Brain Envy?

Could there be a secret motivation behind President G.W. Bush’s condemnation of various other national leaders as “evil”?

Could it be brain envy?

George II is stupid, as sensitive as a fencepost, and as articulate as a hog. If given a choice he would no doubt prefer to see himself in the role of the fraudulent wizard in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” who thrived on lies and special effects, than in the role of the scarecrow who begged the wizard to supply him with a brain, but I see Bush in both characters – the fraud and the brainless scarecrow.




It occurred to me that Bush, like the scarecrow of Oz, might envy those who actually have brains. I asked myself if he comes up with ridiculous slanders like “evildoers” and “Axis of Evil” because he lies awake at night wishing he had the brains and creativity of the men he makes his enemies?

I looked up the intellectual achievements of the leaders whom Bush loves to hate as best I could in a short time, and I offer you the results today. Meanwhile, I tried to find comparable information about Bush: He was a cheerleader at Philips Academy. At Yale (entry courtesy of his super rich father), he was “an average student” at best. His known writing consists of a letter to his father from Yale: “Dear Dad, can you spere another $1000 to get me through the month?” His presidential speeches are written by other people, and he has demonstrated that he has difficulties even reading the words and sentences aloud correctly. If he attempts to make a statement extemporaneously he produces a frightening impression of an open-mouthed bullfrog staring at a car’s headlights.

By comparison, here are those he envies:


HUGO CHAZEZ, President of Venezuela

Hugo Chavez, before becoming President of Venezuela, had a professional military career in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel; he held a series of teaching and staff positions at the Military Academy of Venezuela, where he was praised for his fiery lecturing style.

He is the author of several short stories and poems: "Vuelvan Caras" (published in “El Nacional” newspaper, to which many of the recognized Venezuelan writers have contributed written works), "Mauricio", and "El Genio y el Centauro" (theatrical work which won third place on the National Historical Theater prize in Cañafístola, in 1987.) He wrote a famous poem dedicated to the late Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Acosta Carles, who was one of the founders of Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200. In addition to his writing, Chávez has also sculpted, producing such works as the 1980 “Sombra de Guerra en el Golfo” ("Shadows of War in the Gulf").

I think there is more wit, intelligence, and sincerity in one of his speeches – for which he is himself responsible -- than in all of Bush’s mechanical utterances since he went into politics. One of my favorites is Chavez’s address to the U.N. General Assembly in September 2006, from which this is taken:

‘Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals . . . this is one of his most recent books, “Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States." [Holds up the book and waves it. Here already is a striking contrast to G.W. Bush, who has never voluntarily picked up a book.] "It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. . . .

‘I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.

‘The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.

‘And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." [Crosses himself.] "And it smells of sulfur still today." Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.’

KIM JONG-IL, National Leader of North Korea

G.W. Bush made Kim Jong-il a charter member of the Bush “Axis of Evil” -- a ludicrous bit of verbiage which in itself is a glaring revelation of childish stupidity. Some say that Kim Jong-il was given the honor simply because Bush’s puppetmasters wanted to distract attention from the obvious fact that the other two members of the Axis – Iraq and Iran --were named because Israel wanted them destroyed.

Although he has been routinely smeared by Bush and the U.S. propaganda machine, Kim Jong-il has in real life shown himself to be infinitely more intelligent and creative person than the American president.




Kim Jong-il has always had more than a mere viewer’s interest in films. He is the author of book titled “On the Art of the Cinema”. It is alleged – but disputed -- that in 1978 he ordered the "kidnapping" of famous South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choe Eun-hui in order to build a North Korean film industry. Whether the couple came voluntarily or were “kidnapped”, one might say that Kim Jong-il’s heart was in the right place – a promoter of the arts who would go to great lengths to realize his dreams.

In 2006 he was personally involved in the production of the movie “Diary of a Girl Student”, depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists. Kim "improved its script and guided its production".



Additionally, Kim Jong-il has written a book on the “Art of Opera”, and has written an opera himself, “The FlowerGirl”, the tale of a saintly peasant girl. Early in the film her family is beaten up by a greedy landlord. In what Kim describes as his favorite moment, peasants look toward the nighttime sky and reflect on how the moon, though seen by everyone, might find some people miserable and others happy.

I’m going to quote passages from a published book, and I will leave it to you to decide whether G.W. Bush or Kim Jong-Il wrote it:

"Language is extremely important in literature. Words must be filled with meaning and should always be clear and easy to understand. A lengthy crude or intricate jumble of difficult words which lack real meaning is quite useless."

"Just as form is inconceivable to content, so is content without form. The content determines and restricts the form and the form follows and expresses the content. The content can only be expressed correctly thru an appropriate form and a good form that suits the content positively reacts back on the latter by expressing it clearly."

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, President of Iran

Ahmadinejad is another leader in the “Axis of Evil”. The son of a blacksmith, he took Iran's national university entrance exams to gain admission into one of Iran's top universities. His test score ranked him 132nd among more than 400,000 participants that year. He studied engineering and received his doctorate in engineering and traffic transportation planning. He has taught engineering at a university where he studied. Someone wrote in a blog, “He was the teacher everybody likes--friendly, laid back, cheerful, and an easy grader! He taught my cousin's traffic engineering course, while his bodyguard would sit outside.” Ahmadinejad has taught Ph.D. candidates as well as undergraduates, thus showing, unlike Bush, that he actually learned something in school.

Ahmadinejad’s attitude toward his personal safety and comfort also contrasts strongly with that of George W. Bush. When Iraq attacked Iran, Ahmadinejad rushed off to fight on the western front rather than seeking safety at home. Even after he was elected president, Ahmadinejad continued living in a simple apartment flat and ate meals in his office which were brought from home.

In spite of his engineering orientation, President Ahmadinejad has shown an interest in poetry, saying that poetry is the emotional expression of justice-seeking, God-worshiping, and love as the three divine and human exalted values. He discussed the importance of poetry and exalted values in addressing a group of scholars attending a seminar in Tehran to honor Iranian classical poet Beedel Dehlavi.

The impressive display of honesty and articulate reasoning in Ahmadinejad’s speeches, as well as in the long essay-letters he has sent to Bush pleading the cause of peace and cultural understanding, greatly outdoes anything even Bush’s speechwriters have been able to come up with. Indeed, they couldn't even come up with a reply to Ahmadinejad's historic letters.


SADDAM HUSSEIN, former president of Iraq, murdered by G.W. Bush.



The third, and now departed, member of the “Axis of Evil”, Saddam Hussein, wrote four novels, the best known of which are “Zabibah and the King” (2000) and “The Fortified Castle” (2002). “Begone, Demons” was his fourth and last novel, finished the day before U.S forces invaded his country on false pretenses, One of his daughters managed to get the manuscript out of Iraq, and it was published in Japan in 2006 under the title, “Devil’s Dance”. In case you wonder why it hasn’t been published in the United States, “Begone, Demons” revolves around a Zionist-Christian conspiracy against Arabs and Muslims.



“Saddam appreciates and promotes Iraqi poetry, art and literature,” according to Abdul Wahid, a famous Iraqi poet, who believes that had Saddam not become a politician, he could have been a professional literary critic or a writer.

Even while in American captivity, Saddam wrote poetry. In these short excerpts he was addressing the people of Iraq:

“Unbind your soul. It is my soul mate and you are my soul's beloved.
No house could have sheltered my heart as you have.
. . . .
We never kneel or bend when attacking
But we even treat our enemy with honor. “


George Bush certainly couldn’t have written that, especially the last line.