Does Bush Speak for Humanity?

By Garry Davis

President George Bush's delusion that he pretends to speak for humanity is dangerous…for humanity. "History has called us to action" he told the press yesterday (3/13), "and I am going to seize this moment for the good of the world, for peace in the world and for freedom." The "good of the world," and "peace in the world" per se means We All, "humanity" though he scrupulously avoids the word itself. According to the Washington Post's reporters, when discussing Saddam Hussein, Bush closed his eyes and shook his head in exasperation: "One thing I will not allow," he said petulantly, "is a nation such as Iraq to threaten our very future by developing weapons of mass destruction," this from a man with 7,000 nuclear weapons literally at his fingertips who, at the same time, says, with amazing belligerency and insouciance that "all options are open including nuclear" when dealing with other nations.

In short, President Bush has no mandate to speak for humanity. To assume so is the ultimate in paranoia. He has never once in his presidency advocated a government for humanity, world law for humanity, world citizenship for humanity. In his oath of office, he swore allegiance to a constitutional framework binding him as its executor only for the United States citizenry. In brief, he is not the sovereign, "His Majesty," though he acts like he is, but only the people whom he is pledged to serve at their discretion are. As for the 94% of the human race outside the United State's borders, his presidential mandate is zero, zip, nada. For him to assume legitimate responsibility for the human race is a sign of mental and emotional aberration at best

However, to call someone with a gun in his hand mad is also dangerous…for the messenger. When Bush asserts that all those not with "him" are against him and therefore side with the "terrorists," is a patent sign of his megalomania. Recent quickly enacted US laws, like the infamous Patriot Act, in turn legitimize the paranoia allowing Attorney-General John Ashcroft to incarcerate anyone whom in his opinion is thinking of committing a so-called terrorist crime. Good-bye civic and human rights. Such legislation legerdemain cows the US public into silence for fear of arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention. Every dictatorship has used such "legal" acts to maintain its control over the citizenry.

Let?s face it, George Bush is not really against terrorism. If he were, he would immediately call for the elimination of its cause: global anarchy, rather than put on his commander-in-chief hat-which he wears like a high school bully in the recess courtyard-and rage against "nations of mass destruction." What does he think America's nuclear, biological, chemical arsenals are if not weapons of "mass destruction"? "It's my ball," the traditional bully says, "so what I say goes; nobody else." But when he's threatening not nations but humanity itself, it's up to us humans not merely to expose this transparent penultimate threat but to define, defend and provide humanity with the accepted legitimate structure for its survival, i.e. democratic world government. Is not the nation itself a 21st century political prison in fact with its fearfully guarded borders and guns bristling from all azimuths both internally and externally?

The amazing fact about Bush is how blatantly and overtly he exposes himself every time he speaks in public and how he is taken seriously by one and all. "One of the things I've learned in my discussions," he told the journalists yesterday, "and at least listening to the echo chambers out there in the world is that if the United States were to waver, some in the world would take a nap when it comes to war on terror. And we're just not going to let them do that." (Read) "In other words, you better do as I say or else you?ll feel my wrath and my steel." Where o where are the public voices of wisdom and reason to confront this adolescent-in-power? At the National Cathedral of Washington on September 14th last he acknowledged, "This world (God) created is of moral design." and entreated "Almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come." One wonders if he thinks that God granted him the "moral" right to engage "our nation" in "the first war of the 21st century." In a fundamental political and moral contradiction, Bush, with unabashed innocence, claims his War on Terrorism is "God-given." And what do all God-fearing and loving Christians, Jews, Muslims et al say about this tendentious hypocrisy?

Our choice as humans is clear. As we, the people, already "outrank" George W. Bush and his ilk at birth-Ref., Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights*-our God-given mission on planet Earth at this crucial stage in humanity's evolution is to continue the legitimization of our de facto world citizenship before some national leader, in his power-driven myopia, decides to nuke another fictional and bloodless nation thereby destroying humans and ultimately humanity itself.**

*"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

**"The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government," (Article 21(3), Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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Garry Davis

World Service Authority

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