Surrealism without magic

By David Brooks

From the Mexican newspaper La Jornada

A young man faces life in prison for the crime of informing his people of what their government does in their name; another prefabricated crisis flogs the country; a cardinal who covered up the worst sins imaginable will vote for the next representative of Jesus Christ; a couple of states try to leave the 19th Century behind, and a tattooed former basketball player makes a diplomatic maneuver in North Korea.

These are just some of the events of recent days that prove that surrealism is alive and well in America.

Bradley Manning said last week that he leaked the official secret documents to Wikileaks to trigger a public debate on his government’s bellicose military and diplomatic policies. It seems that there is no worse crime than to inform the people of what their government does in their name, as this, according to the highest authorities, is "aiding the enemy".

According to Manning, now 25 years old, the public had the right and need to learn the truth ñ potential war crimes ñ behind the official rhetoric. For that crime he was treated "inhumanely and cruelly", according to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Torture.

The U.S. government constantly promotes "transparency" and freedom of expression, and the rights of dissidents in other parts of the world (Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, some Arab countries, but not among their allies), but when someone dares to do so here, he apparently is guilty of treason.

Meanwhile, the spectacle of another crisis manufactured by the political leadership will be paid by hundreds of thousands of workers around the country. Here there is no natural disaster, a failure of the economic model, the collapse of an industry or an international disaster, but a crisis that erupts in a manner designed and timed by the political leadership of both parties.

The automatic cuts in the federal budget that took effect last Friday resulted from a bipartisan agreement in 2011 between the White House and the Legislature that a lack of consensus to address the fiscal deficit would trigger a series of federal spending cuts that supposedly would be unacceptable to both sides. In other words, they formulated a mutual nightmare to ensure an agreement.

The nightmare came and Obama stressed that all that was unnecessary and that "this is not a win for anyone and is a loss for the American people." The White House assumes that the effects of the cuts will create greater public pressure on Republicans to agree. The Republicans are betting that the defense of their alleged "principle" of not allowing more taxes without major cuts will work politically.

But all they managed, for now, is to make clear to the public the fundamental dysfunction of their leadership, although no politicians will lose their jobs or personally suffer the consequences of the cuts. That will be the price for hundreds of thousands of workers who depend on the federal budget, as they taste the austerity recipe has worked so well for Europeans, right?

Although, ironically, this crisis also has positive consequences, such as the first cuts in military spending in years and the release of thousands of illegal immigrants detained in places like Arizona for lack of resources.

Speaking of institutions in crisis, Cardinal Roger Mahony, Catholic leader of Los Angeles, is in Rome for the conclave that will select the next official representative of Jesus Christ on earth, even though he is guilty of covering up for years the sexual abuse of children by priests in his diocese.

Now, very morally, he will meet with other world Catholic leaders to elect the next pope. He will not be alone in this area, since at least a dozen of his colleagues have also been tainted for covering up similar scandals worldwide, including the dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, accused of accepting huge monetary gifts from the Legionaries of Christ and thwarting an investigation into the founder of that order, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, reports The New York Times. Apparently, Jesus ñ well, at least the Vatican ñ  forgives everything.

In more mundane matters, a couple of weeks ago Mississippi formally voted to approve the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides for the abolition of slavery, 148 years after the Civil War ended.

An immigrant from India, Dr. Ranjan Batra, of the Medical Center of the University of Mississippi, prompted this action after seeing the movie "Lincoln," which placed in doubt the result of the ratification process. Batra investigated and discovered that his adopted state had never abolished slavery formally.

Another state, whose official slogan is "Virginia is for lovers," is perhaps not the most loving place. State lawmakers are trying to repeal an old law that prohibits the cohabitation of an unmarried couple, because that is defined as a "lascivious" act.

But that’s not the only thing that remains in the state legal code to preserve "morality and decency", reports The Richmond Times-Dispatch. There are laws against "fornication" between unmarried couples, and oral sex is prohibited by the laws that regulate "crimes against nature," even between heterosexual married couples.

Meanwhile, internationally, Dennis Rodman, the professional basketball player who 10 years ago was known as much for his defensive talent as for his multi-colored hair and tattoos and his madcaps on and off the court, became one of the first Americans to personally meet the leader of North Korea. With diplomats like him, the world will be much safer.

Pure surrealism, but nothing magical.