“What we are seeing is…the fall of America”-"The whole thing is a scandal…a series of lies"

January 12, 2008

According to Harold Bloom, “What we are seeing is…the fall of America”

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

“I am 77 years old and I have never seen this country in such a bad state. It is madness. What we are seeing is the fall of the Roman Empire, only now it is the fall of America, the glory of our Empire. This war is what Parthya was to Rome.


“The horror of what is taking place in Iraq exceeds my worst fears five or six years ago (after Bush came to power). I am horrified at the disastrous mistake involved. Imagine the complete madness in trying to occupy a large Arab country in the middle of the Arab world, a culture we know precious little about, and who speaks a language only a handful of our specialists can speak, with armed forces which we have limited control of and with a large army of private soldiers… The whole thing is a scandal…a series of lies. I don’t understand the motivation for the war, but suspect the real reason for the war, which one would suspect of a country which is a third oligarchy, a third plutocracy and a third theocracy, is that it simply is a profitable machine.”

Sitting in the middle of his living room and in the brown leather armchair from which he has given most of his interviews in recent years, Bloom sighs deeply and a sad grimace spreads over his expressive face. It soon switches to anger, as he expands on the consequences of the war and, ultimately, of Bush at power: a growing national debt and a weakened dollar in tandem with a spiraling war budget, as well as America’s lost credibility on the international stage due to the Iraq war and the situation in Afghanistan. Not to mention Guantanamo Bay, the use of torture and humiliation at Abu Ghraib and the CIA’s rendition program.

“We have caused a monstrous mess. We don’t even count killed Iraqis. God knows how many Iraqi women, children and men have been killed by our accidental shootings, which we are such experts at, or by other Iraqis. No, ‘Benito Bush’ (Bloom’s pet name for President George Bush) deserves, if we had a functioning civil law in the world, to be condemned for crimes against humanity. Bush is ultimately responsible for this war,” Bloom says pointing angrily with his index finger in the air as his dark eyes burn below a pair of thick dark eyebrows and a crown of unruly white hair.

“It is bleeding our nation, and I can’t see a solution in the near future. We are obviously so deeply involved concerning blood, money and the situation on the ground that it will be very hard for us to pull out.”

more at:
http://www.thewip.net/contributors/2008/01/according_to_harold_bloom_what.html

Blackwater in New Orleans, slowly chipping away at our freedom to associate and travel, can Posse Comitatus be far behind.

Not to mention that we've gone from a Greek democracy (ok, not quite) to a Roman despotic rule by two families (at least, it would seem that we are well on our way to this).

Only it's OUR blood, not theirs.

We ARE War Slaves!!

:kick:

I've seen Harold Bloom's books and they've always looked interesting, but I didn't read them because I had him confused with Allan Bloom whose book, "The Closing of the American Mind," I thought was trash. Now, I'll have to read at least some of his books.

kick

republicons: all deviancy all the time.

Bloom is not given to what is known in Literature as "conceits". Bloom is no Liberal.

I don't know the man's history...so I just read the words as they were arranged on the page. I do not understand why the article should be discounted, or taken for anything else than what it is. There is only one Chomsky...as far as I know...and "Liberal" is not a term I can apply to many people...especially here.

though I'm definitely somewhat skewed toward Deconstructionism - as a practical matter, anyway.

I was just trying to say that this is one of our truly great Cultural Conservatives speaking here.

my bad.

I really LIKED the article too!

I think Bloom states the same truths that Chomsky does - only from a much different direction, which IMO validates the truth more fully than if only one "side" were saying it.

The old house divided thing. Thanks for explaining that...

bad for him to comment.

but its nice to see decent people caught in the matrix joining the age old struggle against imperialism and evil. I wonder if he knows how truly deep rooted the systems of church and state worldwide are corrupted... I fear that there will be no defeating this evil within our current systems and the overwhelming hopelessness of the cause will force people like me that question the very fabric of reality to accept powerlessness...

It's the patriotic thing to do, in order to save the country. Of course, DLCers will have to allow the truth to come out.

Heaven forbid that the "lesser evil" become merely EVIL?? :eyes:

like this is something new?

Anyone remember the documentaries "The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization?"

You're right this is nothing new and I think H. Bloom would agree with you.

he forgot one other major point...Rome was christian when it fell.

or is their a difference between Christian, and Christian Fundamentalists?

of theocracy and the end came soon after.

Seems like we're seeing the same sort of thing here. Religious fundamentalism, destruction of the middle class (Rome had no middle class...only the very rich, the very poor and slaves; the very poor often becoming slaves in order to exist.

I thought you were saying that Rome differed somehow because it was Christian. Now I get it..kind of like rinse and repeat.

As opposed to what, the moderate scientific liberals of ancient Rome? Christianity was the most progressive idea of its time, and the fall of Rome due to Christianity was like the fall of the USSR due to Glasnost. It was a good thing.

Rome didn't fall due to christianity, that was accomplished by the Germanic (heathen) barbarians.

But, like today, somehow the christian god forgot to get the memo that being a 'christian nation' was supposed to protect it from outside attack.

And I thoroughly believe that Constantine was just doing a CYA, since he didn't convert till he was dying...wasn't about to take chances on ending up in the hot place.

The whole book of Revelations is about the fall of Rome, the city on seven hills. It became a deep part of their mythology, I'm convinced that plays a role in why Constantine took the Capitol east.

I believe that Rome demilitarized a bit due to Christianity, the empire transformed from being a fundamentally military entity to being an ideological entity, which survives to this day as the catholic church. Without a monopoloy on violence they could not be a state though, and even then people could see the contradiction between being a follower of Christ and holding a monopoly on violence.

And I don't know where you are getting that Constantine converted on his deathbed, he was a Christian emporer completely from at least the time he was 40:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_and_Christianity

thanks for posting this.

That says it all. Brilliant article!!!
K & R

at least it will be clear to the world as to who is "us" and who is "them".

:kick:

better comparison is the old british empire rather than the roman.

he still makes some very valid points.

more the corporate evil that runs things here has it's fingers extended beyond our borders.

it's not just america that is threatened.