The sky is falling
Remember the story of Chicken Little? She was the neuroticfowl who, after an acorn fell on her head, set out to convinceeveryone that the sky was falling. From Henny Penny to DuckyLucky, Goosey Loosey to Turkey Lurkey, Chicken Little, armed withher fearful message of doom, led her naive fellow fowl on a questto find the king, hopeful that he would save the day.
Along the way, the hysterical flock met the shrewd Foxy Loxy,who convinced the lot that he could take them safely to theking. Instead, he led them to his den and Chicken Little andher gullible crew were never seen again.
The message of Chicken Little, while not clear to children,should be easy to interpret for most adults. Indeed, childrenrely on us to explain the moral of fables like ChickenLittle. The question is, how can we explain a lesson aboutcourage when, as adults, we lack it ourselves, when we are asgullible as the mindless birds who gave in to irrational fear overreason?
Bush’s victory guarantees a political and culturalmonopoly in virtually every area of our lives for years to come:the White House, Congress and the federal judiciary, whose social,political and economic reach far exceeds what most voters werecapable or willing to consider.
While the religious Right may be dancing in the streets —at least those that can dance — most Americans, includingstudents at SMU, whose allegiance to such stringent moral mandatesis as relative as their ethics, have yet to comprehend the impacttheir naíve and misguided vote may have.
The unfortunate reality is that most students do not know whythey supported Bush. Their knowledge of the real issues issuperficial, which is why a student asked me recently why parentsof dead American soldiers were blaming the deaths on Bush. Alegitimate question, I suppose, coming from someone who’sstill learning to think analytically and whose understanding of theworld has been shaped by MTV and reality television.
It is not surprising that students who cannot formulate a clear,cogent thesis statement are not able to articulate their reasonsfor supporting Bush.
How can anyone, after all, blame 18-year-olds for theirinability to see the world in its many, complex, often overlappinglayers when our president has the same problem.
If Bush’s inability to see subtlety and layers was hisstrength, Kerry’s ability to see every subtlety was hisundoing. Many people complained that Kerry failed to define aclear message that voters could identify with. Maybethat’s because the complexities of the problems that face uscannot be reduced to five-second sound bites, clichés orDubya-isms.
The truth is he defined too many issues, expressed thecomplexities of each one and articulated his position on each layerof each complex issue. Democrats of yore had catch phraseslike “a chicken in every pot” that the disenfranchisedwere able to find comfort in. This year, the Democrats had nosuch unifying theme. The Republicans on the other handdid: The sky is falling.
In spite of any Republican claim, President Bush received noclear mandate. His victory was neither solid norconvincing. He (read “we”) inherited his own weakeconomy, failing foreign policy and a doctrinaire socialpolicy. More importantly, as a lame duck president, he has noincentive to unite. Absent the fear of facing another electorate,combined with a majority in both Houses, Bush will be able to bullyhis narrow-minded social and political policies throughCongress.
In the meantime, Iraq’s oilfields are there for him andhis cronies to plunder. And a culture that is thousands ofyears old, indeed the cradle of Western civilization, is positionedto be replaced by countless franchises of McDonalds, Starbucks andGaps.
In the meantime, Bush will attempt to stack the court withconservative justices whose views on social issues will redefinelegal precedent and limit personal liberty and expression.
In the meantime, Karl Rove will seek out the next campaign hecan poison with fear and hate.
In the meantime, hundreds of tons of weapons components andpossibly chemical agents are in the hands of insurgents andterrorists readying to attack American and Americans at home andaround the world.
In the meantime, Osama Bin Laden continues to evade capture.
In the meantime, Al-Qaeda poses as great a threat, if notgreater, as it did before Sept. 11.
In the meantime, radical Islamic fundamentalism continues tofester and infect economically and politically vulnerable areasaround the world, and neither our president nor his cabinetunderstands the pathology of the problem, nor do they have acomprehensive policy to deal with it.
In the meantime, the world still views America and Americanswith suspicion and contempt, and the president, with the illusionand duplicity of the Wizard of Oz, has convinced a majority of thecountry not to look behind the curtain.
In the end, the scandal surrounding Halliburton continues toevolve with e-mails that directly tie the vice president toprobable illegal activity.
In the end, Iraq continues to be mired in near civil war, andBush overextends an already beleaguered troop force, exposing it todanger and responsibility that he himself shirked when his countrycalled on him.
In the end, some people got up today with a clear understandingof what lay ahead, while others awoke with the naíve comfortthat four more years of what it was they couldn’t articulatewill magically make the world a better place.
George Henson is a senior spanish lecturer. He may be reachedat [email protected].
