[Mb-civic] Entries for a Devil ¹ s Dictionary of the Bush Era

[Michael Butler]

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Entries for a Devil¹s Dictionary of the Bush Era

This post can be found at http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2288

For the last few years we have been ruled by lexicographers. Never has an
administration spent so much time creating, defining, or redefining terms,
perhaps because no one (since George Orwell) has grasped the power and
possibility that lay hidden in plain sight in the naming and renaming of
words. In a sense, our post-9/11 moment began with two definitions: The Bush
administration named our global enemy "terrorism" and called the acts that
followed a "war," which was soon given the moniker "the global war on
terror" (later reduced to the acronym GWOT, also known as World War IV),
which was then given an instant future -- being defined as a "generational
struggle" that was still to come. All this, along with "war" itself, was
simply announced rather than officially "declared."

Given that we were (by administration definition) at war, it should have
been self-evident that those we captured in our "war" on terrorism would
then be "prisoners of war," but no such luck for them, since their rights
would in that case have been clearly defined in international treaties
signed by the United States. So the Bush administration opened its Devil's
Dictionary and came up with a new, tortured term for our new prisoners,
"unlawful combatants," which really stood for: We can do anything we want to
you in a place of our choosing. For that place, they then chose Guantánamo,
an American base in Cuba (which they promptly defined as within "Cuban
sovereignty" for the purposes of putting our detention camps beyond the
purview of American courts or Congress, but within Bush administration
sovereignty -- the sole kind that counted with them -- for the purposes of
the Cubans).

In this way, we moved from a self-declared generational war against a method
of making war to a world of torture beyond the reach of, or even sight of,
the law in a place that (until the Supreme Court recently ruled otherwise)
more or less didn't exist. All this was then supported by a world of
pretzeled language constantly being reshaped in the White House Counsel's
office, the Justice Department, and the Pentagon so that reality would have
no choice but to comply with the names given it.

The way gunmen once reached for their six-guns, so the various legal and
other counselors of this administration reach for their dictionaries. The
lawyer-authors of the various tortured memos about torture that came out of
the White House Counsel's office and the Justice Department, for instance,
expended much effort acted as if they were part of a panel for a new edition
of some dictionary. Here are just a couple of examples along their tortuous
path to redefining responsibility for the inflicting of pain:

    "The word 'profound' has a number of meanings, all of which convey a
significant depth. Webster's New International Dictionary 1977 [2nd ed. 1935
defines profound as...]"

    "The word Œother' modifies Œprocedures calculated to disrupt profoundly
the senses.' As an adjective, Œother' indicates that the term or phrase it
modifies is the remainder of several things. See Webster's Third New
International Dictionary 1598 (1986) (defining Œother' as Œthe one that
remains of two or more') Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 835
(1985) (defining Œother' as Œbeing the one (as of two or more) remaining or
not included')."

It seems they sat surrounded by the Webster's New International Dictionary
(sometimes the 1935 edition, sometimes later ones), the American Heritage
Dictionary, and the Oxford English Dictionary, medical dictionaries, and who
knows what else, as they decided just how much pain wasn't actually pain for
the benefit of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the President.

While they consulted piles of dictionaries and other reference materials to
draw the pain out of a global torture regime, their true definitional focus
was on removing all fetters, all checks and balances, from George W. Bush's
power as president. Since we were "at war," they did so, in large part, by
highlighting the role of our "war President" as commander-in-chief; and then
redefining what his "wartime" powers would be. Their definitional goal: To
place presidential power (in the form of the powers of the
commander-in-chief to prosecute war) in a kind of constitutional Guantánamo;
that is, beyond the "sovereignty" of any other powers in the American
political system, thus removing from Bush and his subordinates any
responsibility for acts he may have ordered committed. In the process, they
redefined torture so narrowly that it became the definitional property of
the torturer.

This unfortunately is but part of our unfinished journey through the
language of the Bush era. Every day brings new and strange "wonders," the
equivalent of the news of bizarre creatures and weird races -- the
Cynocephali (dog-headed men), the Anthropophagi (whose heads were said to
grow beneath their shoulders), the Blemmyae (with faces on their breasts),
and the Sciopods (swift one-legged creatures)-- brought back to Europe by
Medieval travelers. To take but a single example, the newest National
Security document (pdf file) out of the Pentagon redefines the category of
Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMD (which itself blunted the
world-destroying impact of nuclear weapons by sweeping them into a larger
category of potential weaponry) with a new acronym WMD/E:

    "The term WMD/E relates to a broad range of adversary capabilities that
pose potentially devastating impacts. WMD/E includes chemical, biological,
radiological, nuclear, and enhanced high explosive weapons as well as other,
more asymmetrical 'weapons'. They may rely more on disruptive impact than
destructive kinetic effects. For example, cyber attacks on US commercial
information systems or attacks against transportation networks may have a
greater economic or psychological effect than a relatively small release of
a lethal agent."

