Franklin Roosevelt once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

I think the Bush administration, built upon a campaign of fear, should use something similar, modified to reflect their own messages and intentions:

“The only thing we have to fear is, well… terrorism, Muslims and other non-Christians, death, being taxed appropriately according to our level of income, fags, friends of fags, choice, change, butter, influenza vaccine shortages, Iraqi insurgents, the number seven, germs, Mad Cow Disease in our beef supply, Iran, riding on commercial airplanes, abortions, rationality, South Korea, poison in our water supply, cheese imported from France, people living in any other country, things that explode, aliens!, sin, wood with unusual grain patterns, nuclear weapons, cats, weapons of mass destruction, poor people, box cutters, Al Franken, missiles fired over the north pole, questions, vegetarians, fairness, the devil, communists, socialists, minorities, things that are effeminate, the zombie corpse of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, lead paint, immigrants, aluminum tubes, cancer, chronic diarrhea, coat hangers, conditionality and contextual circumstances, anything that cannot be easily broken down into a simple but inaccurate duality, getting AIDS from someone’s sweat or tears, hipsters, and whatever else we manage to think of over the next four years.”

I’ve been doing some procrastination recently. There are times when I’m at work and I’ll find something interesting and post it with an “I’ll get to this later”, then never actually getting to it. I’ll do that now, for the Bush One-Fingered Victory Salute post, and I’ll get to the rest throughout the week.

The One-Fingered Victory Salute

While I’m by no means a prude, this video really pisses me off. It’s not just that he flips off the camera; I’ve done that myself several times. When I was fourteen, of course, but I’ve done it. It’s immature, but that’s not the point.

The point is his contextual behavior– the way he acts up to and after the flipping. Like the way he calls it the “one-fingered victory salute”, for instance. To whom is this “salute” directed? It can be safely assumed to be the public, probably specifically those in opposition. “Fuck you, I win!” It’s the same message implied by his actions– “Fuck the 48% that didn’t vote for me. They don’t matter; I won! I can do what I want because I have a mandate! There’s no reason for me to even consider the other side, now.” That’s not Democracy. Not even close.

About the mandate, by the way: the only way he could have a mandate would be if he mentally minimized the opposition, regardless of their numbers. He only won by 3%; that’s by no means a mandate. In his mind, he has 51% support and 49% opposition.

Then there’s the way he checks with everyone else for approval, his beady, dull little rodent eyes searching desperately for affection. “Hah! Was… was I funny, guys? D-do you like me?” I think this is what irks me the most, really.

This is a country run by a frat boy, and frat boys should NEVER be in leadership positions. They lack proper identity development, and desperately crave acceptance from others. They need to belong, somehow, to something. If you examine the behavior of the so-called “popular kids” from high school, you’ll notice the same patterns of behavior. They exhibit a strong desire to belong, and are in a constantly nebulous state of identity, wherein their own personality attributes are perpetually shifting to fit with what is perceived the group will accept. As such, their identities go undefined, and the group functions as a kind of hive personality. Many find it difficult to find individualism in the Nebula Personality, and continue to shift throughout their lives.

Of course, while they are all trying to be like each other, not one of them is actually sure where they stand. Thus, one member is striving to become like the others, who are all trying to become like each other. There is no ideal, as the perceived “ideal” of being and, therefore, belonging, is a relative concept.

One behavior that emerges from this confusion and craving to establish identity is the belittling of others to acquire a sense of superiority. Nobody wants to be on the “bottom”, and, even though they don’t really know where they stand within the group, they can establish at least a vague idea of where they stand overall by placing others “below” them. Thus, they feel they can rest assured that they are not “on the bottom”.

These groups cannot exist without exclusion, and the rules of that exclusion are nearly always arbitrary.

In college fraternaties and sororities, these groups and their behavior evolve into something more structured. Through arbitrary, ritualistic actions and adherence to strict and equally arbitrary sets of rules and regulations, often including total submissiveness of younger hopefuls who share the same longing for acceptance, they are again able to establish a kind of exclusionary hive identity. Individualism is frowned upon, and the younger hopefuls (“pledges”) are often treated as nameless slaves. Through this, those in the upper levels of these organizations, lacking a clear definition of where they stand with each other, are able to establish that small fraction of an identity through their putting-down of others.

The “group” has become a society.

An aside:
This can, and in many cases does, evolve into a post-college relationship with the fundamentalist flavor of religious belief. The same traits are exhibited, but in a different context. There’s the overall need for belonging and acceptance, a thirst which is easily quenched by those willing to believe. There are also often very strict rules and regulations, which help one to organize his or her Nebula Identity. And, through belittling of “heathens”, they are able to establish that they are not “on the bottom”.

Belonging is one of the most significant factors, however, as is the rampant alcoholism (and sometimes drug-addiction) that occurs during one’s time in a fraternity or sorority. Dependency upon alcohol and drugs transforms into dependency upon one’s own neurochemistry. Again, this relates to my theory on the effects of strong emotional situations on people, and why they believe for the effect as opposed to the message. Members of fundamentalist churches, through a kind of “belonging orgy”, are able to get those with a craving for acceptance “hooked on the feeling”. Conversion is especially easy for those with such a strong desire for belonging.

A person with no real independent identity, who requires constant yesses from yes men, cannot be an effective leader. Our president is a frat boy, and exhibits those tendencies quite often: rabid anti-intellectualism, overgrown immaturity, the desperate need to belong to his own group regardless of the cost, and a complete lack of compassion for those he feels are “beneath” him, to name a few. He has come from a group that requires exclusion of others, and has never grown out of his Nebula Identity. He may no longer be addicted to alcohol like he reportedly was earlier in his life, but he is now addicted to something far more dangerous and powerful: the chemicals in his own body, which are released via strong emotional (and, thus, neurochemical) reactions.

This man should not be our president.