Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea-- by Jordan

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Xenophobia, Chicken Coops, and America: The New Rome

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"When the hunter becomes the hunted, they outlaw hunting." - Sage Francis

Between the devil and the deep blue sea.

That is where those who are opposing the building of a mosque near the sight of the 9/11 attacks have found themselves. They are essentially damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. The massive attention that the media has given to the outcries of xenophobic rage masked as a patriotic respect for the dead has thrown an uncomfortable spotlight on the argument, and essentially if the naysayers back down now they will have lost face on a national scale. Through their own misguided justifications they have impaled themselves on the horns of a dilemma.

The argument that because the 9/11 attackers were Muslim justifies the refusal to allow a mosque to be built near ground zero is a political red herring, designed to divert attention from the blatant attempt at circumvention of the constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion.

The constitution also guarantees freedom of speech; therefore the opposition are more than within their rights to express their opinions, whether they are based in fact or not. But freedom of speech has its price; the media has seen to that. The fact remains that the vast majority of those opposed to this site are the members of the Christian right, who seem to overlook the fact that terrorist actions can be perpetrated by members of any religion.

Timothy MacVeigh was one such Christian, but there are no protests to the building of new churches in Oklahoma.

Unfortunately, this is typical of a country that declared upon its inception that all men are created equal, and continued employing slave labour, marginalizing women, homosexuals, immigrants, the poor and the working class for centuries. America is a country that was built, with the best of intentions, upon a series on a series of unfortunate contradictions.

Each one could warrant a piece roughly ten times as long as this one, but just to name a few: Your huddled masses? Send em’ in as long as they can do the jobs Americans don’t want and are content with second-class citizenship. Which most of them are.

The pledge of allegiance states explicitly that you are indebted to ‘one nation under god.’ Well, so much for separation of church and state.

The right to bear arms is touted with the same ideological fervour as the outcries against violence in America; the protesters polish their rifles while placing the blame on anyone but themselves.

9/11 was a tragedy of epic proportions, one which will continue to affect the world at large for many years to come. Those who lost their lives, as well as those who gave them trying to help, deserve to be remembered and their sacrifice mourned. But to use their deaths as a catalyst to exploit the fears of an entire nation, as they have been used for nearly ten years, is completely despicable and only serves to bring to light the ugly side of America’s self-serving idealism.

Throughout its’ history America has engaged in countless conflicts and coups under the guise of spreading democracy and bringing freedom to the oppressed. However, anyone with knowledge of historical fact is well aware that almost all American military action has been designed specifically to protect their own interests. Vietnam, Cuba, Cambodia, Laos, Nicaragua, Argentina, Iran, Israel & Palestine...the list goes on.

And these are only the ones we know about.

I don't want to come across as a conspiracy theorist; but when a government acts covertly, unilaterally and agressively in a distrubing pattern of actions designed to create a one-super-powered world, wherein the US holds all the cards, a lot of what really goes on and why will never be 100% viable, as told by the government or the media. 

This lack of trust in the facts as presented has created a polarizing effect on the population that has radicalized most citizens into either apathy or dissent. Those who take everything at face value and tow the official line, as it were, are not necesarilly stupid, it is more likely they do not want to contemplate the implications of government deception at the highest levels. Ignorance can truly be bliss. 

When the ramifications of this military, political and social meddling come back to bite America in the ass, the government reverts back to playing the victim. The average Joe, who has no comprehension of the scope of his own government's actions, is left holding the proverbial bag, caught red-handed for a crime of which he has no knowledge. Ever since the Twin Towers fell, one question has been posed time and time again, like a confused mantra: 

"Why do they hate us?"

Thus begins the cycle of 'us' and 'them'. America is under attack, from an unseen enemy that threatens not just the country but its very way of life. And so the US defends their retaliation with a twisted logic that denies the very actions which bring about terrorist actions such as 9/11 in the first place.

When their chickens come home to roost, America burns down the fucking hen-house. 

Anyone with half a brain can tell you that the “War On Terror” was never a viable option, because you cannot kill an idea. And despite whatever progress has been made in Iraq and Afghanistan, the underlying religious rhetoric that supposedly fuelled the actions of the 9/11 terrorists, prevails to this day.

Americans decry the cowardly and barbaric actions of extremists of every faith. Yet, is it civilized or rational for a government to lie to its own people, to fight wars for personal and political gain while sacrificing the lives of innocents for reasons they can’t even justify with honest facts?

The fact is, after 9/11, most Americans wanted one thing...vengeance (ironically, if you subscribe to the official story, that's what the 9/11 attackers wanted too). Of course, the Republicans were more than willing to give it to them, because, one very important facet of neo-conservatism is the presence of an ‘invisible enemy’, a phantom menace which can be used as a tool to simultaneously focus and engage an entire population against a common enemy, a scapegoat for an endless cycle of conflict.

The confusion and fear this creates allows those in power to pursue their own agendas, in ways they would never be allowed to otherwise. This tactic is not a new one; in fact it is shockingly familiar to anyone with knowledge of history. Nazi Germany, The Cold War...the events, the people, the places and the consequences may change, but the motive remains constant throughout history.

Power, the power that comes from fear, obedience and most of all, money. And while the U.S. strives for that power by force in the mask of democracy and freedom around the world, the debate seems to be largely ignored in their domestic political dialogue. The power America once had, has been stretched too thin and is collapsing, just as Rome did, from the inside. Is that a fiddle I hear playing?

Their economy is collapsing as a result of unnecessary military action; foolhardy deficits incurred to create the illusion of financial security as well as a permeating culture of unregulated greed and institutionalized corruption in the financial sector. Meanwhile, their schools are falling further and further behind every year. They are still one of the only countries in the developped world without free health care, just one unfortunate consequence of the increasing partisanship and corporate influence that is strangling their policy-makers. Their infrastructure is crumbling and their media has turned into a circus, blurring the lines between reality and fiction, information and entertainment, all for the sake of shock value and ratings. The average American is overworked, underpaid and swimming in a sea of bills and debts with no relief in sight, while the perpetrators of this fiasco are handed cash like party favours and sent on their way.

And yet they are worried about a mosque...

In the words of John Lennon, “Let it be.”

Because America has got much bigger fish to fry, and frankly they are starting to smell pretty ripe.

So why should we care? What difference do the actions of the American government make in our lives? We are still living our day to day lives, content in watching the side-show that American politics has become from afar, while most of us (myself included) display, to varying degrees, the same ignorance we decry regarding the actions of our own government.  

Besides the obvious implications to the global economy (and Canadian economy in particular), all civilized nations, and every person in them, need to recognize the ramifications of America’s descent into madness; in order to be responsible and informed citizens of our own country and to ensure that we do not let ourselves make the same mistakes. Otherwise we will be just as complicit in the downfall of the ideals America was built upon.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; these are not talking points. They are remnants of a time when freedom was not taken for granted, when a few brave men stood together and declared that they would not be subjugated to the whims of a tyrant, of a time when revolution; truly was a viable reality.

As Bob Dylan once sang in another era of hatred and repression, the times they are a changin'. Let’s make damn sure this time, they change for good.