Sunday, December 19, 2004

Time's Person of the Year

"While I respect Time's recognition of the influence Mr. Bush has had on domestic and world events, I strongly disagree with the decision to name him Person of the Year. To give any credibility to an individual so intent on perpetrating the identical attitudes, beliefs and behaviors evidenced by those he claims to be enemies of freedom is equivalent to giving a 4 year old unlimited rides at an amusement park."

Above is a letter to the editor I submitted to Time magazine this morning upon hearing of Mr. Bush's selection as Person of the Year. I wanted to state the equivalence more strongly and, in fact, had originally written this:

"To give any credibility to an individual so intent on perpetrating the identical attitudes, beliefs and behaviors evidenced by those he claims to be enemies of freedom is equivalent to giving a 4 year old a loaded gun and letting him loose in an amusement park."

I witheld this statement as too inflammatory to be of benefit in a magazine such as Time. However, it is the statement I truly feel is more accurate.

One of the key strategies used in defusing hostage situations is to limit the public splash they can make by their actions, reducing their opportunities for narcisisstic reward. The media is usually cooperative in these efforts while hostage negotiators and tactical teams work to gain release of hostages and secure the perpetrator(s). I wonder why the media is choosing to be blind to the hostage taking of America by Mr. Bush and his team? This struck me forcefully the other day when Mr. Rumsfeld was not immediately dismissed for his responses to a soldier about the lack of armor on vehicles. A rational administrator would have acted on this in a heartbeat especially following a summer campaign castigating his opponent for not being ready to support the troops and the Administration's being the only true supporter of troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who, in their right mind as a CEO or President, would possibly want to risk such a misstep, UNLESS it was the true underlying belief of the administration?

When I am called upon to evaluate an individual who has or is imminently going to inflict harm on self or others, I must provide the court with a professional opinion that includes:

1. Whether the individual is at imminent risk by virtue of a mental condition
2. Whether it is a treatable condition
3. Whether all least restrictive inteventions have been attempted to reduce risk and restore safe functioning
4. Whether the individual needs involuntary committment to a medical facility that can provide safety and treatment.

If the individual is not suffering from a mental condition, I must state so to the court. At that time the court decides what is to happen to this individual, based not only on professional testimony, but also on historic events and direct reports from those affected by the individual's behavior, as well as testimony from the individual.

I can only hope and pray that Mr. Bush suffers from a mental condition, because then something could be done to reduce his risk of harm to society. If he is simply a cunning narcissist with an untreatable desire to gather power, we have let loose the equivalent of a serial predator on the world. In either case, to inflate his ego with titles such as "Person of the Year" only invites disaster when his self-importance inevitably falls in the face of horrors of his own making.

Wooden Shoe

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is the important part of the dilemma. My peception is Mr. Bush's mental state is well known and monitored by those close to him. However, rather than being mitigated, the goal of his management team is to amplify aspects of his thinking and functioning that feed a public view needed to maintain current public perceptions.

Mr. Bush's weaknesses are narcissism and an emotional developmental age of approximately 6. That allows those smarter to use him as the visible front and foil for compatible agendae that otherwise wouldn't fly in the public domain.

It's not a matter of conspiracy, but represents Mr. Bush's handlers' exploitation of his fallacious beliefs,immature insight and horrendously poor judgement. Unfortunately, in the government's chief executive position, such developmental stunting is lethal to citizens and to the democratic political fabric and functioning. The acceptance of these beliefs in the public view, in spite of glaring atrocities and criminal intent, compounds pathology with shared childlike fantasies.

7:10 AM  

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