The Beast

Somebody once said that it would be possible to staff all the concentration camps of the Third Reich from any small city in America. I thought it was hyperbole, but I believe now that it’s true. My local newspaper is running an on-line poll with this question:

President Bush wants Congress to exempt the CIA from a proposed law banning the torture of prisoners by the U.S. government, saying it needs wide powers to prevent terror attacks. What do you think?

55% say that preventing “terror attacks” is more important than decency, morality or any other value, Christian or otherwise. Nietzsche famously cautioned us against becoming a monster by fighting monsters. It’s too late. The flag waving, the saccharine appeals to patriotism, honor, and duty are all too evocative of marching Hitler Jugend, torture chambers and death camps. In fact we have a network of CIA torture centers which George “we don’t torture” Bush is fighting to keep. We have become no different than the Soviets with their KGB or the Nazis with their Gestapo. We have no morals. We have no values. We have become the Beast.

I’m tired of the “Right to life” hypocrites; I’m sick of the war mongers who are happy to accept any enemy the President says is an enemy and follow any hideous order in the name of Freedom. I’m sick of the Godmongers’ raving about commandments and pledges because, whether or not we ever had God on our side we are certainly no longer on God’s side – at least not in Martin County Florida – the land of the coward and the home of the cornered beast.