A Charge to Keep

[Xenu]

I just had to read this (Bush's 1999 book) for a class. I'm about halfway through at present. My thoughts:

a) You can tell a Bush book is ghostwritten if you can spot a semicolon.

b) Almost ALL of the Bush inconsistencies are on painful display early on in the book. For example, he's all for personal accountability, for "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps," yet this doesn't jibe at all with his accounts of Andover and beyond. He speaks of his faith allowing him to do the "right" thing, even when it isn't popular.

c) The "society's deconstruction" narrative is out in full force. Liberal judges have destroyed the fabric of society; this is not, Bush implies, the world he grew up in. Children are having babies! (I found this to be particularly odd. He doesn't tend to use the phrase "teenage pregnancy," preferring instead to rail against "kids having babies." If one didn't know of his anti-abortion stance, this odd inconsistency could provide a lot of intrigue). All of the old 80s bogeyman--crack and general drug-use, inner-city superpredators (whom he calls, first and foremost, "fatherless and godless"...tactful!)--make a reappearence. Frankly, I almost prefer postmodernist denial of historical narrative to the constant reminder that the world sucks more than it did in some golden, Rockwell past. Indeed, most of Bush's philosophy seems to hinge on the idea that we've been led astray. This is nothing new.

d) Bush goes out of his way to make Dad and Mom seem all cuddly. I guess Dad is just the most cuddly former CIA guy around.

etc. It's kind of like the proto-Hannity; inoffensive, and clearly appealing to a different audience, yet the seeds of the mind-games are there. I don't care how sincere Bush is in his religious beliefs; I can see easily how the rest of the world might distrust the rhetoric of a man whose personal (by which I mean whomever happens to be giving it to him at any given point) interpretation of God's word trumps IR and diplomacy concerns.