The Garden of Evil

October 29, 2001.

To forget is human; to remember, expedient. Already we have forgotten that the sun set September 10, 2001, on a nation wallowing in problems.

Airlines, communications, newspapers, TV stations, cable companies, electric companies, all were falling into disarray and unable to provide reliable service, sliding deeply in debt, and raising prices quickly. Blackouts and brownouts appeared ready to race across the nation. Stock markets were roiling and bucking, ready for a big fall, but churning huge profits for those with insider information. New cars were rolling over when their new tires blew out, back windows were falling off of new SUV's as they drove along the nation’s byways. Handguns prohibited in NYC and DC, but easily bought elsewhere and importable everywhere led to a happy headline that only 32,436 Americans had been killed by guns in 1997 - good news, because that figure was down from previous years.

We had been attacked by international terrorists on several occasions, and were foundering in the wake of profiteering generated by international crime organizations and international drug traffickers, those trafficking in both illegal and legal drugs.

We were disentangling from the rest of the world, tossing aside a nuclear test ban treaty, refusing to go along with a UN plan to limit small arms, saying that people have a right to defend themselves no matter where they live - never mind that we are the largest producer and seller of small weapons by a "long shot".

Initial attempts to curtail global pollution and green house gasses were rejected out of hand by us as being a threat to the continuing growth of the American economy.

Palestine had been told to make its peace with Israel or face consequences. We were bombing in Iraq. And we were invulnerable.

The American people were busy. Running. Running. Racing. Sprinting. Working with a vengeance. I watched the Atlanta Braves play baseball on the Turner Broadcasting System. Between innings, I watched in astonishment as buildings exploded, guns fired on fully automatic mode, cars crashed, people hit each other, kicked each other, stabbed each other, shoved each other, shot each other; more explosions, crashes, people fell from tall buildings, fire and flame, more explosions then suddenly there was baseball again, after the commercial advertisements for "coming events" (how mystically prescient!) had shown up to 85 flashes of violence in 60 seconds. Baseball was back, smiling as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if we were worshiping at the altar of the Great God of Violence. But we were also working, and also worrying. Hurrying. Running. Running. Running. Making money money money. "If the money wasn't this good, it wouldn't be worth it!"

Then it happened. The running stopped. The gods we had been praying to had granted our prayers. That dream of violence and evil we had held so close to our heart for so long had materialized into action. We watched on TV news as explosions occurred, crashes took place, and people fell from tall buildings into fire and flame,

Abraham Maslow said: "If the only tool you know how to use is a hammer, pretty soon all your problems will begin to look like nails." Maybe he was right. We took our hammer to Afghanistan, and went to work. Talliban - Bam! Kabul - Bam! Kandahar - Bam! Pakistan - Bam! ABM treaty - Bam! The UN - Bam! International Courts of Justice - Bam! The Environment - Bam-bam! No longer the World's Policeman, now the vengeful JUDGE of the World, Executioner of the World and God of the World. You are with us OR against us - Bam! you are either good OR evil - we will decide - Bam! You will do things our way or get out of our way OR we will kill you - Bam-Bam-Bam!

How did we elect such a poorly prepared executive administration? Back in the beginning of the campaign, no one wanted Bush at first, including Bush himself. No one wanted Gore either, except Gore himself. The two political organizations that have hijacked the American government chose draft horses for their special interests and selected these men to run for reasons totally unrelated to their preparation for the job or personal integrity.

The campaign was a farce. Only Bush and Gore were permitted to debate; Great Money solved other campaign issues. Bush campaigned on the sole issue that he was not Al Gore; this was so successful, that Gore also ran on the issue that he too was not Al Gore. Even though Al Gore got most of the votes, the final fiasco was saved for the vote counting. It turns out that American votes don't always count, especially if they could make a difference in the outcome. Hallway Hooligans in Miami bought time for the Supreme Court so that a judge appointed by Bush's father could seal the deal.

The current administration is one built expressly for war. The only exception is Colin Powell who is the only one of the group who has ever been in a war. So it will be a war conducted in a business-like manner using management principles, like the War in Vietnam was done.

The man now in charge of powerful new police powers, Ashcroft, is so fundamentalist Christian that he anointed himself (by his own admission) with Crisco (other oil being not available - one can’t help but wonder where were the feathers?)

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld keeps mumbling about nuclear weapons, seems he’s seeking and searching for ways to use nuclear weapons against the Talliban or Saddam or somebody, while Vice President Halliburton, is one of the major purveyors of "private police forces" (terribly handy in future airport security, eh wot?) , and nuclear energy. Guess where we're going, gang?

