Destiny's Darling

More and more, I feel like everything beyond the radius of our house is as unreal as a novel. Iraq and the external world’s events don’t touch me, don’t even intrude upon my consciousness. If I pick up the novel, Iraq exists. When I close it, it disappears. But I cannot yield to such solipsism. President Bush takes comfort in it. He writes his novel anew each day. He repeats the same lies so often they’ve become a mash-up of greatest hits. The CIA doesn’t torture, but our interrogation has prevented several terror attacks, etc. Bush lives in a world of make-believe. If the President does something, then it’s not only legal, but morally sanctioned. America would never do anything bad because we’re good and only “they” are evil. So our interrogatory techniques are not considered torture because we carry them out and we’re good and the good never torture. Sadly, this has a simplicity that makes it very appealing to many people. Many people, including myself, often wonder how Bush can actually say what he says. Aghast at his statements, we wonder, “How can he say that? How could anyone believe it?” I no longer wonder. To George W. Bush, they aren’t lies. He actually believes them. Bush is a solipsist. The world is whatever he believes it to be. Bush may have had hard days earlier in his life. I don’t want to minimize or ridicule the possibility that his inability to measure up to his family’s expectations and alcoholism troubled him. But his privilege has always saved him from himself and even gained him the presidency. The world has proven to be malleable to his power. And that only confirms his solipsistic delusion. It’s no surprise that he believes God has chosen him to be destiny’s darling.