America on the Couch By Mike Whitney, Information Clearinghouse.
America is a country badly in need of therapy. We don’t know who we are anymore; everything is topsy-turvy. It’s like we’re suffering a national identity crisis and need a turn on the couch. There’s just been too much change too fast and no one really knows what’s going on. Even stanch conservatives are in a daze from the daily overload of bad news. Former basketball superstar Charles Barkley summed it up best when he was asked what political party he belonged to. He answered, “Well, I used to be a Republican, until they lost their minds.” That’s America in a nutshell; we’ve lost our minds.
The torture thing was the last straw. That’s where good old American values really took a shellacking. Of course, it never mattered to Bohemian Grove dandies like Bush and Cheney. Why would they care? They just saw it as a way to increase their power and stick it to their enemies at the same time. It was a game, really. They’d just gouge out a few eyes and rip off a few fingernails no one would be the wiser. Besides, they thought, let the media soften up public attitudes; that’s why they get paid for, right? Wrong. Attitudes really haven’t changed that much about torture. Most people still think its wrong and think it should be illegal. More importantly, knowing that your country deliberately inflicts pain on people really matters; it’s a game-changer. It’s not possible to respect a country that uses torture. What people feel is disgust not respect. And, it’s disturbing, too. It proves that something is rotten in America. We’ve become a nation of creeps.
