“Maybe that’s enough death for them.”
For days I’ve been haunted by those words that Jeff Wells wrote in his blog, Rigorous Intuition. Maybe you think the worst is over, now Bush has had his photo op as the clockwork convoy of aid finally rolled into New Orleans. I thought, maybe so. Maybe that’s enough death for them.
He was speaking of George Bush and the architects of this death-dealing, slavering administration and its supporters. Jeff went on to surmise that no, it was likely that not even Bush’s flyover of destruction had sated his killing need and I suspect that’s true. It wasn’t enough to be the killingest governor in our nation’s history, not enough to leave the national doors wide open to murderous men with airplanes. Afghanistan was not enough. Iraq has not yet been enough for them. Blood flowing into blood, bodies piled upon bodies, arms and legs scattered upon the earth and floating down the rivers and flowing out to sea. . .
When will there be enough death for them?
When we are all annihilated?
Will that slake their thirst, their terrible hunger for blood, at last?
Years ago, a Jungian psychologist, James Hillman, wrote in a book called THE SOUL’S CODE, that the archetype of evil can be detected by the presence in human beings of the following traits:
- The cold heart
- Fire
- The wolf
( “In his early days Hitler referred to himself as Herr Wolf and changed his sister’s name to Frau Wolf. His name Adolf is a derivative of Athalwolf, meaning Nobel Wolf. He even named three of his military headquarters Wolfsschanze, Wolfsschlucht and Werwolf. His favorite dogs were wolfshunde, and he referred to his SS as “my pack of wolves.” Anality is another fixation of the demonic.” LINK
- A fixation on anality
- The death of the female
- The presence of people with physical deformities
- Humorlessness; unable to laugh at one’s self or allow other people to laugh at one
I doubt that it is necessary for me to belabor the obvious for you. In an instant, you get the chilling presence in this administration of at least five of those traits: cold heart, fire (as in war), fixation on anality, the death of the female, and the kind of “inflation” that makes one over-sensitive to criticism and being laughed at. For the “wolves,” throw in Wolfowitz if you want to. If the last trait–surrounding themselves with people with physical deformities, is present–I am not aware of it.
The blood flows. The bodies bloat. They cannot get enough of it.
What in god’s name can stop them?
According to Hillman, such people eventually spiral into their own destruction, albeit not before taking many down with them. He offers a prescription, but it sounds ridiculous by virtue of being apparently impossible:
- Recognize the presence of evil. Do not shun it. Do not deny it.
- Help these people to recognize their common humanity.
Yeah, right. And yet. . .
And yet, now we have witnessed the transformation (Temporary? Lasting?) of conservative reporters on the scene in New Orleans. As if struck on the road to Damascus, they saw the evil and then they recognized their common humanity. Those were demonstrations that it can happen, proof so stunning it had some of us leaping to our feet and shouting hosannas at our television sets. But will it last, even in those few examples? And can it be repeated in the highest levels of this government?
George Bush is going to spend most of next week in the hurricane states. Condaleeza Rice is going, other administration officials will be there. If they stay fortified behind their p.r. nothing will reach them, nothing will change, and we will witness no transformation from cold heart to warm. But if they step deep into wounded, bloody, weeping, pleading, suffering, courageous, generous humanity, we might just have a chance to survive them. The world has an opportunity this week, however unlikely and small that chance may be.
And if it doesn’t happen, as is the most likely outcome?
Then the answer to maybe that’s enough death for them will be: No. It is not.