Anthrax has come into the postal system. From where? Who did it? We don’t have a clue. But we see this administration telling postal workers not to worry while all the President's men and women are taking the magic pill themselves. We see incredible giveaways of not only future and present, but even PAST tax revenue to corporations, all of whom provided the Great Money for the campaign just past! The social security lockbox? It went on the first bomb run - it now lies somewhere in Afghanistan.

When asked if America was "running our of targets", Rumsfeld laughed, and said "Afghanistan is running out of targets!" Within the week we were bombing villages, produce stands, old folks homes and International Red Cross warehouses (same one twice - what went wrong? 1) We are terribly inept, or 2) we don't give a damn, or 3) we really wanted those Red Cross warehouses to come down, or 4)? ).

Now the toll of clearly innocent people both dead and injured appears to be rising quickly. The terrorists may have hit the World Trade Towers, and those buildings may have been what we all saw fall - but what seems to have been really exposed is that the American government now appears to be exactly what the terrorists were saying it was: A corporate sickness of arrogance that is addicted to money and power and that will destroy and kill anything that stands in its way to economic imperialism. Of course, we Americans know this is not true. . . you know, though, I still can't contact my president, representative or senators. That seems strange for a democratic republic. When they do answer my emails, they thank me for supporting them (guess I'm part of the 91%); most of the responses are from robots are from robots are from robots are from are from robots are from robots are from ro. . .

When you are trying to solve problems you must find the unseen forces that work behind the scenes to produce them. I am not a therapist, but I do know a good deal about both war and management analysis. When a company has problems, it does no good to treat its symptoms, although its leaders will pay you well to do so. It shows others that they care. It does little better to try to solve their problems either, because problems are never where the action is - problems are always "understandable"; there are always "good reasons" for problems. In management analysis , "problems" relate to "causes of those problems" as Jung might say  as Persona is related to Self. If you want to find the Cause of an organization's problems, and work on that, that's when you get fired, because the Cause of the Problem is always too close to the corporate heart to let anyone find it, it is always embarrassing and at the same time it is too precious to give up. Real causes have to be either "unknown" to management or very well hidden. To correct the Cause means everything will have to be different!

In America's present case, attachment to violence is obviously one of the primary problems. Now, do we want to try to see what "causes" us to be so violent? Causes always come from deep and very Fundamental beliefs that usually lie below our conscious horizon, and they could be as close to us as our own vision of God.

Why God? The clue here is the word so often repeated by members of the administration: the word "Evil" seems to be the banner going on before. With the blessings of "Evil", Occam's razor can slice through subtleties of diplomatic action and international cooperation. “They” (the other guys) now become defined as Evil; therefore we, who are “not They”, cannot be Evil. It is a core belief of all desert religions that God is never Evil; therefore, God must be “Good”. Since we are “not Evil”, therefore, in fundamentalist logic, we must be”Good”. Our mission then becomes God’s mission; it is clearly to accomplish God's will. How would God treat Evil? Is our God vengeful? (then so are we) Is "He" a God of hatred and fear? (then so are we) Does our God draw lines in the sand? (then so do we) Does "He" require eyes for eyes and teeth for teeth? (then so do we) Is "He" one who requires we worship "Him" for our own salvation? (then so do we) Do we have original sin because we were created in "His" own image? (hmmm. . . now that's really an interesting problem.) But . . . think for a moment about how deeply our religious institutions, Christian, Jewish and Moslem seem to be contained and constrained within the lower three chakras, rising over thousands of years just to reach the third level, the level of Law and Power.

Perhaps the only hope for humanity is to transcend the apparent barrier above the third chakra and to rise into the fourth. "Not to abolish the Law but fulfill it." Who can show us the way to do this? There are many who already have: Jesus, Buddha, Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Martin Luther King, Jr , Thich Nhat Hahn, - This is only a beginning of a lengthy list - add your own candidates - and when you are through, add your own name to it too!

How do you reach the fourth chakra? The only way we know of is through love. What is love? Warm and fuzzy hugs and kisses? Maybe it is more like respect and honor, a sacred form of understanding that the great holy scriptures are written within each one of us, including you and me, including our family, including our tribe and nations, and including those other guys, all of them.

Evil, clearly, is not God's problem. It is our problem, and as a human condition it requires that we work together to deal with it. Cats create cats, dogs create dogs; Evil creates Evil. The Garden of Evil is anyplace where Victims grow. Who could plant and prune those twisted awful plants of hate? Who could do such evil work and with such keen and loving care? Is this the Devil hard at work? Or is it done by Victims, just like we ourselves? Oh, Mary, Mary, let’s be contrary . . . let’s plant the garden WE want to grow.

©John Womack, 2001