Madcap or Mad
Is the President insane? I don’t even think he’s really as dumb as he’s often made out to be, although he’s not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. In fact, I think he’s of only average intelligence, not something you’d normally want for the Highest Office in the Land ™. I certainly don’t think he’s crazy, either, although his religiosity presents a bit of a problem, especially insofar as he really believes God told him to go into Iraq. In many ways, that’s the real problem isn’t it? He’s a True Believer, by which I mean he is so convinced of his faith that it overwhelms all doubts, regardless of whether they stem from matters normally within the quotidian purview of religion. Paper or plastic, Mr. President? God helps him choose. Peace or war, sir? And God provides the answer. In this state, he is beyond inquiry, beyond choice. His choice is God’s choice. At some point this does indeed become insanity, similarly to a case now being presented before the Supreme Court, testing the limits of an insanity defense. In that case, a young man suffering from schizophrenia killed a policeman he thought was an alien (although the Bush Justice Department supports Arizona’s limited definition of insanity, perhaps an ironic choice). This is a very comforting form of religious belief, but often very insidious as well. This is the kind of belief that sends people out to snipe on doctors who provide abortions, to plant bombs, or to themselves become bombs. (Is George Bush not a suicide bomber only by an accident of birth?) On a more benign level, this is the same kind of belief that sends some Holy City tourists around the bend into believing themselves the risen Christ. Stay out of Jerusalem, Mr. President, it isn’t good for your mental health. But that’s where he’s going, isn’t it? Is it democracy he wants to bring to the Middle East, or the Kingdom of Heaven? Let’s hope it’s really the former, because if it’s the latter, well, then he probably really is insane.