- My friend, Billy Bird, offered an uncharacteristically
favorable comment about George W. Bush. He said, "Dubya is the perfect
engineer to drive the train wreck."
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- I tend to agree. Maybe Dubya really is --- as he likes
to think --- following his destiny in some way. And maybe that destiny
really is to help save us all. Maybe he will save us, not from the Bush
family arch enemy, Saddam Hussein, not from any axis of evil, and not from
wimpy should-be allies who seem to think war should remain an action of
last resort, but maybe he will help save us from ourselves. Maybe Dubya
is here for one specific and very important reason: to drive the train
wreck.
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- The potential upside of this global mess George W and
his cohorts have gotten us into can be found in the possibility of awakening.
In my experience, insight does not bring about awakening, pain does. And
train wrecks can be mighty painful.
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- Consider motivation from a psychological perspective.
Whether an organism is one human being, a family, a business, a nation,
or an entire world, pain is what inspires change. And if Dubya has given
us nothing else, he has certainly given us pain.
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- Pain will either drive an organism to work harder to
hide from the truth --- ignoring and dulling the pain --- or toward awakening,
characterized by a willingness to experience pain for the purpose of learning
how to solve problems in the most effective way possible. In either scenario
--- moving toward or hiding from the real problem --- pain is the primary
ingredient in motivation.
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- Insight alone, without the experience of pain, will not
provide sufficient motivation for change, at least not sufficient motivation
for the degree of change that is needed now, in the midst of one of the
great political train wrecks of modern time. Like the alcoholic who has
reached the bottom, being smart will not save us. In fact, it is my contention
that we humans have a bad habit of using our intelligence to avoid learning
the lessons of our history, individually and collectively.
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- In my work as a psychotherapist, I tell my clients that
insights are the tools we use to fine-tune our change, but only after pain
has inspired the initial transformation. In the context of Dubya's war,
the pain we must become willing to feel is extreme because it is the pain
not just of the past three years, but of a human history that persists
in believing that the violence of war is a viable option for civilized
societies. (What better example of an oxymoron is there than "civilized
war?")
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- Dubya's gift to us is ironically to be found in his apparent
lack of knowledge and/or respect of history. Again, like the untreated
alcoholic, attempts to make changes to avoid recurring consequences will
bring about only temporarily positive results. Until the bigger problem
is addressed directly, be it a belief that alcohol works or a belief that
war works, the vicious (yes, vicious) cycle continues. As I began recovery
from alcoholism many years ago, I remember a counselor explaining to me
that bringing flowers home to make peace with my wife was every bit as
much a symptom of alcoholism as throwing the toaster across the room the
night before. It is no accomplishment to get to the other side of the cycle.
What we have to do is break the cycle completely.
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- Dubya's gift is perhaps to be found in his ignorance.
Because he seems so incapable of understanding the bigger picture, because
he thinks he is already seeing the bigger picture, the results of his words
and actions are as blatant as a stumbling drunk telling us that he is okay
to drive. Dubya's gift is in his lack of subtlety. Since he apparently
models himself straight from the old westerns that he and I both grew up
watching, there is really no question about the overly simplified model
in which he has appointed himself sheriff of the world. What is left to
do is for us --- this organism we call the United States of America ---
to hit bottom. And Sheriff Bush is the perfect guy to take us there.
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- Get on board. Let's get this train wreck over with, and
hopefully get on with our lives in a world in which we can at least begin
to comprehend that violence begets violence and stupidity begets stupidity.
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- Let us pray for --- and work for --- awakening. Like
the alcoholic who has reached the bottom, let us transform our pain into
enlightenment.
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- Thom Rutledge is the author of Embracing Fear & Finding
the Courage to Live Your Life (HarperSanFrancisco).
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