearless Leader replied that more study was necessary before taking any steps, and that besides, whatever his regime did now might hurt business in Euphoria, and so, being careful to take tax write-offs, we would probably just have to live with the consequences. Instead, as Mephistophles had advised Faust to do, Fearless Leader drained the swamps and encouraged development in the flood plain. Euphoria Media hailed Fearless Leader a genius, as leaders of other nations rolled their eyes. But the peasants slept on in their confidence that the status quo would be maintained, until nineteen religious fanatics -- bad fanatics [that is, of a different faith] -- enraged by the cheery hedonistic message, "Aren't We Wonderful?" -- struck a lucky terrorist and psychological blow to the economic and governmental centers of the new empire. Instantly, the leader elevated himself to the position of homespun "El Supremo of Euphoria." Squinty-eyed, he snarled that the Evil Ones "can run but they can't hide." He wildly announced his option to attack up to 60 nations. He compared himself to Winston Churchill and declared "the war on terror" an equal of World War II. In time, he announced that Euphoria, the Greatest Empire the World Had Ever Known, would attack Mars. El Supremo created the Office of Homeland Security, with powers rivaling those of the security forces of our old enemies, Nazi Germany and the Russia of the Soviets. In the real World, however, despite the willing, even cowed efforts of loyal guardsmen and ordinary peasants, the immensely expensive war on terror failed to bring stability or happiness to the poor nations Euphoria had swatted with its aerial flyswatter. The "Shock and Awe" missed most of the terrorists. In fact, "the war on terror" created terrorists where they had not existed before, and spread terrorism around the World. Its aftermath reestablished the opium trade, and brought down on the innocent heads of people in Afghanistan and Iraq destruction and the threat of civil war. The process encouraged incredible corruption, brutality and bribery on the part of a nation which had built a "can do" reputation for following "The Rule of Law": the practice of fair play and honesty. As they liked to say in the Euphorian Department of Defense about the process: "Costly . . . under investigation . . . confidential, must protect Intelligence sources . . . many wonderful American men and women killed or maimed . . . but -- on a cost analysis basis -- WORTH IT!" Last week, Achmed Chilabi, convicted of bribery and embezzlement in Jordan, the man who had, from exile in Washington, D.C., provided much of the misinformation used to justify the war, sat comfortably, pulling the jacket of his designer suit over his paunch, in the Iraqi Ministry of Oil. At that moment, a Senior Analyst for the Euphorian Military resigned. She had been investigating a 40 billion dollar contract awarded to Halliburton, Inc, to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. Both Fearless Leader's family and his Vice President (former CEO of Halliburton) were heavily invested. The Senior Analyst said that a total of Eight Billion Dollars had been embezzled and could not be accounted for. Fearless Leader's Administration chose not to act upon her report. After 30 years service, the Senior Analyst said, she had had it with the State of Euphoria! Finally, this last week, after a five day warning, a Force Four hurricane, Katrina, hit low-lying New Orleans and the Mississippi coast, just off dead center. The ensuing, growing catastrophe will probably become the greatest natural disaster ever recorded in Euphoria. The Euphorian bureaucracy reacted with incredible incompetence. Evidently, no Naval vessels were in the Gulf ports, no National Guard (not in Iraq or Afghanistan, etc.) alerted. No stores of water, food and necessities were at the ready. Fleets of busses and squadrons of helicopters were not stocked and prepared to aid and evacuate. Strengthened according to a number of reputable scientists by surface water temperatures elevated by the effects of Global Warming, the over 150 mph an hour hurricane moved toward the Gulf Coast at fifteen miles an hour. When Katrina struck Monday morning, the levees gave way, and water of biblical proportion flooded in on an estimated 800,000 people who had not been able or not willing to the coastal lands of the Gulf Coast. [This year the Corps of Engineers had requested 71,000,000 dollars to be used, in part, for a long deferred project to reinforce and raise those levees. Various Federal, State and local studies had warned for years that they were a disaster waiting to happen. The Administration of Euphoria turned down the request. Fearless Leader echoed his National Security Advisor, at the time of 9/11: "No one could have imagined the levees would give way."] In the last moment, the populace were advised to evacuate, but those without transportation were offered no help. The Office of Homeland Security, 180,000 strong, revealed itself to be a joke. To cope with the growing human tragedy, the Government of Euphoria urged the peasantry to donate to the Red Cross (itself as inadequately prepared as usual) and Operation Blessing (an evangelical boondoggle which has made Fearless Leader supporter Pat Robertson a very rich man, when he's not giving Christian advice to assassinate elected leaders of foreign nations). As chaos and anarchy grew, and innocent people died needlessly, the leaders Homeland Security and FEMA seemed as clueless about the immensity of the disaster as the Department of Defense is usually about its incompetence. Cold panic, it is whispered, has gripped the Government of Euphoria in a fashion similar to how Soviet bureaucrats reacted to the Chernobyl atomic disaster. The total estimated dead in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast may eventually approach 50,000. [Update: September 13, 2005 -- This hyped figure now appears as exaggerated as other statistics in this affair.] Whatever, to use newspeak, most of the dead were poor, black, and didn't vote for Fearless Leader, anyway. Right? Fearless Leader said this morning, in one of his more accurate pronouncements: "Much good work being done. Results unacceptable." The peasantry's confidence was to be uplifted by the following knowledge: Fearless Leader has cut short his five week vacation of cutting brush, plunking his guitar, riding his bike and avoiding Cindy Sheehan. Vice President Dick Chaney is up in Wyoming and Montana, preparing to inspect oil field sites in Alberta, Canada. Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice spent yesterday in New York, buying shoes and seeing "Spamalot." Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was at a Padres' baseball game. Other Euphorians, still on vacation, were not available for comment. And so we leave the Land of Euphoria, lying torpid now as an alligator in the early September sun. ---------------- The last time I looked, the governments of Britain, France and Russia had offered aid to Euphoria, but no response to the offers was reported by the Euphorian State Department. Flies, misquitoes, dysentery, possibly West Nile Fever -- or even Cholera -- await the poor peasants of the Gulf Coast. They, at least, most of them, will not live "happily ever after." ----------------- Doesn't all of the bombastic incompetence we've witnessed make you at least a little mad at what has been done to us as a nation, and in our name? what we have done to ourselves? ------------------ The Faust Legend, the most potent in Western Society, applies to America, possibly our present situation, just as well. Here is a review of F.W. Murnau's FAUST: http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-B13-7CB33C4-395D6CC1-prod4 For a film (one possibly not seen widely in America for a long time yet) which attempts a more philosophical answer to the question of why thousands and thousands of innocent people have died in recent years from governmental negligence, try THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES. Here, at least, is a review: http://www.epinions.com/content_193667698308 ------------------------------ I urge you to go to the following site maintained by Representative John Conyers (D-Mich) to register your protest: www.johnconyers.com ----------------- Those of you searching for legitimate places to contribute aid to the destitute and betrayed populace of the Gulf Coast, should contact the following organizations: Salvation Army (800) 725 2769 Catholic Charities USA (800) 919-9338 Lutheran Disaster Response (800) 638-3522 Mennonite Disaster Service (717) 859-2210 Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (888) 872-3283 United Methodist Committee on Relief (800) 872-3283 -------------------------- This piece is dedicated to Ed Grover, my colleague of nearly five years. His work, encouragement and courage have been an inspiration to all of us at Epinions. I urge you to visit eplovejoy's "ed grover write-off site." Wish him well as he continues his struggle. In the words of the hero of an old movie -- Ed: "Green grass and running water." Alex Fraser -- Macresarf1 --------------------------- UPDATE: Saturday, September 1, 2005 -- It is said that over 50 countries have now offered aid to Euphoria. In addition, to Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Israel, there are offers of a large contingent from the World Health Organization and UNICEF people, all trained and experienced in disaster relief. Even evil Comandante Castro of Cuba, said to be the poorest nation in the Caribbean, has offered 1400 trained physicians and a whole mobile hospital unit, employing nurses experienced in dealing with hurricane victims. The Bush Administration remains undecided what to ask for, and from whom. And Mayor Daly of Chicago says that last Sunday, on the eve of the disaster, he contacted FEMA, ready to send down 400 disaster management experts and a fleet of vehicles. (FEMA took one truck.) But, hey, the Superdome is 80% evacuated, and now it's on to the Convention Center, across the way, on Canal Street, where 16 to 20 thousand people have been waiting for up to six days. The latter spot was the one that FEMA Head Michael *Brown was unaware of on Thursday. PROGRESS!! *FEMA Head Brown's previous disaster relief expertise consisted of managing the International Arabian Horse Society. [He was fired for incompetence.] He replaced Joe Albaugh, his former college room mate, a political appointee also with no experience in the disaster field, a manager of George W. Bush's 2000 Campaign for the Presidency. Albaugh resigned after an investigation into expense overruns in the open-handed help given to well-off Floridians in last year's hurricanes there. ------------------------------- UPDATE: Monday, September 5, 2005 -- The airlift and bus caravans were increasing in number, and house to house searches for survivors were being carried out in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. At long last, body counts were beginning to be conducted. Nevertheless, the International Press sent a deluge of criticism washing over the United States Government for a spectacle of unpreparedness it had revealed to the World. At home, even staunch Republicans were appalled. William Kristol, for instance, a primary editor of The Project for a New American Century, distanced himself from the President this morning. Vice President, it was said, procured a huge NEW contract for Halliburton, Inc, to level and resurrect the infrastructure of New Orleans. He accomplished this feat on Friday, the same day a handful in Congress pushed through 10.5 billion dollars in emergency aid. If