Where the pie in the sky drops straight in your face...
Maybe you've seen the New Yorker cartoon of a scientist at a blackboard filled with a complicated formula and, at the end of a long string of mathematical equations, it says "and a miracle happens" and then the answer is written. This is a good visual depiction of what the term 'magical thinking' means and the embodiment of modern neoconservative Republicanism; whenever it reaches a point that doesn't comport with fact or reality, it either blthely brushes by the snag or trusts in some miracle happening that will make the pet theory a success. This habit of problem-solving has been in operation for the past five years of the Bush Administration and, no matter how much the glaring light of reality shines into the tent, they simply don rose-colored glasses, prepare a few misleading excuses, and arrogantly plow on undeterred.
It is, by its nature, an anti-intellectual and anti-scientific movement, as knowledgeable people would question its commonly beneficial underpinnings, and scientists would insist on proof that it works, neither of which exist. The alleged intellectuals at the various neoconservative think tanks, such as the corporately-funded Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute, are no more than glib public relations flacks with a Thesaurus handy and a fax machine connected to Frank Luntz, who in turn is channeling the late father of public flummery, Edward Bernays; the few scientists involved are either bribed or tainted by ideology.
Yes, the neoconservatives ardently claim, you can cut taxes, run up the deficit and never have to worry about paying it off because the resulting booming economy will increase the tax base to such an extent that it will easily cover the deficit. This 'magical thinking' has been a feature of the Republican Party for more than twenty years. It's been variously dubbed 'supply-side economics,' the 'Laffer Curve' and the 'trickle down' theory, but the basic idea is the same -- and repeatedly proven dead wrong.
This kind of 'voodoo economics,' as George Bush the Elder once called it, was anathema to conservatives until Ronald Reagan became president in 1980 and sold this 'have it all' theme to the public on behalf of his corporate supporters and ultra-right base. The 'Gipper,' pinning on his folksy 20 Mule Team Borax salesman's grin, gulled enough Americans into voting for him, and Republicans, that they ran up a tremendous debt and sent the country into a recession in the late 1980s. Thanks to Bush Senior raising taxes, the Internet bubble, and Clinton's more pragmatic approach to the economy, we managed to pay off Reagan's debt in a decade, leaving a surplus by the year 2000.
Then George W. Bush, implanted in the White House by the Supreme Court, insouciantly squandered that surplus, part of which was meant to pay for the expected onslaught of retiring Baby Boomers, and added to it the largest deficit in American history.
He has also engaged in 'magical thinking' in his conduct of the so-called War on Terror. First, the concept of eliminating terrorism in the world is as ludicrous as believing you can eradicate prostitution by declaring a 'war' on hookers -- potential prostitutes are born every minute, as are terrorists, and it is beyond the power of any state to absolutely stop either activity.
Second, the notion that you can end terrorism by inflaming a majority of the world's billion-plus Muslims against U.S. interests is similar fantasy; since most current terrorists arise from the fetid maelstrom of poverty and ignorance in the Middle East, mixed with religious zealotry -- ignorance and zealotry intentionally encouraged by our 'friends' in such places as Saudi Arabia for their own purposes -- the use of bunker-busting bombs and 'shock and awe' campaigns do nothing to cure the root causes of terrorism, but they do add to the list of our enemies. Shedding friends in other parts of the world through aggressiveness and arrogance also doesn't help protect us from any terrorist threat.
Third, the idea that we can force-feed Iraqis, or any nation, our brand of democracy and expect them remain our friends is equally farfetched; our force of arms can only contain the slowly-evolving revolution now in progress in that country between the Kurds, who want their own independent state; the Shiites, who are the majority in Iraq and have more in common with their brethren in Iran than the U.S.; and the Sunnis, who don't want to live under the thumb of the majority Shiites. If the magical thinking of the neocons had been removed from this situation, we might have managed to separate the country into three parts and have each as a functioning democracy, on the terms of the inhabitants of the three states, and friendly to the United States; as it is, there is bound to be a bloody civil war, with our troops caught in the crossfire, when they aren't the target of the fire, as they have been so far. If the Shiites control the country, they will institute an Iranian-style theocractic republic instead of a liberal Jeffersonian democracy and they will become an enemy of U.S. interests.
