The party of power has won everything. The Senate and the House are theirs. Today the United Nations’ Security Council abdicated its right to dissent and allied its authority with US imperial supremacy in a stunning unanimous adoption of its Iraq resolution. Also, maybe this is not related to the Republican election sweep, but the day after election results, federal charges were dropped against the Washington snipers so that they could be tried in Virginia, where federal law does not prevent the seventeen year old from being executed. I suspect the government hesitated until it was sure there was no Democrat-controlled Senate to offend. From now on they will resume with glee and impunity the selling-off of whole chunks of personal liberties, appointing treasonable justices, arranging for the execution of minors and bending the course of a nation to the will of a few.
I feel as though there has never been so weak a voice as mine raised feebly against so great a roar of morally corrupt power and arrogance.
But I know there have been thousands. Through milennia individuals of compassion have sought fitfully to organize themselves under various political parties and social movements of every ilk, none with absolute effectiveness. We have tried socialism, communism, and secularism. We have occupied niches of moderation encased within movements whose goals were largely inconsistent with ours, like some religions, and variously flavored conservatisms. In reaction to our feeling of helpless paralysis in the face of disaster, we have, on occasion, even joined up with organizations that advocate force and violence. Though we need not be passive, we are largely pacifist.
Whether these efforts through history have failed or not is debatable. The present conditions, which I consider nightmarish, may simply be an educational opportunity proceeding directly from the many efforts made through millenia to promote human compassion. The apathetic are never more than today poised to learn something from Emporer Bush and his court.