Dying Democracy and Dehumanization

Last Wednesday night, I was call­ing friends to try and do a lit­tle street the­ater down­town Chicago, in the hopes of pro­vid­ing a par­tic­u­larly gritty infomer­cial and gen­er­at­ing pres­sure on the Senate to not pass S.3930 (aka the “Just Confess to Something Act of 2006″). It appears I wasn’t the only one with the same idea. No one was down for it early that Thursday after­noon, and the bill went on to pass by a hefty majority.

That night, I couldn’t help but think that this is no longer my coun­try. I’m liv­ing on the same land­mass, but “America” has packed up and left for greener pastures.

That is a fic­tion. The America I pine after has only ever existed in the fever dreams of its bohemian ide­al­ists. America as a whole has always been a bru­tal, mean-spirited hyp­ocrite. It enslaved mil­lions of Africans in the name of God. It slaugh­tered mil­lions of indige­nous Americans in the name of civ­i­liza­tion. It con­quered Cuba and the Phillipines in the name of colo­nial lib­er­a­tion. It setup banana republics in Central America in the name of democ­racy. It used nuclear weapons in the name of peace. It impov­er­ishes a large chunk of the planet in the name of devel­op­ment. It con­quered Iraq in the name of free­dom, and con­tin­ues to dec­i­mate it in the name of stability.

Now, it has decided to let itself dis­ap­pear any­one it wishes and abuse them for­ever — in the name of security.