December, 2003 —

The brilliance of George W. Bush is that he has matched his own short-sightedness with the short memory of Americans.

It doesn't really matter if what President Bush does actually makes sense at the time that he does it. People will forget, and the mass consciousness is highly susceptible to suggestion. True everywhere, but true in a special, American way. America, raised on mass consciousness.

America, so young. American soldiers capture Saddam Hussein, and the popular media display this as a vindication of Bush's war in Iraq. Americans celebrate the downfall of a bad man, parade him as a ("not technically-") prisoner of war, and show him having his teeth examined, like a dog.

This is a big political boost, and a "great day for America" (says the father—the son says "for the people of Iraq, Dad.")

Nobody seems to notice that this is not bin Laden at all, but some cheap crackpot dictator.

—22 December, 2003 Nijmegen, The Netherlands

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