I Cogitate
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Bush Ages But Refuses To Grow Up
Hey, we've all acted petulant at one time or another but most of us realized what we were doing and that our behavior was wrong, We apologized and did our best to grow up.
Alas, not everyone demonstrates such maturity.
Unfortunately, some of these wayward deviants eventually became titans of business.
Sadly, one became president of the United States.
In a May 16, 2004, Mary Jacoby-written Salon article, first year Harvard MBA student George W. Bush, is portrayed as a spoiled, bratty young man who views the world as his personal toy, When what he said and did wasn't automatically deemed as 'absolute truth,' Bush lied, he lashed out and displayed an 'I don't have to explain anything to anyone' insolence. Sound familiar?
It's 2005, has anything changed?
Here are some excerpts from Jacoby's article. Featured are recollections by Yoshi Tsurumi, one of Bush's professors:
"...He (Bush) showed pathological lying habits and was in denial when challenged on his prejudices and biases. He would even deny saying something he just said 30 seconds ago. He was famous for that. Students jumped on him; I challenged him." When asked to explain a particular comment, said Tsurumi, Bush would respond, "Oh, I never said that..."Some may argue that this is not the George Bush they knew at the time, although, over a year later, nobody has rushed to Bush's defense.
...In 1973, as the oil and energy crisis raged, Tsurumi led a discussion on whether government should assist retirees and other people on fixed incomes with heating costs. Bush, he recalled, "made this ridiculous statement and when I asked him to explain, he said, 'The government doesn't have to help poor people -- because they are lazy.' I said, 'Well, could you explain that assumption?' Not only could he not explain it, he started backtracking on it, saying, 'No, I didn't say that...'"
...Bush once sneered at Tsurumi for showing the film "The Grapes of Wrath," based on John Steinbeck's novel of the Depression. "We were in a discussion of the New Deal, and he called Franklin Roosevelt's policies 'socialism.' He denounced labor unions, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Medicare, Social Security, you name it. He denounced the civil rights movement as socialism. To him, socialism and communism were the same thing. And when challenged to explain his prejudice, he could not defend his argument, either ideologically, polemically or academically..."...Students who challenged and embarrassed Bush in class would then become the subject of a whispering campaign by him, Tsurumi said. "In class, he couldn't challenge them. But after class, he sometimes came up to me in the hallway and started bad-mouthing those students who had challenged him. He would complain that someone was drinking too much. It was innuendo and lies. So that's how I knew, behind his smile and his smirk, that he was a very insecure, cunning and vengeful guy..."
...Tsurumi's conclusion: Bush is not as dumb as his detractors allege. "He was just badly brought up, with no discipline, and no compassion," he said..."
Other may argue that George Bush became a different individual years later when he accepted Jesus into his heart.
My contention is that accepting Jesus into his heart aided Bush's sobriety but hasn't penetrated the warped core that has been and continues to be the center from which Bush's loutish behavior emanates.
George Bush wanted to stop drinking. Driving this was that he was informed he needed to do so in order to keep his marriage and family intact. The pressure was on.
He has never expressed or displayed any desire to change other unfavorable aspects of his character because there has been no outside force pressing him to do so. The Bush name and family connections have overrided any need for George Bush to face his lifelong shortcomings.
Therefore, he has retained the other negative aspects of his long term persona: peevishness, vindictiveness, prevaricating, a lack of worldly curiosity. It goes on and on.
Bob Woodward, in his "Bush At War" book, has a very telling quote that demonstrates George Bush's personal stuntedness:
"I'm the commander in chief, see, I don't need to explain, I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting part about being president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."What about truth in advertising? How's my depiction of George Bush campaigning for the presidency: "I am running for the presidency of the United States because I need this position to compensate for my personal frailities. I have no great, uplifting, uniting vision to offer this country. In fact, the axes of my entire life have been insecurity and fear and, if elected, I will take the citizens of this country under my wing and scare them enough to get re-elected. Thank you for your support and God bless."
George Bush has reached the professional pinnacle, one that provides all the 'cover' necessary for his personal demons.
Unfortunately, we and the world pay the price for the weaknesses of this less than fully-formed human being residing in the Oval Office.
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