God bless America! hypocrisy's haven, the world capital of saying one thing and doing the other! Fifty years ago, when I was a gullible, middle class, white child, I eagerly bought into the Superman mythology of "truth, justice and the American Way." Like so many children of my class and education, I foolishly believed that authority figures were telling me the truth. It never even occurred to me that dad was a liar and so were the teachers and the government; a nation of phonies and liars! Fifty years ago, I just took it for granted that persons in authority, my parent figures, the police, my government, were doing what was good and right, were trying to be decent and helpful. But, see, one of my problems was that I wasn't a Christian, I didn't get it. A Christian realizes that ethics is just so much bullshit. It took me years to realize that the principle religious and social doctrine of America is hypocrisy. The "American Way" was and is institutionalized abuse costumed in the pretext of righteousness. As an eleven year-old I still believed the propaganda that I (and each of us) was responsible for what I did and what I didn't do; that I could choose my way in life and that I could decide and determine my future. You'd be surprised how many apparently reasonable persons accept that crap as if it were holy writ; the lie that one is responsibility for one's fate and conduct. Of course it's nonsense. None of us is the master of his or her fate. I didn't choose to be a boy or white or Levitical or a genius or right handed or interested in mathematics or unable to spell, or any of the rest of it. My choices were and are very narrowly proscribed by my body, by chemistry, my nature and by the niche into which chance happened to have me born; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA instead of Philadelphia, Turkey, an American von Hohenzollern instead of a German or Austrian von Hohenzollern. But the worst uf it is that it is one of the insidious cadre of deceptions at the heart of the American Way. The truth of the matter is that you aren't really responsible for much of what you do. You have very little choice, very little control and a world of adversaries assailing to conform you (and me) to destiny. But the point is that there really is an American Way. It's ugly, oppressive and dishonest. It exploits the weak and abuses those who are disfavored. Recently, Rebecca drew my attention to an incident which was quintessential the American Way. Some little people were struggling to make a living. They were Asians, so they were ripe for abuse. The American Way is to pick on the weak and those who are different. They were poor and struggling. The American Way is to crush the poor and oppress those who struggle to raise themselves up. These folks rented space at the Silver Springs Fleamarket in Cumberland County in Central Pennsylvania. The entrepreneurs sold t-shirts. Suddenly an army of well-armed cops attacked them. Cops are the epitome of the American Way: bullying oppression! The battalion of police strung yards of their yellow "crime scene" warning ribbon. vendors. They handcuffed the terrified little vendors. There, in front of the throngs of shoppers, the cops made a spectacle of demeaning the people. In the American Way demeaning and humiliating people is very important. Even more important is the self-importance of cops. The American Way is abuse by those in authority. The Cumberland County cops fingerprinted the "criminals" right there at the busy fleamarket and forced them to hold numbers under their chins as they mug shotted them. The American Way is that a person who is suspected of a "crime" is guilty. Being charged in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania is equivalent to being convicted. One of the women operating a nearby fleamarket stand ventured too close. She tried to ask what the cops were doing. The bullie menaced and threatened her. The American Way is for cops to be thugs, hot servants. The American Way is that the citizen is dirt, especially if he or she is a "perpetrators." And what was the supposed crime of these struggling oriental immigrants? It was possible that they might have been selling "counterfeited" sports logos on their t-shirts. Now there's a high crime which justifies a raid by an army of armed cops! But, there's more. Some vendor in a neighboring stall was selling a cigarette lighter which doubled as a pocketknife. He was busted too. Rebecca was right. This real-life incident is a fine example of the American Way. By far the worst "criminals" in the country are the cops, the authority figures, the government which has you suckers fooled. More than fifty years ago, as a boy, I cut the grass at an apparently deserted house on a sedate suburban street near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. At the time I thought that it was a little strange that a half a dozen men in suits occupied the house behind drawn blinds and bolted doors. Much later I discovered that they were the FBI spying on one of our neighbors whose politics the government didn't like. It's the American Way. More to the point, it's still the American Way. Bet the farm that the cops are spying on you. In a minute they'll be breaking out the yellow crime scene tape - see y'a, sucker! You don't even know who your enemy is!