We Haven't Learned Much In 5,000 Years

The world is a stage and today the spotlight is on the presidential hopefuls. We pride ourselves on the fact that our system of government allows for a peaceful transfer of power, but all is not what it seems. When power is up for grabs it brings out the worst in human nature.

Machiavellian tactics are seen as the ways and means of getting a jump on one's opponents, as well as a sure-fire method of fooling the people, supposedly for their own good. This is not to say that there are no honest contenders. Those who sincerely wish to change things for the better are forced to play the game in order to attain the power needed to accomplish their goals. What leads to corruption is winning tactics, as they encourage the mistaken belief that the end justifies the means.

One of these winning political tactics is telling the people what they want to hear. For example, where before religion had been a taboo subject, today it is being used for political advantage. The Republican contenders are currently wooing the extreme right evangelicals, those whose support they don't want to lose, and at the same time they are trying not to step on the toes of our mainstream religions, which they see as the core of their support.

By tap dancing around the issue of religion in government, they are managing to have it both ways. While claiming to be the most religious, they deny having a religious agenda. While bragging that they have strong religious beliefs, they promise never to put the concerns of their religion before the concerns of the people. While making an issue of religion themselves, they claim that religion should not be an issue when picking a candidate for the highest office.

This is not to say that religion in government has no worth, on the contrary. There are right ways to make this a better world, such as honesty and whistle blowing. Unfortunately, those who rise to positions of power through spinning webs of deception see honesty as bad politics and whistle blowers as the enemy. Killing the messenger has yet to go out of style.

Our mainstream religions believe that God, through his designated messengers (those who heard corrective truths from within), promised us a better world - wisdom through the process of reasoning, and peace through the "Brotherhood of Man." The ecumenical movement is the beginning of the process, as it is the much-needed brotherhood of mainstream religions.

The fringe groups of all our major religions believe that God, through their favored messenger, has promised to smite evil forces. According to their literal interpretation of Armageddon, the last battle between good and evil will end with the complete destruction of the human species-Doomsday not only inevitable, but to be anticipated with great joy. The end justifying the means in this case, being a seat in heaven-the end of suffering attained in death.

Pat Robertson has become a successful television personality through the use of brainwashing tactics. He spouts the wrath of God coming down upon evil forces, and the rapture taking the faithful up to heaven and promising salvation for a price. His organization, the Christian Coalition, has amassed billions of dollars, which is used to buy more television time and send out more flyers.

President Bush is an admirer of Robertson, to the point of considering him his spiritual advisor. He must also be his political advisor, as he has been using the same brainwashing tactics. Playing God, he is coming down hard on the evil forces in our midst as well as the Middle East. In this case it is the Republican Party sending out flyers asking for money and buying up more and more television time.

In every one of Bush's talks to the nation, his main concern has been keeping the war going at any cost. His belief that winning is everything explains why the concerns of the people mean nothing to him - the colossal debt, the threat to Social Security and our healthcare crisis, to name just a few.

He is using the same rhetoric to increase the extent of the war as he did for starting it. This time around he is claiming that Iran now has the ability and the desire to destroy the United States, and is also posing a threat to Israel as well. This last bit of information shows how close Bush believes he is to reaching his goal - the Holy ground of Jerusalem being the expected literal battlefield of Armageddon.

Bush's fear tactics have turned the most powerful nation in the world into the most fearful. His fear tactics have made families and groups turn against each other over politics and religion, and have turned those whom he has targeted at home against him. The more he turns up the heat, the sooner his fear of his competition will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Every successful system of government before us has come to a sorry end due to its winning ways. As the wise saying goes, pride goes before a fall. The framers of our constitution included checks and balances in an effort to avoid our repeating the mistakes of the past. Their foresight has given us over 200 years of relative freedom from the fear of government abuse, which has earned us the respect and envy of the whole world. The Iraq war has changed all that.

What Bush wants us to believe is that bigger and better bombs are the answer to our prayers, and that picking up our swords is the solution to our problem. This is not the answer for those who believe that wars do not bring peace; they bring death, rape and destruction, and afterward vengeance and retaliation.

It is war that must be outlawed, as there has been no peace since we turned our hunting tools into weapons, each tribal leader fighting to be alpha male. The proof is our 5,000 years of history. Some historians have estimated that the only short periods of peace were truces called in order to regain strength to continue the fight.

If you are still saying, "Yes, but we don't live in an ideal world" it means you have yet to think things through to their logical conclusion. Those who have seen the handwriting on the wall know for a fact that the attainment of wisdom simply means no longer being easily fooled by the winning ways of the powerful.

Whether the Iraq War or Armageddon becomes the final battle between good and evil depends on each and every one of us.

Joan Morrone lives in Sebring.