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George H.W. Bush & The Bifurcation of the American Soul
Best not to speak ill of the dead… still, the accolades pouring down for George H.W. Bush seem a bit… over-the-top? Just feel it’s important not to forget his dark side.
In light of his passing, and instead of dwelling on his evils, It’s led me to contemplate an essential flaw in the morality of many public men and women. For there are a litany of ills & evils that George Herbert Walker Bush and those working for him are complicit in. And yet… he could authentically call for compassion, a kinder, gentler nation, a thousand points of light…
GHWB illustrates the Bifurcation of the American Soul. The ability to deal dispassionately with other people, immorally reducing them to non-entities, in the name of business or politics or statehood, while at the same time publicly professing a high-level morality and, often, contradictory religious affiliation.
This split allows one to economically or socially devastate another person or, worse, kill them, in the name of business — “it’s just business” — or politics — “just economic realities” — “just the way it is” — while, at the same time, attend a church whose founder taught “Love your neighbor” and “take care of the sick, give to the poor, clothe the naked, house the homeless…” even “Love your enemy”.
