A Textbook Case

Professor J, 

Throughout this book, but most particularly in this final chapter, drifts an underlying but crucial point. Americans have a monumental problem looking at anything from a point of view other than their own, both as a nation and as individuals. The rest of the world is doing it wrong (defined as a way other than our own) yet we seem completely oblivious to the evidence around us that we have run off our own antiquated track somewhere and are now headed toward a washed out bridge in our outdated rail cars.

On p. 151, Hedges quotes from The Limits of Power:

"The Big Lies are the truths that remain unspoken: that freedom has an underside; that nations, like households must ultimately live within their means; that history's purpose, the subject of so many confident pronouncements, remains inscrutable. Above all, there is this: power is finite, politicians pass over matters such as these in silence. As a consequence, the absence of self-awareness that forms such an enduring element of the American character persists.  (Emphasis mine)

The inability to see anything from another point of view or empathize deeply that Hedges alludes to throughout this work reminded me of some of the dominant traits of narcissists and sociopaths. I looked up the behaviors associated with those disorders. Well, let's just say the similarities are interesting. Here is the *list of sociopath symptoms and traits:

• Displays heightened levels of deceitfulness in dealings with others, which involves lying, conning others without remorse, or even using aliases
• Inability to abide by the social norms and thus violating law
• Displays aggressiveness and often tends to get into assaults and physical fights
• Displays complete lack of empathy for others and their situation for which they are responsible
• Displays no feelings or shallow feelings
• Displays impulsive behavior which is indicated by the inability to plan for the future
• Displays no concern for safety of others around them or self
• Inability to sustain a consistent behavior that stems mainly from irresponsibility especially at work place or in other dealings
• Displays promiscuous behavior

"They also never learn from their own mistakes." (We can assume anyone else's either.)

Hedges takes the "military-industrial establishment" to task at length in this chapter. I'm going to leave the lion's share of the commentary on that subject to you for obvious reasons. But when reading this list of symptoms of narcissism I thought about how Ron Paul is vilified by many every time he attempts to make the connection between our behavior in dealing with nations around the world and how we weaken our own security by refusing to talk, by placing meaningless embargoes, and then eventually engaging in military action to get our way (or perhaps more accurately someone's way). Which without question apparently is the right way. His question about why "nothing is off the table" (code for the nuclear option) except talking (!) seems so rational. Too rational and reasonable for a nation awash in illusions of one kind and another. If the public has qualms about it the media is sure to be able to package and sell it in a way that will make it seem not only necessary, but good. Then we add to that the immense waste involved in some of the systems developed that "offer little more than a psychological security blanket for fearful Americans who want to feel protected and safe." A fear that is fed both by a system that benefits from it and by an alarmingly narrow world view, and more often than not, an actual disdain for other people, cultures, and religions.  And increasingly, history.

See list above again...

*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition,