The Strain on the American Psyche

Yesterday, President Bush claimed that the war in Iraq is "straining the psyche of our country."

You could say that.

The Bush administration went into the invasion thinking that George Bush was Abraham Lincoln and George Washington reincarnated, that the invasion and occupation would be as easy as the Ohio State Buckeyes beating New Mexico State, and that we'd be out of there in six months after Iraq became a fluorishing democracy.

But Bush turned out to be another James Buchanan, the occupation looks more like 0-11 New Mexico State than Ohio State, and Iraq is not going to have a fluorishing democracy any more than the Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl.

That's a "strain" on the American psyche because of the central role of domination/humiliation images in American culture. Take your pick of images--Simon Cowell and off-key singers, Dr. Phil and the the world of ineffective losers, Jack Welch of GE firing the bottom 10% of his executives every year, Grand Theft Auto, or all the women who get rejected on the Bachelor.

We're a society that's fallen in love with the feeling of domination and we get a special kick out of humiliating anyone who looks like a failure. So, our psyche is "strained" now that we as a nation are on the frustrated, don't know what to do next, pretty sure nothing's going to work side of the track.

That might not be a bad thing though. We might have been on the wrong path anyway.