March 20, 2011

A Nation Led by Blood-Guzzling, Flesh-Eating Pigfuckers

Yes, this will be a very rude post in part. No, my title doesn't refer to Libya, whose leader is the current candidate for StalinHitlerPolPot Monster of the Week, but rather to the leading terrorist nation of the world, the piece of shit United States of Pigfucking America.

There isn't any "news" in these latest events. Another day, another set of war crimes. Where's the news in that? That's what the United States does now, as it has regularly and systematically for over a century. Wait, that's not right: as it has since before it even became the United States. But hell, you don't want to think about any of that too deeply or too long. If you did, how could you continue with your lamentations about the "death" of the once-noble United States and its "true" values? What are the "true" values of a nation founded and developed in very significant part on not one, but two, genocides that lasted for centuries?

But, oh, oh, oh, the horror of bombing Libya! How will "we" ever survive? "We" will survive very well indeed. I note that the Pigfucker-in-Chief announced these sacrosanct principles the other day:
Our focus has been clear: protecting innocent civilians within Libya, and holding the Qaddafi regime accountable.
The same Pigfucker-in-Chief claims the "right" and power to murder anyone in the world, whenever he wants, for whatever reason he wishes. He's made clear that "cuz I feel like it" is reason enough. Since he claims to hold absolute power in this manner, bombing Libya, or any other country or region of the world, is an implied detail. He also is completely comfortable with the daily and hourly torture of a very well-known prisoner. The Pigfucker thinks that's fine! It's the American Way! (He's right about that.)

Given the holy mission announced by the Pigfucker-in-Chief with regard to Libya, and in light of the Pigfucker's own repeatedly embraced policies, a question uncomfortably announces itself: Who will bomb the United States, and when does it begin? Thus are we instructed as to the critical importance of possessing the most frightening arsenal of weapons ever known in history. No one dares apply the Pigfucker's own standards to the Pigfucker himself.

Gee, you think outrage and condemnation are effective tactics with a Pigfucker like this? You think he loses sleep because a few people are upset? He desperately wanted to be Pigfucker-in-Chief, and tirelessly worked for many years toward that end. I once described anyone who so deeply desires to be Pigfucker-in-Chief as "terrifyingly deranged." Almost no one agreed with me when I first said it, and very few people agree with me now. That particular truth disturbs you too much. Poor, pathetic you.

I can barely tolerate reading most "dissenting" writers at times like this. The Pigfuckers launch their newest assault on decency and humanity, on the sacred value of a single human life, and on civilization itself, and the protesters are all so goddamned, fucking polite. The United States government is led by blood-guzzling, flesh-eating pigfuckers. Fuck polite.

I must mention one other aspect of much of the criticism being offered about the assault on Libya. Many writers point out in excruciating, mind-numbing detail that the assault won't "work," that it will fail to achieve its announced aims, that it will certainly lead to more death and suffering rather than less, and so on and so forth. All of which is true in one sense -- but all of which is, from the only perspective that genuinely matters, completely irrelevant.

I refer you to an essay I wrote in January 2009, "The Necessary Violence of the Murderous National Bully." Since I realize most of you have no intention of following the link, I'll repeat the concluding section of that article. I have no desire to reformulate the argument still another time; besides, I said it very well on the earlier occasion.

But I will first emphasize the fundamental significance of what I call The Higgs Principle (after Robert Higgs, who identified this phenomenon in especially cogent and powerful terms), namely:
There are no persistent "failed" public policies.
Here is the final section of my essay from two years ago:
[T]here is a much simpler reason for the actions of America and Israel, two reasons actually.

The first reason lies in the nature of a State centrally founded on conquest and violence in the way that is true of America and Israel. Setting aside moral questions and whether the murder of innocent people can ever be justified -- and I realize it is abhorrent to set aside such issues, but we must recognize that such matters rarely concern American politicians or those of any other nation, despite their frequent protestations to the contrary -- reliance on the conquest of victims who are inevitably furiously angry and resentful, and who will seek retribution whenever the opportunity presents itself, is necessarily uncertain and undependable. If your rule depends on the compliance and obedience of those over whom you hold sway in such circumstances, you will necessarily have to remind the subject-citizens of the price of disobedience from time to time. One result is that scapegoats will regularly have to be found: first they will be identified, then they will be demonized, and finally they will be punished, even eliminated as required. From this perspective, violence, even death on a horrifyingly large scale, and the power of the State are not different phenomena: they are two aspects of the same phenomenon. Violence is the State. Power is not the means to another end: it is the end.

