RUSH: THE JUDGMENT

Now That He's A Victim Too, He Can Finally Tell Us Something

I was going to write this snarky column on the allegations that Rush
Limbaugh is a pill-popper (as well as just being dinged from ESPN for
racism). Wasn't it just delicious that this malicious conservative
firebrand, this master of condemnation, was living in a house of
glass? Wasn't it just the perfect comeuppance that he couldn't hack it
without uppers and downers?

I only had one problem. I just couldn't finish that
piece.

It strikes me that this sad, angry man says more about the tragedy of
America's emotional life than an attack piece could convey. Who is he,
this standard-bearer for anger and hate, and why did he allegedly feel
it necessary to douse his own flames with illicit painkillers? Like
conservative moralist William Bennett, who lost millions of dollars
gambling, Rush Limbaugh may become a symbol of the moral hypocrisy of
the hard right. These two men helped build the frenzy to impeach
President Clinton on charges of lying to the public. But were they
themselves living a public lie?

If the ongoing investigation proves that Limbaugh got his housekeeper
to buy thousands of addictive OxyContin pills illegally, he will join
Bennett as a symbol of right-wing moralists' deadly dual
consciousness. Morality is for the little people and for liberals.
Talking about welfare queens and poverty pimps, not to mention
philandering presidents, excuses your own failings.

In the book The Power of Now, philosopher Eckhart Tolle speaks of a
cycle of identification with the negative aspects of life that hurts
the thinker as much as anyone around him or her. "To complain is
always non-acceptance of what is," Tolle writes. "It invariably
carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make
yourself into a victim."

Conservative complaints about the poor, about liberals, about
"feminazis" are a veiled form of victimology, the very syndrome they
decry. Beset by enemies of his own making, is it any wonder that
Limbaugh could feel the need to turn to powerful drugs for relief?

But before we get too comfortable bashing Limbaugh, we should question
the negativity in our own lives. Individuals on both sides of the
political fence are prone to complaining, to victimology, more than
problem-solving or acceptance. Our collective anger also leads to a
collective need to numb that anger -- hence, the multibillion-dollar
legal alcohol industry as well as the illicit drug trade. This world
is dangerous and beautiful, war-torn and peaceful, the site of both
negative and positive changes. The more that we can see the world for
what it is, the better decisions we'll be able to make.

We must remember that Democrats as well as Republicans voted to
endorse the war in Iraq. Our need for revenge blinded us to the fact
that our actions there truly had little to do with the hurts we'd
suffered on September 11, 2001.

And now, as we seek to deal with the ramifications of the Iraq war,
are we seeing the world as it is or looking for scapegoats? Are we
willing to look clearly at the situation we face, or do we feel the
need to escape? The more we focus on the blame game versus
problem-solving, the more likely we are to self-sabotage by seeking
false relief. Most of us are a little closer to being Rush Limbaugh
than we'd like to admit. If that isn't a scary enough thought to cause
us to evolve, I don't know what is.

The opposite of complaining is not silence. As Tolle writes, "When you
speak out, you are in power. So change the situation by taking action
or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or
accept it. All else is madness." Nor is acceptance the opposite of
change. Acceptance of our situation allows us to see clearly and make
change. If we can see the world as it is, and speak to the necessary
and positive changes we need to implement, we can avoid the trap of
victimology and make America the nation we dream.

Farai Chideya is a columnist for AlterNet