The Great Man theory revisited

It seems the "Great man" theory of history has gotten a new lease on life. Patrick Fitzgerald is the latest great man, and his ascendancy to greatness comes not a moment too soon. His subdued announcement of the indictment of Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff for Dick Cheney, revealed a man of courage, integrity, tenacity, patience, brilliance, and shrewdness - all qualities necessary for a great man. Timing, or luck, of course has a lot to do with it, and Fitzgerald has timing like that of Count Basie.

As Fitzgerald chips away at the Bush regime's hold on power, it will be interesting to watch how the various forces respond, jockey for position, spin, maneuver, posture, fulminate, cooperate, succomb, and opinionate. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh can be counted on for a lot of desperate smearing, lying, distracting, and obfuscating. The network news and analysis shows can be counted on for playing it both ways, testing the winds for direction, and trying to create their own brands of conventional wisdom. Republican politicians can be expected to fulminate, exaggerate, pontificate, and deviate. Democtratic politicians can be expected to posture, commiserate, denounce, and collude. It will be grand spectacle, likely better than Watergate, and stretched out over a longer time period.

Because the forces that still support the Bush crime family are formidable and entrenched, it is better that this process take a long time to play out. Supposed "conservative" ideologues, who are really just a lot of narcissistic, greedy, power obsessed promenaders, will be doing a lot of promenading in the coming months and years, but they will eventually have used up their time of prominence (and prominadence). Various criminal corporations and their echelons of corporate criminals will continue funneling vast amounts of money to Republican coffers, and will continue wreaking havoc upon the planet. The enabling that the Bush crime family has given them is good for a lot of loyalty and loot.

But the great man has arrived, and he also has a lot of support. He has the tide of history as well. The entire planet is hungering for someone to stand up to Bush and his gang of destroyers, for a man of integrity and courage. Day by day, the truth of the last four years will be revealed, and the human species now has a golden opportunity to move toward true civilization.

By contrast the Bush criminal organization is a pretty shoddy one, and they will crumble, possibly faster than did the gang that surrounded Nixon. These are not formidable men. Bush is a brain-damaged drug and alcohol addict, a certifiable military deserter, a ne'er do well corporate criminal, a war criminal, an election thief (twice, maybe three times), the enabler of the worst attack and the worst natural disaster in the history of the nation, and the sponsor of torture and illegal detention worldwide.

His fellow gang members are perhaps smarter than he is, but no less criminal, and they have little experience in the areas of honor, decency, ethics, morality, and courage. Lacking these qualities, they are not well positioned for redeeming their relatively brief tenure in positions of power.

One of the benefits of the emergence of a great man is the "spread" effect of his example. By seeing an actual man of honor and integrity, more and more people become inspired, and are moved to do great things themselves. There is also the shame effect for those who support the criminal power structure. Especially in the context of global warming and environmental degradation, the greed model of human endeavor is likely to fall into extreme disfavor.

So let's cheer up. The great man has arrived, and the Wizard of Oz, Humpty Dumpty, the king who hath no clothes, the pretender to the throne, the idiot king, the psychopath, the homicidal maniac George W. Bush will be gone soon enough. He can take his gang with him when he leaves, and if there is any justice on this planet, they should be breaking rocks in the hot sun for the rest of their lives. For the rest of us, we must make sure this never happens again. We may not get a great man next time.