Living in the Age of Societal Stockholm Syndrome or Why I Think Bush Was Reelected

Bubba has invited me to be a guest poster on his blog. I fear he may live to regret this kindness for any number of reasons. One of the most significant being, I'm slightly crazed, nearly insane at times. Now, as I have read the Call of Cthulhu, I understand this is no great deterrent to successful, regular posting; but it might make me a less than attractive blog partner. The other notable problem is, Bubba disagrees with me on a fairly regular basis. Which is not really a problem for me, many, many people disagree with me, however I'm not sharing blog space with any of them. So, before I put any of my reckless, ill-informed, badly written opinions/ slanderous ( libelous?) musings out there for the world to see, let me state for the record that the somnolent meanderings of stc are hers alone and not shared by the editorial board of this blog (unless Bubba agrees with me and then we are unanimous in our insanity). So without further adieu...

I was thinking about Bubba's question, "Was the Election Stolen?", and my reaction the linked article. Why are we not talking about this topic in the US? Are we too jaded, too lazy or too frightened to question the country's willingness to give away our freedom and democracy. World wide the Ukraine was cheered for standing up against corruption (and poisoning) in their recent elections, yet in the US people are unwilling to challenge some very questionable polling results. It got me thinking about the state-of-mind in this country and the Bush administration's ability and willingness to play on the fears of its citizens. Which led me to Stockholm Syndrome, naturally.

Stockholm Syndrome was first described in 1973 after hostages in a bank robbery became bonded to their captors after a few days. It has been used to explain other seemingly unnatural reactions to crises such as Battered Woman Syndrome. A search on the internet turned up these key points: 1) Perceived threat to survival and the belief that one's captor is willing to act on that threat; 2) The captive's perception of small kindnesses from the captor within a context of terror; 3) Isolation from perspectives other than those of the captor; 4) Perceived inability to escape.

Bush, Cheney and Rove have done a great job of convincing the country there is a real threat to our survival and that they alone are willing to act against that threat. Never mind that the threat is more whacked-out than a fun-house mirror, the country believes it exists, therefore it does. And for sure those Bushies have proved they are willing to ACT. Before anyone points out that the threat I refer to appears external and whereas our captors are internal, I acknowledge manipulating these definitions to suit my thesis, which is a hell of a lot more than the Republicans are willing to admit to. Next, small kindnesses are so insidious, we don't even realize they are there - how brave Bush was after 9/11, his compassionate conservatism, Laura Bush, Colin Powell, faith-based initiatives. Isolation from other perspectives - Fox News, the corporate news media, talk radio. Perceived inability to escape; They are out there, everywhere and They want to destroy the USA. Only President Bush can save us from Them.

I believe Bush was reelected because we are too afraid to ask questions. We have been convinced by our captors that they are looking out for us, when really they are only looking out for themselves. Think about the signature Bubba is currently using under the title of this site - "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Goethe. It is time to break free, are you ready, let's roll.