A Cancer On The Presidency

[small pun for you amateur astrologers out there]

Today is George W. Bush's 60th birthday, and what do you get for the person who quite literally has the world by the balls? (Besides Halliburton stock, that is.) No, when you talk about the intangibles, the traits of character that one wishes for another when one wishes to transcend mere possessions, one boggles at the prospect of deciding with what to further arm a person such as Bush.

For example, Bush himself might, poorly feigning a contemplative state, wish for himself to acquire the strength to overcome the challenges that beset him, or some such. You know the drill -- it's basically that old saying of "God grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." That sort of thing. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it ill befits a person who should, by the very nature of his (s)elected post, be striving for greatness and excellence. One's reach should generally exceed one's grasp in life; otherwise what's the point?

So a mere Purpose-Driven Life nostrum is not enough. Besides, Bush already enjoys the comfortable certitude of "knowing" that he can acquire the necessary strength, courage, and wisdom just by praying. (As for Intelligence, Dexterity, and Charisma, he's on his own, but his certitude perhaps grants him a +2 saving throw.) And pray he does, as he and his staff are forever reminding us. That's worked out quite well, hasn't it?

Much has been made over the years of Bush's notoriously incurious nature, and I believe that that is the center of what ails him -- and in turn, us, and further in turn, the rest of the world. If the rest of the world catches the cold when the U.S. sneezes, what happens to them when the U.S. gets shitfaced and runs into a ditch? So it seems that it is that very nature that needs to be addressed.

There is a paradox of sorts to the ideal of total consciousness. On the one hand, we wish (or should wish) to maximize our awareness of ourselves, of the universe, of our current place therein, and of our potential. All of these things are by definition dynamic, as opposed to the resolutely static model imposed by monotheistic dogma. On the other hand, true total consciousness would encompass total empathy, and that would be paralyzing.

Still, life experience at least tells us that, unless you're a complete potato, you acquire knowledge through empirical observation. You pick things up; you consciously and subconsciously decide whether or not to utilize and incorporate those things into your functions. The easy cultural artifacts might be something like dress or lingo or music; the more difficult ones may be acquiring the ability to discern what is useful and productive, and separate it from what is fluff and nonsense. The point is that you never stop, until you die. That is as it should be. Only a complete fool ever thinks they're at a stopping point, when it comes to knowing and understanding the world around them.

As Poputonian points out, the Founding Fathers were very cultured men, if not pedigreed men. They read and understood great philosophers and moral arguments. They were students of the Enlightenment, particularly the Scottish Enlightenment. They had to work to acquire what they had, and to learn what they knew. This may be the true distinction between men of their caliber and people like George W. Bush. Same goes for dogs -- would you rather have a smart mutt who observes and understands things, or a nervous, inbred, yappy show dog, whose purebred bloodline has essentially bred out any common sense and favorable characteristics he would otherwise have? One is worth more money on paper, but the other is by far the better companion. Bush is famous for expecting loyalty from others, but he's apparently the center of his own universe, so his loyalty to others is entirely conditional on their ability to coddle him and put up with his nonsense.

So the zen thing to do would be to hope that Bush finds the gift that cannot be bestowed -- the ability to truly reflect, to contemplate, to comprehend one's own place within the universe, instead of constantly pretending that all questions were answered twenty years ago when he finally stopped drinking. Or maybe he could look at the demise of his "acquaintance" Kenny Boy, and ponder the nature of karma. But the realistic gift for him would be to rub his nose in his manifold failures and corruptions, and beat him with his own willful intractable ignorance, until he finally fucking gets it.

Good luck with that one.