A Roller Coaster of a Ride of a Fairy Tale | United States |Axisoflogic.com

In the Age of the Twitter King, it would behoove us to revisit the Realm of the man dubbed (or should we say, Dubyaed) Bush’s Brain:

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

- Karl Rove

Actors, damn straight. So why does the media/society dispose of the likes of Harvey Weinstein (not that he doesn't deserve such treatment, plus some kind of healing treatment) yet continue to tolerate such geo-political megalomania?

Once upon a time, too many times . . .
History News alert: The “now” in “We’re an empire now” implies that it suddenly happened (like a father one day telling his teen, ‘You’re a man, now, son, so behave like one’) but it has been an empire basically from the get-go.

“The foundation of a great Empire is laid, and I please myself with a persuasion, that Providence will not leave its work imperfect.”

- George Washington,
Letter to Chevalier de la Luzerne, August 1, 1786

How empires behave is revealed in the next quote:

“Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power.”

- George Washington,
Letter to John Jay, August 1, 1786 [1]

Thus was sanctioned a so-called godly perfectionism of brute force and militarism. Unlike the more recent batch of presidents only wielding verbal bravado and leaving others to do the dirty work, General Washington had military experience.

The so-called revolution, however, was essentially a transfer of imperial powers, from the British to the USEmpire:

“Altho’ I pretend to no peculiar information respecting commercial affairs, nor any foresight into the scenes of futurity; yet as the member of an infant-empire...”

– George Washington
to Lafayette, 15 August 1786 [2]

(As a lesson in redundancy, note: “foresight into the scenes of futurity”, though perhaps that was more of that white wig actor talk.)

The seasons changed and the years went on and as the infant-empire immatured, it perfected a penchant for hypocrisy and oxymoron (see bold):

“We should then have only to include the north in our Confederacy, which would be of courts in the first war, and we should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the creation.”

- Thomas Jefferson
to James Madison, April 27, 1809 [3]

“The Empire of Liberty is a theme developed first by Thomas Jefferson to identify the responsibility of the United States to spread freedom across the world. Jefferson saw the mission of the U.S. in terms of setting an example, expansion into western North America, and by intervention abroad.” [4]

“Spreading freedom … into western North America” was a passport for genocide and the hastening of the climate chaos we are living through (those lucky enough) at this time.

Riddle us this
However many phrases or quotes one plucks from the evil branches of the historical Tree of Knowledge, one of the keys to understanding Rove's Realm of Creating Other New Realities is in the very word “empire”: from the Latin “imperium” “a rule, a command; authority, control, power; supreme power, sole dominion; military authority; a dominion, realm.” [5]

So how are we to deal with these sleights of phrase, crazed thinking, supremacist dominion, and militaristic brutality? It is challenging enough to fight fairly but when the mirages are given credence, one is hesitant to hit the road. It is not for me to speak for others rather to point to an energy respected and revered universally ― The World Tree or Tree of Life is recognized in many cultures and traditions: “Hinduism, Ancient Iran, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia and Urartu, Jewish sources, Buddhism, China, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i Faith, Latter Day Saint movement, Europe, Georgia, Germanic paganism and Norse mythology, Kabbalah, Mesoamerica, North America, Serrer religion, Turkic.” [6] (And probably more.)

One of the simplest ways to convey the unifying power of trees is a haiku (translation) from the 18th century by Miura Chora:

Every one going into
cherry-blossoms, coming out of
cherry-blossoms

How to be of one mind, even while allowing for minor differences, is a conundrum we are living amidst and it becomes even more difficult if one happens to enter the fantasy land Realm of Creating Other New Realities where disrespect, for what to the ego is a monster called Truth, reigns supreme.

Truth just happens to come from the same word-root as Tree, “deru-” “firm, solid, steadfast.” Whether in a forest of ideas and myths, the rain forest, or anywhere where trees breathe in and out the sacred breaths of life, we must remain firm, solid, and steadfast in the face of magical thinking and fairy tales with no morals.

NOTES:
“1. George Washington Quotes Just after the Revolutionary War”
http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/george-washington-quotes-9.html

2. Founders Online, National Archives Source: The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, vol. 4, 2 April 1786 – 31 January 1787, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 214–216. Page scan at American Memory (Library of Congress)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Washington

3. Lipscomb, Andrew A. and Albert Ellery Bergh, ed. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 12. Washington D.C.: Issued under the auspices of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1903-04, p. 277.)

4.https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/famous-jefferson-quotes

5. https://www.etymonline.com/

6.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life#North_America

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer, he is a small press publisher and Turtle Islander. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”.

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