Steven Weber: DamNation

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-weber/damnation_b_137763.html


Steven Weber
Posted October 25, 2008 | 02:03 AM (EST)
DamNation


What must the gods who make all things happen know that we mortals do not?

Seriously.

How could a guy like John McCain renounce all that defined him as a viable (but still extremely flawed) candidate? Under what circumstances would this war hero/torture victim/malcontent turn into a flailing, obsequious, directionless failure? What assurances was he given in the oak paneled rooms (as I imagine such rooms would be decorated) which were persuasive enough to turn this tough guy around? It must have been some incentive potent enough to move this man to utterly subvert any heroism he may have earned, any sense of duty to country he extolled, any sense of ethics he tried to embody, any hint of soul he may have possessed that could have moved him so.

His fall is classically tragic, the stuff of a Phillip Glass opera, full of piteous cadences and shameful free-falling motifs charting McCain's own trajectory away from any form of honesty and honor.

And the hell of it is, it has all been performed in broad daylight, his perverse conversion on full public display, scrupulously recorded and catalouged. And even more shocking still, his actions failing to dissuade those that would follow him and thereby assuring their own paths to Oblivion reserved for such Faustian also-rans. The limbic imperative to trust above all else that Daddy will not hurt or disappoint under any circumstances must be at work here; indeed there has been no comparable case of suicidal mass delusion than the one which occurred in Germany in the late 20's. People, psychologically cornered by harsh realities, forced to serve the interest of their own narcissism, are capable of anything. Watching The John McCain Show is like watching a trapped animal gnaw off its own head to escape (an M.C. Escheresque proposition, but you get the idea).

And it's the sorriest American spectacle we've had to witness lately: McCain's sellout and the rabidly cheering crowd who've pinned their hopes on someone who -- even if he should somehow win --is already dead. The whole thing speaks not only to his instability and inability to ever be called president but also to the complicity of certain institutions (the media, the Republican Party) who aid and abet in the destruction. His fall reflects America's fall, how she has stooped and groveled and threatened and cajoled just to win, oh god, just to win.

Maybe that's what was said in that room: "It makes no difference, John. No matter how low you sink, no matter how many lies you tell, you can never be hurt again, you will never feel any pain because you will still win". Too bad there wasn't anyone around who countered: "For what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

[Tikki]

1. You know, Mr. Weber has been working hard to get truth, some real sense...

out here....and I respect him immensely.

Print this out and keep it in a file.
Someday history will ask you about this election.
Here is a capture that will be well worth revisiting
when you reflect some years from now.


Tikki

[frogmarch]

2. A remarkable and well-written article.

A keeper, that's for sure.

Thanks for posting it. :thumbsup:

[Voice for Peace]

3. Aaahhhhh.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I believe it was on Bill Maher that I first heard him speak. I was impressed.

The limbic imperative to trust above all else that Daddy will not hurt or disappoint under any circumstances must be at work here; indeed there has been no comparable case of suicidal mass delusion than the one which occurred in Germany in the late 20's. People, psychologically cornered by harsh realities, forced to serve the interest of their own narcissism, are capable of anything.

[Orsino]

5. Weber is decades late.

Anyone who cares knows that McCain sold out long, long ago.

[Cha]

6. I don't mccain ever had much in the beginning so

this wouldn't bother him. And, now he has neither..it doesn't bother cindy or palin, either.

"For what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"