Empire of Evil

In America, people seem young and healthy, they are constantly eating and smiling; the lights are on at night; and hundreds of TV and radio channels work twenty-four hours a day. Americans are as perfect as gods thanks to sports, aerobics, medicine and plastic surgery that allows them to reconstruct their appearance. To Americans, appearance is an asset: a proof of personal success.

However, a question arises: what price do they pay for such success? How stable is their well-being?

Behind the mask of well-being, democracy, ecology, healthy lifestyle, Puritanism and conflict-free communication they are hiding reactive forms of evil. There is a distinct lack of love and compassion in American society. Self-sufficient and self-satisfied Americans show unexpected cruelty or even a bent for murder. There are faults in the richest economy in the world, in the most perfect equipment or computer networks — remember the electricity system failure, when several states including New York were in complete darkness — whose consequences turn out to be much more significant than natural disasters. Although the recent hurricane Katrina also seemed to have thrown a whole state back into medieval times, paralyzing both local and federal authorities.

But in fact America is threatened by artificially cultivated desires, as well as natural phenomena. Americans used to have the same natural needs as everyone else (I mean, from the times of colonization to the start of the post-war period), and in the course of meeting their needs they faced obstacles, either there was a shortage of goods or a simple ban. Today, the ever-growing needs of consumers are not suppressed; in fact the opposite is true, they are stimulated in every way with all the system and logic of the American economy, whose symbol has become its most desirable brand – The Great American Dream. However, it is paradoxical that, since there are no bans and everything is possible, the average American does not have any aspirations. There is no conflict between “I want” and “I can”. Thus, the natural fear disappears. Undoubtedly, the living standard in America has risen to such a level that the difference between the rich and the poor has become significantly smaller. But the main “achievement” of the American society is that the people have started to value their well-being so highly that they are ready to pay any price, including their freedom. Democracy and order in America today are supported by a sophisticated system of ideological and consumer values, rather than by threats and punishments. Marketing, an applied business discipline, is penetrating all spheres of American life and becoming one of the main instruments of socio-cultural manipulation.

Dostoyevsky, in his famous “Legend of the Great Inquisitor”, foretold the coming of the Antichrist’s reign, which in essence exists in today’s America. It is defined by the absence of spirituality, but the presence of consumania, conformism and mass culture. In the Antichrist’s kingdom the majority of citizens (the silent majority) feel comfortable. However, this is not so safe. The living standard in America has surpassed the border of the heavenly minimum and now they are supposed to pay more attention to culture. But in fact, they don’t have enough time and strength to refuse the consumania and in this consumer race the world has turned into a virtual reality for them. This leads to serious consequences, such as war. The modern American generation lives without the reality of wars, and the fear of the war is transferred from Earth into space or films in the cinema (for example, Star Wars). A world war is virtual reality, it is just pictures shown on CNN or in Hollywood blockbusters…

Americans, who live in a sterile environment, have lost their ability to resist threats or diseases, or to experience a sense of responsibility. They have lost their feeling of guilt – they are looking for causes of any evil or disorder outside. They need images of an enemy, and the authorities supply them with those images regularly via mass media: Bin Laden, Iraq, terrorists. However paradoxical it may sound, while fighting the far-fetched evil, America itself has turned into a real Empire of Evil…