The second reason concerns what constitutes "national interests," those of the United States, Israel, or any other nation. Just as many people contend they cannot understand what propelled Israel's recent actions, disregarding the arguments offered above, so many people say that it is not in the "national interests" of America to offer unquestioning support to Israel in the way it does. This rather badly misses the point of what those "national interests" are, and who determines what they are. Those "national interests" have nothing at all to do with you, or me, or with "ordinary" Americans. The "national interests" of the United States as a political entity concern only the ruling class, as discussed in detail here, here and in many other essays linked therein.

And so I return once more to Robert Higgs' formulation. There is another aspect to "national interest" which is analyzed here, but it is critical to appreciate the following. Robert Higgs:
As a general rule for understanding public policies, I insist that there are no persistent "failed" policies. Policies that do not achieve their desired outcomes for the actual powers-that-be are quickly changed. If you want to know why the U.S. policies have been what they have been for the past sixty years, you need only comply with that invaluable rule of inquiry in politics: follow the money.

When you do so, I believe you will find U.S. policies in the Middle East to have been wildly successful, so successful that the gains they have produced for the movers and shakers in the petrochemical, financial, and weapons industries (which is approximately to say, for those who have the greatest influence in determining U.S. foreign policies) must surely be counted in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

So U.S. soldiers get killed, so Palestinians get insulted, robbed, and confined to a set of squalid concentration areas, so the "peace process" never gets far from square one, etc., etc. – none of this makes the policies failures; these things are all surface froth, costs not borne by the policy makers themselves but by the cannon-fodder masses, the bovine taxpayers at large, and foreigners who count for nothing.
The ruling class has not "lost," not in Gaza, not in Iraq, not in most of the other many wars of aggression throughout history. To claim that they have is to misapprehend what their interests are, and how those interests are fulfilled. The prospect or, very infrequently, the actuality of large scale public unrest and protest may cause the ruling class to make concessions now and then, concessions specifically designed to ensure future compliance. But except for extraordinarily rare moments of profound historical shift, the ruling class continues in its enjoyment of untold wealth and power, all of which is fed with the blood and suffering of the "ordinary" people.

It may be that the rot now consuming more and more of the United States economy will circumscribe the U.S. ruling class's determination to dominate the globe. At present, however, there is no sign whatsoever that our ruling class is considering even the smallest degree of humility. To the contrary, Obama's proclamations that "the American moment" should extend for "this new century" lead to precisely the opposite conclusion. I would not be at all surprised if this theme is included in Obama's inaugural address in some form.

For the United States, as for Israel, violence, subjugation and death were indispensable to their founding and development, as they are indispensable to their continuance. We may desperately wish that it were otherwise, but these horrors will not end in the near future. To whatever extent we can, that is the goal demanded by decency, humanity and a genuine reverence for life toward which we must continue to work.
Still, it seems we must remain unfailingly polite, particularly if we wish to be viewed as "serious" and "respectable."

I'm deeply sorry I referred to our leaders as Pigfuckers. I'm certain they have simply made an understandable error of judgment, just as I know to an absolute certainty that after a period of serious reflection, they will reverse course and proceed to make all necessary amends. After all, history provides many examples of just this kind of profound social and political transformation. Leaders who claim to possess immense, ungraspable power repeatedly give up that power in exchange for the quiet contemplation of life's simple pleasures. This is especially true of leaders who claim to possess absolute power. Whatever else might be said about them, I'm sure Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and all the rest have good hearts and mean well.

That's right, dear reader. Laugh through your tears. Ignore the agonized, unending screams of the countless victims. What does their pain signify?

For us, life goes on, at least for now. As you were.