September 24, 2007
by Brian Trent

The following is a true story in two episodes, occurring some two weeks apart, with no formal relation to each other aside from the stunning light it shines on partisan "thinking".

Two weeks ago, I met some friends at a local coffee shop. We had taken two tables, and between sips of our chosen drinks were having a discussion about the emergence of civilizations throughout history. It's a fascinating, worthwhile subject; how peoples set up shop by rivers and grew their villages into towns, their towns into cities, their cities into empires. At one point I made an observation. "It's an interesting question as to why a Rome or Athens or Babylon didn't arise in ancient North America."

A lady occupying the table to my left spun around, the coffee in her mug violently swishing. "What, you think you're superior to Native Americans?"

"No," I said, turning to regard the new participater. "I'm just asking -"

"Are they lesser people? Did they deserve having their culture wiped out by European imperialism? What kind of fascist are you? Did they -"

"First of all," I interrupted, "I'm not passing judgment on Native Americans. I'm not judging their civilization or applying an inferior label to it. I'm just making a historical observation, and wondering what external pressures and forces produce a technologically-advanced civilization like China or Mesopotamia or Egypt, and why North America didn't develop one."

The lady only heard up to my words "making a historical observation" before she stormed out of the café in a red-faced huff. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure she stole that coffee mug.

With her departure my friends and I continued the discussion, citing how violent competition over limited resources (like in Mesopotamia or Greece for instance) results in an arms race of technology. One tribe brandishes flint axes, the other develops bronze to defeat them and take their land. Someone else makes iron, or the chariot, or the sarissa, or the phalanx, and on and on the contest goes. In North America there was quite a different situation: resources were abundant, and all a group had to do was push eastward into the vast plains, mountains, and forests to obtain them. It wasn't necessary, as it was in Mesopotamia, to engage in unceasing warfare from which sprang a Persian Empire. Our discussion wasn't a judgment; it was an exploration of ideas.

Why couldn't my friendly-neighborhood PC Enforcer join into this discussion? It was like a switch went off in her head, and insidious programming kicked in. rendering her deaf to the conversation's specifics.

Two weeks later I was attending a surprise birthday party, and I ran into the Bush Propagandist. Same genus as the PC Enforcer, different species.

After we had shouted "Surprise!" to the allegedly-unwary birthday girl, a political topic was broached. Specifically, a gentleman near me made some comment about how Bush was the only thing saving our country from disintegration, and that Democrats wanted to erect shrines to Osama bin Laden.

I introduced myself and asked him his political affiliation. He thought I was joking, but I pressed him until he told me he was a Republican. I asked him why. He gave me the small-government/fiscally-responsible advocacy line.

"Do you think Bush is fiscally responsible?" I asked, astonished.

He laughed. "Well, not really?"

"Is he for small government?"

"Sure -"

"Really? With illegal wiretapping on Americans, the rushed-through PATRIOT ACT, secret detention cells, documented violations of due process clauses, open disrespect for the separation of powers, a flip-flop on state rights regarding the issue of marriage. does this sound like small government to you?"

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Something happened to his eyes, as if his mind had switched off and an audio-file began issuing from his lips.

"He's unwavering in the face of terrorism," he recited.

"Historically, Republicans have rightly criticized Democrats over their love for big government and nanny state ideals. Bush is advocating the same stuff but under a different label. How does that make it better?"

The guy's lips moved again like one of those Disney robots. "He's protecting Americans from terrorism. Terrorists are out to destroy us. We need to be kept safe and he's doing that. Fighting terrorists."

I wanted to bring up how the Taliban have grown in power, ranks into Al Qaeda have tripled, the diversion of our resources, manpower, and credibility into Iraq has hurt the war on terror while dividing our allies and uniting our enemies, but I figured I'd go easy on him. "Okay." I said. "Then can't you admit that there are some things you don't like about Bush, some things that make him antithetical to classic conservatism and tend to harm our Constitution, but you can still respect his ?unwavering' attitude in the face of terrorism?"

"You f****** libs," he said, and walked away. It was a small house. I'm not sure where he thought he was going.

Cult members.

This is what we are being reduced to. Intellectual honesty is traded in for meaningless sound-bytes. People are rampantly afraid of discussion; some, like the cultists underneath Rush Limbaugh's flag, proudly wear their banner of ignorance by calling themselves Dittoheads. And ignorance, siring that bastard child known as fear, is the lingua franca of the day.

I've seen hidden camera tests in which people were asked to sign petitions for specific false causes. Women were approached and told that "women's suffrage needs to end," and sure enough signatures were quickly grabbed. Wannabe environmentalists were asked to sign a petition banning "dihydrogen monoxide" from cities, and the signatures piled up. And there are many, many other embarrassing examples.

Most Americans (and politicians, I'd wager) have never bothered to read the Constitution, but they're quick to invent passages from it or pretend they understand the intent behind it. But worst of all is the way media, politicians, and pundits have learned how to pervert our democracy by herding us into unthinking robots who merely spout the party line without thinking.

You can see it on nearly every message board. Everyone's terrified of discussion, honest debate, and finding common ground to come to the middle. Instead, they chant at the feet of their Hannitys or O'Reillys or Moores or Coulters, and swallow every poison pill that's tossed their way.

The result? Democracy becomes a lynch mob. To apply a statement from Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," a nation of men becomes a nation of worms. Politicians from both predominant cults hit a Pavlovian buzzer, and the public rolls over, feet up like a crippled insect, and barks exactly what we're told to.

But it really doesn't have to be this way.

I have a very good friend named Allie, and she's a vegetarian. I'm not. Her and I could, if we were cultish followers, simply lock horns all day and never get anywhere when the subject of meat, broccoli, and soy comes up. This is what partisans do. This is all pundits and Dittoheads can ever allow themselves.

However, Allie and I prefer progressive paths. Though her and I vehemently disagree over the core philosophy, we search for things we have in common. Neither of us like factory farming and consider it inhumane (not to mention all too often resulting in meats that are less-than-preferred for human consumption.) We'd both like to see more companies invest in free-range farms, giving the consumer greater, and healthier, choice in the marketplace.

This is a middle ground prize.

This is what partisan cultists can't do. Neither can most politicians, nearly all of Congress, nor the thugs in the White House. They're impotent on this path of progressive problem-solving. And the last thing they want is us gathering knowledge and using it. After all, if we remembered that we had the power in this country -

Wait! The newest episode of Lost is on!

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Brian Trent [send him email] is a professional essayist, screenwriter, and novelist; he is the author of "Remembering Hypatia" and the just-released "Never Grow Old: the Novel of Gilgamesh."  Brian is a contributor to American Chronicle and The Humanist Magazine.  Visit his website at www.rememberinghypatia.com.

Copyright 2007 Brian Trent