Halliburton hired to clean up after Katrina!, page 1

Benevolent

First off, thanks.

Secondly, I dig your sig. It's good to be an individual.

When I heard about the Halliburton deal, I was shocked. Then I asked myself - Why am I shocked? I have known the capabilities and intention of this administration for years now. What exactly is it that shocks me? And the answer is that the otheriwse intelligent (I think?) individuals of this country continue to defend and apologize for the blatant actions of this government.

Yeah, it's shocking to me too. I don't expect criminals to act like anything but what they are. However, I do expect people to take some responsibility for their own convictions, and do more to see through the illusion. There are literally millions of people going to bat for these criminals! It's insane!

Part of it, I think, is a response to knowing these things deep down, but being unable, or unwilling, to confront that truth. Can you imagine what it must be like to have been taken advantage of so completely? What's that syndrome hostages sometimes develop, where they start identifying with their captors? It could be a situation like that.

Or, it could be shame. People could be so ashamed of these criminals, that they can't stop supporting them, because that would be an admission of having been wrong all along. It's hard, I think, to have been made a fool of, to have been used. If folks continue to pretend that the illusion is real, they don't have to deal with all that. The defensive posture might be an emotional survival mechanism, kind of like repressed memory syndrome, a way to avoid confronting the awful truth.

I don't know what's really going on, but I suspect there is some psychological mechanism that's being manipulated to produce these results we're seeing. I thought for a while that Bush supporters might have been brainwashed at rallies, because their defense of their chosen puppet was almost, like, religious in its fervor. It sometimes seems as though these folks take an attack on the president as an attack on themselves.

This could be the result of clever media packaging of the POTUS and his adminstration. People identify with the man, for whatever reason, and this makes them reluctant to hang him out to dry. I think they've been duped by advertising. Just like the burger you see on the poster, it's juicy and delicious, with crisp lettuce and wonderful gooey cheese. Then, when you open the package you find a limp, mangled hunk of bread and worm casings, with a little meat mixed in, topped wtih withered lettuce and starchy processed cheese...

Lots of people eat the burger, and enjoy it though..because their brain still retains the image from the poster. I think a similar situation may be going on with our president. He's that pathetic, soggy burger masquerading as a genuine meal.

The only way of preventing that shock every time I hear of the latest outrage is to give up hope of the people coming to their senses. And I don't want to give up that hope! I find it hurts to think of giving it up!

Hope is a funny thing. I find it's a little bit of faith, and a little bit of desire, mashed into one. Desire is generally a bad thing, faith is generally a good thing. I'm still on the fence regarding hope, whether or not it's healthy to continue to indulge in. Believe me though, I know what you're saying. I don't want to give up hope either, because it seems right to maintain it. At the same time though, I am very seriously trying to give up wanting for things, and I'm trying to benefit from the ebb and flow of life, rather than exhaust myself fighting against it.

Maybe hoping for anything is fruitless, because, can we really comprehend all the factors that make our world tick? I don't think we can. We're always working with incomplete information. All we see is a bunch of criminals, ruining a nation that we love.n We can't see all the possible outcomes.

Maybe if we had God's eyes, we would see the good that can come from such a mess. Maybe this administration will fundamentally change the psychology of the average American, sort of like the way fire tempers steel. I don't know...