Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Strike three, you're out

Even though my parents, after more than 15 years, still don’t understand the game of baseball, I love it because of its relative simplicity. Three strikes and you’re out. There is not two ways about it; it’s pretty damn clear.

Interestingly, this simple rule of three, as I shall name it, seems to apply to a variety of situations and environments. First time you don’t show up at work, and have no valid excuse, it is ok; second time and you receive a warning; third time and you are out of there. Same thing at school, with skipping classes, or exams (there are usually three per semester, including the final), in relationships, friendships, attempts at sporting events, and the list could go on.

One would thus expect that this golden rule of three shall apply in the world of politics too. It probably does; after all there were 3 televised debates for the presidential election in the US, in Canada we have 3 levels of government, modern democracy is based on the division of the 3 powers (legislative, judiciary and executive), etc…

Except that there seems to be a single point where this almost physically provable rule of three seems to be breaking down. Something in the likes of a mini black hole, or the big bang. That phenomenon is known as George Dubya Bush.

He underperformed Kerry at all three debates. In Afghanistan his policies failed on all three major levels: no Ben Laden in sight, no Mullah Omar and no democracy for the Afghani people left to the mercy of warlords. For Iraq, he deceived the American nation more than three times to justify his devastating war: no weapons of mass destruction (I can not believe that everyone in the US seems to have forgotten the WMD, which used to be so omnipresent in the media and in the people mind before the invasion), no secret underground or mobile WMD labs either, and no link between Saddam and AlQaida. In invaded Iraq, Bush’s policies have disintegrated on three major points (once again, there seems to be a pattern here): the world is not safer, in fact it feels much more dangerous now (I wonder where the 300 tons of explosives went, I hope not our way), Iraqis are not safer, and Iraqis are not free-er (not sure this word exists, but you catch my drift). Economically wise, the US is in triple deficit: trade deficit (its largest in history), government deficit (its largest in history) and financial deficit (not sure, but probably its largest in history too).

Yet, contrarily to the rule of three and to the concept known as “common sense”, Bush Jr does not seem affected much, if not at all, by these failures. He is still standing strong in the public polls and seems very likely to be the future president of the US once again. The basic laws of physics, especially the rule of three, obviously do not apply to Bush Jr.

If anything, the rule of three should apply to all politicians. They have the destiny and the future of this world in their hands, and thus can not conduct themselves lightly. It almost feels like the current US administration has finally gained access the memory erasing devices that Will Smith had in Men in Black, and is collectively zapping the mind of millions of citizens through their TV sets. How can people forget all the mistakes, lies and deception? Even though we don’t live in a science fiction tale, and Big Brother of 1984 is not here (yet), it seems that TV, newspapers, other media have adopted a propaganda oriented agenda. I see no other explanations of why the general public has forgotten WMDs other than the fact that media don’t mention or point out this topic. It scares me to hear Iraq veterans confide on TV that the majority of Americans do not know at all what is really going on the ground in Iraq, as American press presence in the country is practically inexistent.

I am not out to lynch Bush Jr and I am not out to tell Americans how to vote in a few days. They are old enough to make their own decisions (except for the Blacks and Hispanics how are forbidden from voting). I just wish that, considering how US policy affects the lives of all of Earth’s citizens, the rule of three would be respected in the case of George Bush Jr.


Props to Hug

On a lighter note, I would like to thank my friend Marky for acknowledging my genius, and quoting one of my famous phrases in her blog entry of September 19, titled I’m alive!!!.

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