"In Praise of Hypocrisy"
Rules for thee... not for we
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Parents, priests, and politicians know the value of hypocrisy. Take Senator Lindsey Graham. He’s 100% in favor of protecting the lives of children…particularly the unborn. “America is at her best when she’s standing up for the least among us,” he says. This expression of grace and piety came sandwiched between two remarkable episodes…the first proving that it wasn’t true…and the second proving that Graham didn’t really mean it anyway.
America did not stand up for the ‘least among us.’ She walked on them. That was the dreadful admission of former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who, when confronted by a death toll of 500,000 children in Iraq who had been deprived of essential medicines by US sanctions, replied: “it was worth it.” What ‘it’ was, exactly, has never been clarified, since no benefits of the sanctions nor the invasion have ever been identified. In any case, Graham did well to avoid the apparent contradiction and proudly stick with an honorable hypocrisy.
But come the Israeli pounding of Gaza…with more than 4,000 deaths of children already…and the man sank into Albright-style barbarity. “Level the place!” he says: “They’ve been taught since birth to kill people and hate the Jews.” It’s unlikely that the dead children, buried under the rubble, had already learned to be hard-core Jew killers. But the survivors are getting a crash course in hatred now!
Baby’s Bottoms: When it comes to hypocrisy, politicians of both parties are as smooth as a baby’s derriere. Here’s the Financial Times: "The US House of Representatives has voted to censure Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic representative from Michigan, accusing her of “promoting false narratives” about the Hamas attacks on Israel and “calling for the destruction” of the state of Israel."
This is the same confederacy of dunces that has repeatedly endorsed the destruction of governments all over the world – Iraq, Libya, Iran, Russia – and now calls for the destruction of the democratically-elected government of Gaza. Surely, Ms. Tlaib, elected by the good citizens of Detroit, is entitled to decide for herself which narratives are true or false…and which foreign governments should be destroyed. But that’s hypocrisy. You take the high road…ignoring the swampy, blood-stained trail you leave behind.
Another gem in the condemnation of Ms. Tlaib is this: “Israel has existed on its lands for millennia and the United States played a critical role in returning Israel to those lands in 1948,”
Whoa! Does that mean the US government favors giving back Florida to the Seminoles? Laramie to the Sioux? Las Vegas to the Paiutes?
Again, hypocrisy at work. It makes you feel good when you can return somebody else’s land to its rightful owners. As for your own, you stole it fair and square. Even today, there are probably some people in Brooklyn who feel guilty about not speaking an Algonquin language and squatting on lands where the Rockaway or Canarsie tribes once existed. But as far as we know, no major effort has been made to restore them to their lands…if there are any Indians left to give them to.
Wait. If we’re returning land to people who ‘existed’ on them…where did the Palestinians exist? In Palestine, maybe? And the Romans? And the Byzantines? The Kish…Sassanides…Crusaders…Seleucids…Akkadians… Sumerians…Amorites…Ahlamu…Babylonians…? All have existed in Palestine.
“Do as I say…” Hypocrisy has its uses. For elite groups it is as essential as a liar’s tongue…or a butcher’s thumb. No one really expects our leaders to give up their own thievin’, cheatin’ ways. But the least they can do is wag their fingers at the lower classes and tell them to do better. Likewise, a hegemon empire does the world a favor when it…tells others to behave themselves (even though it has barely recovered from its last debauch)…preaches financial prudence (while it blithely continues borrowing, spending and printing)…warns against recklessness in war (even as it endangers the safety of the entire world by funding conflicts all over the planet.)
‘Free Trade!’ should be its motto…even if it rigs the world economy with its fake money, sanctions, tariffs, and trade preferences. ‘The Rule of Law!’ it should shout from the balconies…even as it makes up its own laws as it goes along. “Human Rights and Freedom” should be its anthem….no need to mention the millions of people it keeps behind bars (America has the largest prison population in the world). ‘Respect for National Sovereignty’ should be almost sacred…except, of course, when it wishes to invade another nation. And an emphatic ‘NO’ must be given to anyone who would engage in mass murder. (Unless it is a special ally, with a powerful lobby in Washington.)
“…not as I do.” Well…you get the idea. ‘Extremism in defense of liberty,’ as the great Karl Hess once wrote for Barry Goldwater, ‘is no sin. Moderation is no virtue.’ And hypocrisy, we add, in pursuit of peace and justice, is better than nothing. So, let’s find another model…a leader who is not complicit in the mass murder of children.
In 1982, the Israelis were on the warpath again…this time they were shooting the fish in the Beirut barrel. After two and a half months of bombardment, the death toll approached 20,000, half of whom were children. Ronald Reagan spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin directly. No need to make reference to America’s murderous campaigns…neither in Japan…nor Vietnam…nor even in Honduras or Nicaragua… Instead, the Gipper went straight to the point: “Menachem, this is a holocaust.” Twenty minutes later, the guns went silent. Hypocrisy works."
No comments:
Post a Comment