Update from Kiwi Country

Down here "biscuit" means cookie, not "psychiatric team tasked with helping devise better ways to torture people". I find this quite relaxing, and have been only lackadaisically keeping up with the news from the States. I know that for the health of the blog I should be posting more frequently; "post often, or you'll lose readers," say the "How to Become Atrios in 10 Easy Steps" guides. But it's so nice not to constantly focus on the torture, and the propaganda, and the secrecy, and the abuse of power -- I can see why so many Americans find it more convenient to ignore it all, and pretend that everything's okay, and then look shocked and confused when we say we're thinking of leaving the country.

Kiwis have a certain way of contorting their faces while choosing words to describe what they think of America right now. It's their concession to politeness. They go through their facial contortions to show that they feel pained to have to say what they're planning to say about our home country, and then they say things like "maybe revulsion is perhaps too strong a word" (to which we reply "no, it's really not") and "I don't want to criticize, because it's your country after all..." (to which we reply, "no, go ahead, criticize away!"). I appreciate the politeness; no matter how much you criticize your own country it wears on you to be always immediately attacked for its policies, as happens in many places in Europe. Of course, I am, in part, responsible for my country's policies, and general insanity, and torture, and all of it, but I like a little bit of compassion and sympathy cutting the disgust. We are, after all, down here because we are considering abandoning our country of birth and citizenship. Does this make us anti-American? Do we give aid and comfort to the enemy? Are we cowards, to think of ceding America to the crazy people? "Stay and fight," people tell us. Truth be told, I see very little fighting going on. God, Amy, people say, can't you talk about anything but the torture? While Alberto Gonzales is our Attorney General, no, I cannot. We have promoted the promoters of a policy of inhumanity. We live in a bubble, we Americans, and inside it the most awful things seem acceptable, and the most basic truths seem outlandish fantasies. Outside the country, things look quite different. it's hard to look at America from here. Forgive me, I can't help but make a reference to the movies that made New Zealand famous (even the ordinary atlases here are dotted with little ring icons, marking where particular scenes were shot). We passed through Mordor on the train last week. Without all the orcs, it's beautiful. From here, it's our own country with a pall over it, and Nazgul roaming the skies, and mountains belching smoke. Too bad life is not a fairy tale, and that there's no talisman for us to find, and carry home, and destroy, and save our nation and the world. And would we do it if we could? History shows most people won't. Most of us are weaker than that.