the persecution of dissidents and aliens, and even the suspension of civil rights and revocation of citizenship. Such are the results of the peristalsis of paranoiac perceptions.

"Those afflicted with this disease are so immersed in their beliefs they are unable to abide the smallest criticism or brook any dissent."

By Raff Ellis

YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)

(YellowTimes.org) ­ "The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership," thus spake George WMD Bush from the White House on Oct. 28, 2003. Perhaps he actually believes this, even while his deputies continue to publish Crayola alerts that are designed to strike terror in the hearts of the citizenry. What we do know is that in that paranoiac enclave called Washington, D.C., a coterie of devious people have taken power and are using every diversionary tactic imaginable to retain it, the principal one being fear.

Fear is a tried and true method of diversion, one that has been used by many leaders to stifle dissent and distract and dissuade their citizens from any reasonable opposition to their government. Ironically, those who employ the tactics of fear are themselves afraid -- afraid of being discovered, deposed, unseated or thrown out of office. Wanting to cling to power so fervently, they become irrationally possessed, seeing enemies everywhere and plotting revenge and attacks upon them. They ultimately descend into the depths of the disorder called paranoia.

As everyone knows, paranoia is a mental disorder characterized by extreme, unfounded distrust of others, impairment of the intellect and delusions of persecution. It is a frighteningly common, debilitating, fear-induced malady that is usually disguised and defended by the use of seemingly sound arguments.

Those afflicted with this disease are so immersed in their beliefs

they are unable to abide the smallest criticism or brook any dissent.

Administration point men such as Cheney ("the jury's still out" on whether Iraq had WMD), Rumsfeld ("we have done everything humanly possible to avoid war"), and Ashcroft (a person cowed by a statue of a woman with bare breasts) have often appeared in the media touting the perils we face from terrorists to weapons of mass destruction. These people have essentially been shouting, "We know they've got them and want to use them on us! We must hit these people before they hit us! We must be vigilant!" Don't you feel safer now?

These politicians are so immersed in their delusions of grandeur that they are unable and unwilling to distinguish between justifiable criticism and slander. They are no different than bible-thumping evangelists who see nearly everyone else as sinners, unable to discern normal human behavior from moral transgressions. They can't distinguish between jokes and slurs and feel their "enemies" are continually conspiring against them.

Lest you think this era in American history is unique, an examination of times past reveals many periods of overt paranoiac, or its lesser offspring xenophobic, behavior in government, religion or society. The Salem witch trials are an example of irrational fear producing tragic results, the loss of life for some twenty men and women. The Sacco and Vanzetti executions are another example of how an irrational fear of aliens, "Reds" and anarchists sealed the fate of these hapless immigrants. The Army-McCarthy hearings of the early 1950s is another example, where, it was argued, feared communists and their sympathizers were to be found under every rock in all four corners of America. This paranoiac behavior resulted in the loss of reputations, careers and freedom for several people.

Over 200 years ago, similar fears resulted in the Alien and Sedition Acts that toughened citizenship requirements and allowed the deportation of aliens who were thought to be "a threat to the peace and security." It also provided for the prosecution of free speech by banning "any false, scandalous and malicious writing." By virtue of this legislation twenty-five men, most of them newspaper editors, were arrested and their papers forced to shut down. Public opposition to these Acts was so great (and we're looking for an historical repeat here) that they were at least partially responsible for the defeat of the incumbent party and the election of Thomas Jefferson, a Republican by the way, to the presidency in 1800.

In 21st century America, thanks to Bush and his cronies, similar fears are in vogue -- fear of "others not like us," Muslims, Arabs and their assumed cousins, the terrorists. History often regurgitates its past, and an updated version of the Alien and Sedition Acts, euphemistically called the Patriot Act, was vomited out of Congress shortly after 9-11. It, too, allows the persecution of dissidents and aliens, and even the suspension of civil rights and revocation of citizenship. Such are the results of the peristalsis of paranoiac perceptions.

Just how these induced fears infect public thought is evidenced by Joe Sixpack's repetition of implanted sophistries, as if they are writ in holy books secreted away at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That people in large numbers still believe Saddam was in cahoots with al-Qaeda, had WMDs in large quantities and posed an imminent threat to the U.S. is indeed a tribute to the effectiveness of a fear mongering administration, one that is on a path towards rivaling repressive regimes such as the former Soviet Union.

In suspicious Washington, a gated community whose chief coined the "with us or with the terrorists" mantra, politicians have long since lost the ability to distinguish between patriotic dissent and treason. Fearing their lies and misdeeds will be exposed, they must revile and humiliate dissenters by calling them unpatriotic. Trying to unite the populace behind them for an unjust war, they call on us to "support the troops" (whatever that means) or be labeled Un-American.

Fascism R'US

They have let their corporate friends gain control of and agglomerate communications media through relaxed legislation. In turn, their buddies (no crusading publishers here) return the favor by eliminating honest reportage of negative news--the real carnage in Iraq, the many dead civilians, the large numbers of maimed GIs returning home to substandard medical care, and an Iraq careening pell-mell into civil war.

At a press conference at the Texas State House, May 21, 1999, while complaining about an Internet website that was critical of him, Bush announced: "There ought to be limits to freedom."

And, indeed, true to his wish, there now are!

I feel safer already?

###

[Raff Ellis lives in the United States and is a retired former strategic planner and computer industry executive. He has had an abiding and active interest in the Middle East since early adulthood and has traveled to the region many times over the last 30 years.]

Raff Ellis encourages your comments: rellis@YellowTimes.org

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