The Nation, Pakistan
America Uses Superman to Promote its Fascist Agenda

By Dr. Haider Mehdi

June 29, 2006
Pakistan - The Nation - Home Page (English)    

It may be news to foreign policy Pundits in Islamabad as well as to the majority of readers that Superman, the highly coveted American film hero, is an expression and a creation of fascist minds rooted in a political culture that epitomizes power and the use of force.

This is so, as Superman alters the nature of reality and creates a reality of his own, which defies human understanding and logic. He also violates every rule of physics and all scientific principles known to humanity. The notion of Superman is based on the idea of a battle between "good vs. evil," from an exclusively American perspective, where the battle always demonstrates an external threat to American society and its people.

In the end, obviously, "good" prevails and America is saved. What could be more virtuous than that? Superman is naturally and invariably a white male, handsome, debonair, brave, moral, and kind, potent, exciting, loving, and capable of generating ecstasy at the touch of a finger. And of course, he is in love with a white female equally kind-hearted, devoted, beautiful, loving, noble, pious, pure, and honorable – and together the pair fights the "evil-doers" to ultimate victory for "good," and lives in love and peace thereafter.

Filmgoers, overwhelmed with the human emotions of goodness and a sense of envy (I wish I were like him) just like the foreign policy Pundits in Islamabad, applaud and go home happily, little realizing that they have all been fooled. The momentary experience of the film is not only an entertainment odyssey - it is in fact a well-planned and well-administered dose of indoctrination into the American ideology of "demon-hunting," "external threats," the use of force and the obsession with power.

No wonder then that at the height of Bush's neo-con-manufactured war on the so-called terrorism of Islamic militants, Superman is back with a "bang" in American movie theaters. "Superman Returns," which opens in the United States this week, is receiving knock-out reviews from critics and is winning over audiences as the latest crime-fighting, evil-smashing, and sincere "Man of Steel."

How else would America express its solidarity with the Bush Administration and its faith-oriented politics? Indeed, the concept of Superman can only be explained by unflinching faith - absolute faith that transcends ideas and is based on unshakable convictions and messianic notions that overwhelm the need for analysis. Superman is absolutely unreal, and yet he is admired for the deeds he performs. It all boils down to the promotion of Bush's fascist doctrine, both inside and outside America.

Superman is not the only entertainment available from American that promotes Bush's agenda of aggression against a self-perceived evil world, which is out to destroy America and its values.

A Los Angeles-based company, Pandemic Studios, has just developed a video game, "Mercenaries 2," which features mercenaries invading Venezuela to guarantee oil supplies for the United States.

The game graphically depicts Caracas being engulfed in flames after aerial bombardment, even depicting the logo of Venezuela's national oil company. Given Venezuela's desire to press for an independent foreign policy and a domestic agenda free of the heavy-handed treatment once meted out by the U.S., the development of "Mercenaries 2" is not accidental. It certainly shows the psychotic and fascist ideas that underlie the fundamentals of American thinking in the contemporary Bush era.

In a remarkable recent article, Professor Adel Safety, UNESCO Chair of Leadership and President of the School of Government at Bahcesehir University, Istanbul , concludes that ideologues of the Bush regime propound fascist ideas without claiming to be fascist.

Here, I will summarize Professor Safety's thesis:

Bush, himself, is driven by an absolute sense of "faith" which overrides rationality and analysis. In doing so, the American President believes that he is ordained to carry out divine will. Referring to the Iraq invasion, Bush told Bob Woodward, "Going into this period, I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will." Absolute religious extremism, isn't it?

Safety's article quotes a summer 2004 issue of Daedalus, in which professor of constitutional law, Sanford Levinson, writes, "… Carl Schmitt , the leading Nazi German philosopher, is the real source of inspiration of the Bush regime." Schmitt held the view that in politics, "the ultimate distinction is between friend and foe. And this comes before … any notion of justice and morality."

Hence, this helps us understand Bush's categorical declaration and demand for absolute submission by other nations to the American foreign policy agenda, for example when he said that nations are either with "us" or with "them," meaning if a nation is not with the U.S., then it is America's enemy. This also illustrates Bush's doctrine of the pre-emptive and unilateral use of force against any actual or perceived adversary. By any measure, this is a truly fascist position to hold in a system of competing nation-states when, at our present stage of human development, the emphasis should be on dialogue and collaborative decision-making.

The analysis offered by Professor Safety explains how Leo Strauss , Professor at the University of Chicago in the 1970s, had a "powerful influence over the thinking of the Bush regime." Strauss, a protégé of Carl Schmitt, has been described as the "Fascist godfather of the neocons."

Strauss's doctrine advocated a truly "Machiavellian approach to politics and foreign policy," completely devoid of morality and ethics. Strauss believed that "a stable political order required an external threat and that if such a threat doesn't exist, one should be manufactured." Safety further states that "Strauss has directly influenced some of the leading ideologues in the Bush administration:

Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the Iraq War, and Abram Shulsky, the director of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, set up by Douglas Feith to produce its own evidence to bolster the case for war. Both Wolfowitz and Shulsky studied under Strauss at the University of Chicago in the 1970s." It is in this framework that a connection between the Bush Administration's thinking and its global foreign policy agenda can be made and explained.

It seems that pundits in Islamabad, the architects of Pakistan's foreign policy, pride themselves on conducting the country's foreign affairs on the basis of Realpolitik. But the issue inherent in Pakistan's contemporary domestic and foreign policy is that it is aligned with the fascist doctrine promoted by the U.S., which is hell-bent on carrying out an agenda aimed at global instability, war, and the promotion of conflict around the world. How can this be justified by Pakistan and its decision makers?

It is obvious that Pakistan is also out of sync in the way it conducts its domestic war against so-called terrorism, when the task is to achieve close human interaction and dialogue to resolve issues between several adversaries. How long will Pakistan continue in this wrong direction?

Indeed, the majority of people around the world, especially the Muslim world, harbir reasonable doubt as to the American version of how 9/11 happened. Similarly, Iraq was most definitely for the purpose of manufacturing enemies for the U.S.

The question that begs an immediate answer and change in course from Pakistan is: How much longer can Pakistan support America's line in the "war on terrorism," which was artificially manufactured by the United States?

It is also clear that a similar doctrine of manufacturing enemies is being followed in Islamabad's corridors power. But the more pressing matter is to find a strategy that will disengage Pakistan from the fraudulent, fascist-oriented ideology of the American regime. Pakistan can no longer afford killing its own people under the pretext of a war on terrorism.

Philosophers since ancient times have maintained that knowledge is power - and the power of knowledge can set us free. It would be instructive for Islamabad's pundits to heed this wisdom.

E-mail: hl_mehdi@hotmail.com