But all this pales when compared to the essential lie - that lie that may lead to even greater tragedy. This lie is fairly simple: That George W. Bush was ever remotely competent to be the Governor of Texas, much less the President of the United States of America.
Rumors now pour out of an increasingly leaking White House on the mental state of the President. According to the most recent stories, Bush only trusts the women that have surrounded him: his mother, of course, and his wife; Secretary of State Rice, and chief Islamic representative Karen Hughes; as well as now back in the closet, Harriet Miers.
We have to ask ourselves a very scary question here: What is the psychological state of a man who depends for his day to day stability on the fragile vanity of the adoration of women?
For some background, try to recall (if you read it, and read it now if you didn't) Robert Bly's book Iron John. In Bly's discussion of this wise fairy tale on the nature of men is this idea: when the man leaves home to marry, he takes from under his mother's pillow the golden ball of his deep masculine power and places it under the pillow of his wife.
Western Civilization, for complicated reasons, has not well understood male and female psychology, and has come to teach us very little of worth about ourselves. We swim in a sea of illusions and rumors about our deep inner nature and blessed is the individual human being who travels this sea with any kind of harmony and balance. Much that is flawed in human behavior, finds its roots in the myths of modern culture, which fail to teach us about what it really means to be human, or to be male and female.
This is what Bly and others have exposed in recent years, and we now can see in the current administration what happens when such immature and deeply flawed in character individuals come to occupy seats of political and social power. What we have done is let a community of children hold the directing wheels of the ship of the most powerful State in human history - all of them led by someone who is not only a child, but a spoiled child of privilege and wealth.
This is why Bush is surrounded by women, for only women can reflect back to his unconscious mind the illusion of maturity and manhood. This is why he cannot face being questioned by either the press or the public, except in very controlled circumstances, for he has become so inwardly fragile (a mere instance away from infantile rage) that for anyone to question his judgment, intelligence or authority (all illusions supported only by this core group of women) is to violate the deepest inner sanctum of his being.
This is why he is so threatened by such as Joseph Wilson, and Richard Clark - men of substance who have served our Republic, while Bush wanders in a sea of illusion and mis-education about the world and his (and our) human nature. The jackals, wolves and pirates, who dominate our corporate hierarchies, have in careless arrogance and greed turned America over to one of the most deeply flawed men to hold power in recent times, with the result that they have near guaranteed ruination for us all.
