Many times during history class, reading through the vast volumes of past events, and watching documentaries on some of the more educational television stations I've asked myself the famous rhetorical question, "What were they thinking?". I mean, honestly. It is as if you could replace the title of any college level history class with something like, "Extreme Human Stupidity 101". Spending twenty years dragging enormous rocks across the desert to build a pyramid is almost completely futile, but at least when you're done you have a pyramid to admire and it sure beats being buried alive with the corpse of the pharaoh. Compare that with the endless succession of wars through the ages fought for reasons that seem trivial today where all your hard work, risk, and sacrifice ends up merely relocating gold and riches from one king's palace to another's. (To be fair there is the joy of rape and plunder along with the feeling that you're somehow special because you survived the fighting, if you survived that is, but is it worth spending ten years away from your family, land, and loved ones for a few nights of revelry?) How easy it is to look back at all that chaos and struggle and rest happily in the belief that we have overcome all those idiotic obsessions.

Easy indeed. We can look back on the Crusades and the Inquisition and the witch trials and shake our heads. We can wonder what church leaders were thinking when they tortured people into confession and what crusaders were thinking when they murdered Jews for pleasure while on their way to Jerusalem. Those people of the past were certainly nothing like us. We are enlightened. We can look back on the madness that possessed the people of Germany in the 1930s as they went from building a magnificent new nation from the ashes of the old to building a war machine that killed tens of millions and exterminated millions more in cold blood. Those evil Germans were nothing like us, but their descendants have seen the light and now they're free. And we can laugh at the follies of the stock market speculators and the greedy bankers who brought forth a world wide economic disaster in the 1930s with their voracious appetites for yet more money. They must have been blind not to have seen the dangers. It's a good thing that we have learned from their mistakes so that things like that can never happen again.

Yes, there's nothing like a good bout of relative peace and stability to make us all believe that we've entered a new age of prosperity. The arguments are persuasive: nuclear weapons and mutual assured destruction have forced the major powers away from war and towards negotiation to settle disputes; computerized banking and interconnected world markets have integrated the world and brought about major improvements in efficiency and productivity; and the internet itself has brought forth a global social revolution that is only beginning to unfold. With a little spin and a few well picked statistics our global future can be made out to look like utopia is finally in our grasp. World War Two, the great turning point in history according to many American Pundits, is behind us and civilization has won. World Peace is now upon us for good, provided that we exterminate all those pesky terrorists who hate all this wonderful progress.

Like the grossly over-priced real estate all around me, I'm not buying it. The closer I look at the events unfolding, the more I see all the signs of humanity falling into the same traps of old albeit in new and different forms. I see truth withering on the vine as people seek out those who tell them what they want to hear. The entirety of the news media market, consisting of television, radio, the internet, and word of mouth, is becoming like a modern day Tower of Babel and I see how each of us holding a well established version of the truth which is incompatible with other people's versions is preventing us from communicating with each other.

I see lofty ideals cut down by the power of fear, loathing, and a desire for revenge. Christians are acting in appallingly unchristian ways, those sworn to uphold the constitution are shredding it instead, police state apologists who say that they're patriots write that torture is necessary to defend us from tyranny, respected investigative journalists betray our trust by presenting forgeries as fact, and the act of forcing democracy down people's throats seems to be perfectly fine with most people as long as we don't lose too many soldiers in the process. It's fine if those other people die, but not if we do.

I see common sense and respect for one's neighbor sacrificed on the altar of greed. We export our good jobs while "importing" cheap labor to do the jobs that "Americans won't do", bankruptcy is now a legitimate business strategy to force unions into deep concessions, war and disaster profiteering are reaching epidemic levels, and we buy SUVs so that if we get into a serious accident we will be more likely to survive (and, incidentally, the other guy is more likely to die - but, fuck him!).

I see how these things fan their own flames. People who get victimized often have to adopt the same devious methods as their rivals to compete in a world of sleeping or partisan watchdogs. The constant struggle incites the masses to form into mobs, deepening the divisions between social, racial, religious, and political classes. History is speaking louder and louder but we refuse to listen. Indeed, the question: "What were they thinking?" has become "What are we thinking?". Now that I can see it happening I know the answer: we aren't thinking. We've let our dreams, our emotions, and our desires give us tunnel vision, at least those of us who have a choice about what we do, and the big picture is only a distraction which can lead us astray. After all the "big picture" is just someone else's opinion, isn't it?

So like the noble Col. Westhusing it's difficult for me to sit by and watch the world slowly disintegrate while being powerless to prevent it. Of course, I'm not about to kill myself as he did. I don't consider myself responsible for the actions of others and I don't feel dishonored by the actions of thugs masquerading as mercenaries and soldiers. Well, actually I do feel dishonored, just not to the point of shame as deep as Col. Westhusing felt. But I always thought that it was me who was flawed for not feeling so strongly about American ideals, not the Colonel, who volunteered to go to Iraq and fight the good fight. It seems as though the American ideology born after World War Two has finally died with Col. Westhusing. Where once we had presidents like Truman, who denounced war profiteering as treason and stamped it out, and Eisenhower, who warned of the influence of the military-industrial complex, we now have presidents who green light unethical behavior and shirk accountability. The new American ideology has been decades in the making and the unethical and irresponsible behavior which characterizes it has penetrated deeply into every corner of this nation and beyond. I'd like to see it all go away, but I know that it won't until the next example of Extreme Human Stupidity reaches critical mass and teaches us all a long overdue lesson. Like I've said before, I'd love to be wrong and I'm not looking forward to the future if I'm right, but like hell if I'm going to just sit here and hope that everything will work out nicely.

Speaking of critical mass, "Eternal Devotion to the Dark Goddess" is now completely written. Recording will begin shortly as soon as I plunge some hard earned dollars into some choice new gear and whip my voice and fingers back into shape. It looks like 2006 is going to be a productive year for Fireaxe.

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