No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Freedom's just another word...

The big story in the Phoenix area last week was the decision by a libertarian councilman in the Mormon-dominated, ultra-reactionary suburb of Mesa to abstain from the pledge of allegiance that opens every council meeting, until US troops are withdrawn from Iraq.

Well, you would think Saddam Hussein himself had risen from the dead and turned up in Mesa to burn the flag, spit on apple pie and gay-marry Bill Clinton, so vehement and vitriolic was the reaction. Tom Rawles's symbolic gesture has been greeted with a massive wave of hysterical, blind, spluttering, apoplectic rage. There have been demands for his resignation, his ousting from the council, and even death threats, which forced Mesa PD to place him under 24-hour protection - although they withdrew their protection, rather prematurely in my view, last night.

Meanwhile, the berserk rage and hatred continues. Numerous death threats are posted every day in the Arizona Repulsive's forums, and though the administrator deletes them, the Repulsive editorial board is predictably bloviating pompously against Rawles. And when a young lady speaks out and shows herself to be far more mature and intelligent than the outraged conservatives who are baying for blood, she is told to "go play in traffic".

Wherever there's smoke, there's fire, some say. And whenever there's fire, there's Faux News standing by with a can of gasoline, hoping to increase ratings by fanning the flames. And making its talking-ass pundits look like total fools and dicks in the process. At least Mr. Rawles got the chance to pose an important question to milquetoast token "liberal" Alan Colmes:

The question is whether we're more interested in protecting the symbols of freedom in this country, or the freedoms themselves.

I sometimes wonder if Merkins really understand what freedom is. Do they think it's merely an abstract concept with no practical application? Or a synonym for mindless American rah-rah-rah jingoism and exceptionalism? Surely at least some of them recognize that freedom means nothing if it doesn't apply in specific situations, like the right of some guy to opt out of participating in a perfunctory ritual.

I'm always bemused by the idea that millions of children in the US start every day by chanting robotically in unison about how free they are. In a totalitarian society built on a cult of personality around an autocratic leader, people get obsessed with symbols over substance, ritual over reality. The more trivial the perceived lèse majesté against the symbol, the more deranged and mouth-foaming the reaction. Is this what the US has become?

Truly, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

Update: great comment here.