Soon, in addition to going to war with "terrorism" (al Qaeda) and "rogue
nations" (Iraq), it seems that we will be able to go to "war" with
cyber-hackers, a generational battle which will undoubtedly be known as the
Global War on Computer Hackers (GWOCH)

Recently, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation magazine, has been
focusing on Bush-administration-speak in the on-line columns she writes at
her Editor's Cut weblog. She's been attempting to demystify what she calls
"a veritable Orwellian Code of encrypted language." Her definitions are
amusing, biting, and on target. ("Neoconservatives, n. Nerds with Napoleonic
complexes.") At some point, she opened her column up to Nation readers and
now plans to put together a Republican Dictionary out of the various
definitions that are coming in.

I thought that Tomdispatch might lend a hand and so asked a number of
Tomdispatch writers if they would contribute their own Bush-era definitions.
You'll see the results below -- along with a few definitions of my own --
directly from the "pens" of Rebecca Solnit, Chalmers and Sheila Johnson,
Arlie and Adam Hochschild, and Nick Turse among others (including one
definition sent in by Bill Moyers; admittedly, not as yet a Tomdispatch
writer but nonetheless brought in to bat clean-up). Should Tomdispatch
readers care to enter the fray and submit definitions for possible use in
the Nation's future book, Katrina vanden Heuvel suggests that you send them
to webeditor at thenation.com or click here and fill out the form. (In either
case, put "GOP dictionary" in the subject line.)

A small Tomdispatch treat: Joshua Brown, who does the on-line cartoon series
Life During Wartime, has prepared a set of visual definitions especially for
this dispatch to go with the verbal ones below. (Unfortunately, my site
can't post images, so you'll have to click to his.)

When asked if he would like to submit a Bush-era definition or two, Noam
Chomsky replied, "I suspect that I'll have to fall back on Mark Twain's
despair when trying to satirize General Funston: 'No satire of Funston could
reach perfection, because Funston occupies that summit himself....[he is]
satire incarnated.'" (General Frederick N. Funston was a commander of part
of the American expeditionary force that crushed the Philippine independence
movement as the twentieth century began.)

Herewith, then, entries (or are they entrees?) for a modern Devil's
Dictionary (with a small bow to Ambrose Bierce). Tom

JOSHUA BROWN

Click here for the definitions in Joshua Brown's "My First Book of
Government."

TOM ENGELHARDT

Homeland n: A term successfully used by the Germans and the Soviets in World
War II, less successfully (and in the plural) by Apartheid-era South Africa.
It means neither home, nor land, has replaced both country and nation in
American public speech, and is seldom wielded without the companion word
"security." It is the place to which imperial forces return for R&R.

Homeland Security: synonymous with Homeland insecurity.

Homeland Security Department: The new Defense Department, known for
declaring bridges yellow and the Statue of Liberty orange.

Homelandism n: a neologism for love of the Homeland Security State as in,
"My Homeland, Œtis of thee, sweet security state of libertyŠ"

Intelligence n: What Dick Cheney wants and the CIA must provide -- or else.
(See, Iraq, weapons of mass destruction)

Nationalism n: How foreigners love their country (when they do). A very
dangerous phenomenon that can lead to extremes of passion, blindness, and
xenophobia. (See, Terrorism)

Oil n: 1. Black gold. 2. (defunct acronym) Operation Iraqi Liberation or OIL
(name changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF, without explanation). 3. What
the Bush administration wasn't after in Iraq and isn't after in Iran. (See,
Democracy)

Patriotism n: How Americans love their country. A trait so positive you
can't have too much of it, and if you do, then you are a super-patriot which
couldn't be better. (Foreigners cannot be patriotic. See, Nationalism)

Pentagon n: Formerly, the Defense Department, but since we now have a new
defense department (see, Homeland Security Department), soon be renamed the
Global Forward Deployment Department or GFDD (Ge-Fudd). Its forward-deployed
headquarters will be established in a two-sided building, the Duogon, now
being constructed in Bahrain out of sand imported from the beaches of Texas
by Halliburton subsidiary KBR. From there, it plans to rule the known world.

ARLIE HOCHSCHILD

Environmental Protection Agency: Economic Predators Inc.

Homeland Security Advisory System: Color-coded program for emotional
destabilization.

Leave No Child Behind: Social class divide maintenance system

ADAM HOCHSCHILD

Senate n: Exclusive club, entry fee $10 to $30 million.

House of Representatives: Exclusive club, entry fee $1 to $5 million.

Washington Press Corps: Extension of White House and Pentagon press offices.

CHALMERS AND SHEILA JOHNSON

Stuff Happens: Donald Rumsfeld as master historian.

March of Freedom Around the World: John Negroponte's career.

Shock and Awe: A classic combination like "surf and turf"; special effects
produced at missile point by the U.S. military. (See, State Terrorism).

BILL MOYERS

"Burning Bush": A biblical allusion to the response of the President of the
United States when asked a question by a journalist who has not been paid to
inquire.

JONATHAN SCHELL

Republican Party: A party that assails the foundations of the Republic,
attacking the balance and separation of powers (See, Assertions of
Untrammeled Presidential Authority -- to violate domestic and international
laws forbidding torture); habeus corpus (See, Assertion of Right to Lock
Away "Enemy Combatants" Forever -- without due process of law); and
federalism (See, Legislative and Executive Rampage -- to overturn state
court decisions in the Terry Schiavo case).

ORVILLE SCHELL

Strategic Competitor (China branch): Containing China militarily while using
it as an industrial park for outsourcing low-paying and often polluting
industries.

MICHAEL SCHWARTZ

Democracy n: A country where the newspapers are pro-American.

Public Opinion Polls: Progress reports for spin doctors.

STEPHEN SHALOM:

Checks and Balances. The system whereby the campaign checks of the few
balance the interests of the many.

Free Speech Zone The area to which those who differ from the administration
are confined should they be so audacious as to wish to exercise their right
of free speech.

Free Press: 1. Government propaganda materials covertly funded with a
quarter of a billion dollars of taxpayer money but given out for free to the
press and then broadcast without any acknowledgment of the government's role
in their preparation. 2. Newspapers that obscure the truth on behalf of
corporate and government interests for free.

Town-hall Meeting: A meeting in a hall in a town where all the participants
have first been vetted for loyalty to the Bush administration.

Mandate: 1. The opinion expressed by about a quarter of the eligible voters.
2. The opinion reflected in an electoral-vote margin smaller than in any
20th century election other than 1916 and 2000. 3. The opinion expressed by
the smallest popular vote margin obtained by a sitting president since 1916.

REBECCA SOLNIT

China: See WalMart.

Death n: An increasingly rare phenomenon, no longer occurring among soldiers
of the U.S. army or civilians in affected countries. However, the media
reports that death is still caused by lone gunmen and over-consumption of
saturated fats as well as natural disasters.

Democracy n: 1. A product so extensively exported that the domestic supply
is depleted. 2. When they vote for us. (See, tyranny: When they vote for
someone else.)

Liberal adj: Widely used after the words progressive, radical, left,
revolutionary, and insurrectionary were banned from the mainstream media,
having the double benefit of making moderates seem vaguely dangerous and
making revolutionaries seem vaguely embarrassing and ineffectual. Liberal
media: Ted Koppel and anarchist zines.

Negroponte, John: Good diplomat, in the sense that Pol Pot is a good
family-planner.

Ownership Society: You no longer own your national parks, your public
transit, your commons, your government, your Bill of Rights, or your future,
but you may purchase a Burger King franchise or some stocks with your
WalMart earnings.

Peace n: What war is for.

Security n: Something to be applied to the homeland but not to the social.

Social Security: A good idea except for two problems: Social verges on
socialism and guarantees of security violate a free market.

The Marketplace of Ideas: Buy low, sell high.

WalMart: The nation-state, future tense.

NICK TURSE

Abuse n: Modern word for what was once referred to as torture. An interim
term, soon to be replaced by "tough love" (which, in turn, is expected to be
replaced by "freedom's caress").

Mullah n: 1. (archaic) Religious teacher or leader, a title of respect in
Islamic countries, pronounced "mull-a." 2. (informal) In the modern
presidential vernacular, a title of disrespect (pronounced "moo-lah") in
reference to Muslims deemed too fanatical to be bought-off by American
"moo-lah."

Rummy slang: 1. (archaic) A person so drunk he can't recall a thing. 2.
(modern) A SECDEF so drunk on power that he refuses to remember anything.

Support the Troops: A mandatory mantra which need no longer be mouthed since
full "support" can be offered with a simple $1 investment in a magnetic
yellow ribbon to affix to the back of your SUV.

CHIP WARD

Healthy Forests: Forests made safe from the ravages of nature, i.e. bugs and
fires, by removal to pulp mills and lumber yards.

Wilderness n: 1. Publicly owned former habitat for wildlife, often
endangered, where private corporations go wild drilling for oil and gas,
grazing cattle, logging, and building roads. 2. Off-road vehicle theme parks
characterized by abundant stumps, oil slicks, tire tracks, flattened owls,
and coughing caribou.

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posted March 28, 2005 at 12:06 am
     
             
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