the great majority of New Orleans and residents nearby were successfully evacuated and the area rebuilt, it seemed doubtful that most of those people would ever live in their hometowns again. The great dislocations, over time, would produce difficult social and economic situations in the half dozen states receiving the displaced people. Years of excess profits seemed guaranteed for Halliburton, Inc., however. ----------------- UPDATE: Tuesday, September 6, 2005 -- This morning, Day 9, of this tragedy, the U.S.S. Bataan, a 900 foot shallow draft vessel docked at a naval facility on the Mississippi. The Battan has a complement of 1200 sailors, a squadron of helicopters, six operating rooms, surgeons, doctors, a six hundred bed hospital, and a capability to distill 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, had been alerted by North Com late in August to track Hurricane "Katrina" in the Caribbean, in order to aid the citizens of Florida ports should it strike there. The Bataan followed "Katrina" as it crossed the tip of Florida and continued across the Gulf. The ship moved right in off New Orleans as the storm went on land, Monday morning. Anchored off shore, aside from running some initial emergency rescues, the Bataan waited for orders to deploy its full facilities to aid the stricken citizens of the Gulf Coast. The orders never came. Captain Nora Tyson has been quoted to the effect that she would have done anything she could during the following seven days, but that she had follow order from her superiors. Meanwhile, the Navy dispatched vessels from Norfolk, Virginia, and Pennsicola, Forida, which arrived on the scene days after at least thousands had died and tens of thousands had suffered. The Office of Homeland Security seems to be really prepared to meet disasters! ----------------- UPDATE: Wednesday, September 7, 2005 -- As members of both political parties demanded investigations of the catastrophic blunder perpetrated by FEMA and the Office of Homeland Security, a dwindling band of Administration apologists pressed the shoddy argument that the State of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans were to blame. In the midst of the furor, it was revealed that FEMA, in shifting to a subsidiary position under the Office of Homeland Security, had inadvertently purged its records for those eligible for Food Stamps in the State of Louisiana. This mistakes means that uprooted poor and destitute citizens from Louisiana, at least, will not have the proof of eligibility required when they apply in Texas, Colorado or other states where they may be relocated, often against their will. One sharp commentator (Jerry Springer, of all people) suggested that the dictum, increasingly popular over the last 30 years, that "the best government is the least government" had led to hatred and self-hatred in national politics. And now, that generalization had eaten into the one area where the citizenry find the Federal Government indispensible: The defense and preservation of life, safety, and property when, as interpreted in "The Inter-State Commerce Clause," there is a threat to the nation which crosses state lines. I found it ironic that Chief Justice Rehnquist, whose philosophical arguments had so undermined the efficacy "The Inter-State Commerce Clause" for nearly forty years, should die on the eve of Katrina's attack against the defenseless Gulf states. ---------------- UPDATE: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 -- "Reassigned" FEMA Head Michael Brown stepped down after carrying out his plan to "take a shower, hug his wife, take a stiff Margarita, and get a good night's sleep." Euphorian Defense Chief Rumsfeld, back on the job again, sent for the President's approval the declaration of a new policy to use first strike atomic weapons in our future preemptive wars. It was a move that went against the history of Euphoria's best self, and placed us peasants in the same category as Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan . . . and the Islamist Terrorist thugs who carried out 9/11. There would be, at some point, no more joy in Euphoria. ------------------ UPDATE: Friday, September 16, 2005 -- Last night Our President gave a speech in which, surprisingly, he promised an FDR-type "new deal" program for citizens of the Gulf States. Unfortunately, as noted earlier, the infrastructure would be contracted out to the Administration's favorite companies, such as Haliburton, the Carlyle Group, and Kellogg-Brown-and-Root, overseen by the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, under the close control Spinmeister Extraordinaire Karl Rove. While the President stressed that people of the states involved would be given preference for jobs, his earlier executive order will allow the companies involved to hire labor at below the prevailing wage. Today, President Bush held an interfaith prayer meeting to support victims of Katrina, though a number of clergymen invited said that they had been praying for several weeks. They were now hoping for some real action from the Administration. [In a continuing series of disgusting reports, it was revealed that supplies, equipment, and guardsmen were repeated trucked or flown in to provide a backdrop for the President's speeches during his recent visits to ravaged neighborhoods on the Gulf. As soon as a speech was over, the personnel, equipment and supplies were whisked away to another spot.] The largest civilian casualties since the beginning of the Attack on Iraq were recorded in the last 72 hours: over 200 killed, over 700 wounded, in a series of bomb explosions and ambushes. The Iraqi Foreign Minister, visiting a prayer breakfast in Michigan, U.S.A, was quoted as saying, the attacks suggested the Iraqi insurgents were on their last legs.  |
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