So this morning I am reading Wired.com and come across an article "What Is the Ultimate Apocalypsemobile". I am assuming that there are going to be references to Mad Max and descriptions of how to modify cars for what the author and many others fear is a coming world struggling with a lack of oil.

And as far-fetched as this scenario is to some, the author Joe Brown just couldn't resist seeing the Devil at work:

Through both his environmental and foreign policy, George W. Bush has set in motion events that will likely destroy the world as we know it. Our land will cease to support life, our cities will become havens for gangs of the violent undead and we will all be forced out into the scorched wasteland to fend for ourselves, looting gas stations for canned goods, stockpiling water and food.

Don't forget Joe, that when children cry anywhere in the world, it is because of Bush.

One could say that Joe is obviously using hyperbole for an amusing story about wandering zombies and finding just the right car for navigating the post-apocalyptic wasteland. So then why does he find the need to very carefully document Bush's "crimes against humanity" with his hyperlinks? At some level, Joe actually believes this (and Joe isn't alone in this belief).

I am no fan of Bush. While I voted for him, I regret doing so. His has been a failed presidency. I wouldn't vote for him again. I will be very happy to see him step down.

That being said, to suggest that Bush is single-handedly responsible for all environmental degradation and all conflicts and violence around the world is to be ignorant of history and beholden to a certain kind of religious fervor. Political ideologies often become religions when such faith and trust is put into an ideological meta-narrative that allows no heresy from the core beliefs.

It is for this reason that both sides in the culture war in American desire to paint their opponents in the worst possible light, seeing only demons at work among the opposition. Just listen to a hard-core Republican or Democrat talk about the bogey-man of the opposition (Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Obama, etc) and notice how prevalent is the strongly moralistic language of good and evil.

Next time Joe, I would instead suggest the imagery of Thunderdome: "Two Men Enter, One Man Leave".

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