The Suicide of Civilization

This biting, yet insightful piece , Contempt for Life, aptly subtitled "An Absence Of Thinking Is Bush's Real Legacy," by Alan Bisbort, is truly on target:

In the wake of World War I, Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) wrote, "It is clear now to everyone that the suicide of civilization is in progress." Schweitzer, having spent part of the war in a French internment camp, said that mankind's collective impulse toward self-destruction was the result of "an absence of thinking which is characterized by a contempt for life."

Though he was a Bach scholar, classical organist, author and philosopher, Schweitzer devoted most of his life to running a free hospital in Gabon, in west Africa. What he said was often pessimistic, yet he was no pessimist. . . .

Not much has changed since Schweitzer's time. As individuals, we all want a safer, cleaner, less violent world. We all prefer to think we adhere to Schweitzer's ethic of "reverence for life" and that we are "civilized."

But, collectively, humankind behaves in the opposite manner. It's as if our species was born with the seed of insanity in our DNA, doing things guaranteed to cause harm to other species and each other, seeming to delight in inflicting pain.

Because it's so easy to mouth platitudes like "pro-life" or "compassionate conservative," language itself is a victim of this suicide. Jettisoning the sole means by which we communicate is to collectively step into a black abyss where everything is relative, where hate and love are the same and "reverence" could really mean "contempt."

Enter George W. Bush. Once upon a time in a sleepy nation, many folks felt that he was the sort of guy they'd love to have a beer with, to sit next to on a bar stool and shoot the breeze. What better qualification for president! What harm could such a man do? Even those who voted for Gore began to say things like, "How bad can four years be?"

Well, we're going on six years now and things are far worse than even the most pessimistic of projections in 2001. It's so bad that Bush is no longer even a laughing stock, with his infantile mispronunciations and desperate grasps at Christian pieties. He is simply impossible to watch or hear. His entire being is a mockery of our best instincts, a daily reminder that buried under the pretence at "reverence" is this seed for "contempt."

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My favorite was George's telling Katie Couric last week, "One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." Lying must be such hard work.

Contemptible is the only word that works for me.

Contemptible works for me as well. Bisbort's characterization is absolutely correct that the continual use of the propaganda technique of "up is down" by Bush and his cronies has made a mockery of our government -- and of us. Schweitzer's words -- "It is clear now to everyone that the suicide of civilization is in progress" -- should instill real fear in us, not the fear-mongering of the Bush boys.

(Via ThomasMc)

Tags: Commentary, Bush, Politics