This is the stage that Bush's magical thinking has set, and his present 'Victory in Iraq' bleatings are as insubstantial and preposterous as decrying a victory over halitosis. Any 'victories' will be short-lived and the conditions causing the insurgency -- chief among them America's occupation -- will not be altered by repeating the same strategy and tactics that fostered the insurgency in the first place, just as continuing to eat onions is not a cure for bad breath. We are far beyond the point of any 'victory' in Iraq; if they simply remain neutral, we'll be lucky.
In last year's hurricane disasters, magical thinking can be the only excuse for believing inexperienced cronies and loyalists would do a competent job of directing rescue operations and cleaning up after the catastrophe; that many of the White House's favored corporations -- like Halliburton -- stand to make a fortune from the reconstruction is a moot point, but the damage to Bush's credibility, and, by extension, that of the Republican Party, is far more than the return to its corporate backers.
Magical thinking also has faith that you can have a healthy economy by exporting your best jobs and reducing your tax base, especially if you have no desire to tax the wealthy. Global corporatists, unconcerned with national boundaries, laud this approach as they cultivate what they think will be burgeoning markets in China and India, dumb to the fact that they can't sell people with low incomes the kind of high-end goods they've been marketing to the well-paid Western consumer. It's a circular pattern -- good wages, high consumer buying, larger tax base -- that falls apart if you tamper with the first part of the equation. Right now, the G.C. are making record short-term profits as the American economy crumbles, but those profits won't be there in ten years, and neither will the taxes to pay off the deficit.
Eventually, Communist China, and the other foreign lenders currently underwriting Bush's profligate spending, will assert their banker's privilege to call in a bad debt and stop subsidizing a bad risk. At that point, we'll face an economic depression of such vast proportions that the bread-lines misery of the 1930s will be subsumed in its shadow.
As rulers throughout history have discovered, from the thrones of the Caesars to the palace of Versailles, brute force and intimidation are limited in their effectiveness and come with the price tag of dire consequences; what today is called 'blowback' or 'unintended consequences.' Except, in Bush's case, the dire consequences of his actions in the world are easily predictable; they are even printed in freshman college textbooks.
Every leader makes mistakes based on the inherent distance of the ruling power from, and ignorance of, the truth on the ground; magical thinking attempts to rationalize that isolation and naiveté into a reasonable set of principles that insulate its practitioners from the cost of their actions, but it might as well try to influence the phases of the moon by sheer belief; the truth of science and history, gleaned from thousands of years of human society and put to page by the authors of the Enlightenment, will always prevail.
Bush has thus far been protected from utter collapse by America's past reputation for strength and the ability to borrow money; both are rapidly declining and so is he, and magical thinking cannot forestall the inevitable.
The worst part is that we are all caught in the slipstream as he goes under.
"We stand at the end of the Age of Reason. A new era of the magical explanation of the world is rising."
-- Adolf Hitler
It's probably too late to stop our dismal plutocratic destiny, as prescribed and prepared by the corporate cognoscenti and their neoconservative handmaids, but there's nothing more important than that we do our best to try.
We owe it to our forebears and ourselves to keep the lamp of the Age of Reason lit for future generations to follow, though the flame flickers in gusts of magical thinking and the waves of foolish money that it serves.
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Today's Quote: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A sour joke was enacted by George W. Bush today as he honored Dr. King with empty words, all the while the party he belongs to and the values he’s espoused stand in direct opposition to everything the assassinated civil rights leader believed.
It’s safe to say that if Dr. King had lived to turn 77 today, he would be in the forefront of the opposition to Bush and the Republican Party.
If George really wants to honor Dr. King’s death, he could start by making sure the votes of black people are counted fairly, especially in his brother’s domain in Florida.
Jebus, George, why didn’t you just wear a Confederate uniform when you went to pay homage?
"The chain reaction of evil -- wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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