Paul J. Balles draws on recent US behaviour to argue that the “anomalies of the Western mind are the strongest evidence available of an advanced mental illness” and that, “without medication, America could eventually self-destruct from anomaly overload”.
"We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly."– Margaret Atwood
An anomaly is something or someone that deviates from the norm. Birth defects are anomalies. For instance, a computer technician I knew had six fingers on one hand. An unusual person can be considered an anomaly if he or she seems to belong to another age or whose behaviour is very different from others. Misfits, deviants, eccentrics and crazies are all anomalies.
Anomaly 1:
An American president bombs a country to smithereens in a campaign dubbed "shock and awe”, invades, and occupies the country. This cost over 4000 American lives and more than a million Iraqi lives.
Then one man – a journalist – finds an opportunity for retribution: during a press conference, the Iraqi manages to throw two shoes at the American president as he announces that the Americans will finally begin to leave after eight years of occupation.
The Iraqi shouts, "This is your farewell kiss, you dog," as he throws the first shoe. When he throws the second, he shouts, "This is for all the widows and orphans."
The anomaly? It was all too much retribution for the American puppet Iraqi government who beat up the journalist and threw him in jail.
Anomaly 2:
During a hearing at the Douglasville Municipal Court, Georgia, a woman was arrested and jailed when she refused to remove her hijab. The court had "a policy of no headgear".
The anomaly? You can bet your sweet afterthoughts that if the headgear was the type worn by a religious Sikh or a Catholic nun or a Jew with a yarmulke, the "no no" would have been transformed into perfectly acceptable dress.
Anomaly 3:
Aung San Suu Kyi is the anomaly of the powerful woman. Strong enough to remain in her country because of her dedication to her people when her husband was dying of cancer in the UK, the democracy activist is the thorn in the Myanmar regime.
Injustice is on full display in Rangoon with the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi on spurious charges of violating the terms of her house arrest. She allowed a visitor who was too sick to travel to stay over in the house where she is under house arrest.
The anomaly? The West, ready to invade, occupy, bomb other countries does nothing to upset the Myanmar regime, no matter how long they keep Aung San Suu Kyi imprisoned or under the regime's control.
More anomalies:
Arbitrary US veto of every UN resolution against Israel atrocities, no matter how many countries vote for the resolutions and no matter how inhuman the Israeli action may be.
Unwilling to be subjected to the International Court of Justice. The International Court is for everyone except Americans. Concepts like equality and civil rights are anomalous when it comes to superior powers like America or Israel.
Refusal to accept the Kyoto accords to save the environment. The US occasionally offers lip service to the importance of saving the planet's eco system, as long as that doesn't cut into the profits of corporate America. That's anomalous behaviour.
Perhaps the most anomalous of all behaviour: the US provides the armaments used by the Israelis to commit savage raids on Gaza. George Galloway returns from delivering an aid convoy to Gaza. While there, he sees American-made missiles that destroyed a mosque full of children.
The anomalies of the Western mind are the strongest evidence available of an advanced mental illness. Without medication, America could eventually self-destruct from anomaly overload.
Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.
