| The character of Charlie Chaplin and the character of | | | | beliefs would claim to be a narcissistic or a sociopathic |
| J. Edgar Hoover offers an insightful glimpse into the | | | | action. For that matter, psychology owes its |
| forces that were formative to American character of | | | | existence to people like Sigmund Freud and Karl Jung |
| 20th century. With Charlie Chaplin, one sees ingenious, | | | | who likewise would be described as possessing the |
| innovative, creative, iconoclastic character that is not | | | | same character. And it is to these people that the |
| afraid to shatter convention in order to show a | | | | modern America person owes not only one's |
| different perspective, reveal facts not frequently | | | | country, but everything that one knows as American |
| known, or give a glimpse of the truth of people's | | | | way of life. |
| lives. With J. Edgar Hoover, we see the invasive, | | | | In 1960s and 1970s, the fix-all solutions was more |
| oppressive, paranoid character that used blackmailing | | | | government. By the time Ronald Reagan ran for |
| and extortion in order to manipulate America's | | | | office in 1980, a case could be made - and was made |
| elected leaders under the stated claim of protecting | | | | - that the government had far outstepped its proper |
| America. | | | | parameters and became the problem rather than the |
| The same characters have been seen in the last two | | | | solution. More recently, the solution for all things was |
| decades of American politics, with the characters of, | | | | more social control, until the same was being applied |
| respectively, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. With Bill | | | | not only to people's actions, but also to people's |
| Clinton, we have seen the greatest economic | | | | minds and personhoods, aiming to control all that |
| prosperity in American history, the first balanced | | | | could be controlled and destroy what couldn't, to the |
| budget in 30 years, an overhaul of the government | | | | point of claiming people criminal by virtue of how |
| to make it efficient and user-friendly, a drastic drop in | | | | they think. The result of this has been unofficial |
| violent crime, international collaboration on matters of | | | | entities far outstepping their proper prerogatives and, |
| common import, and a serious effort toward | | | | as the government of 1970s, becoming a problem in |
| achieving understanding and coexistence between | | | | themselves. These unofficial entities, from old-boy |
| different sections of American society. With Bush, | | | | networks to small country towns to religious |
| we have seen an extra $5 trillion debt, no new jobs, | | | | organizations to practitioners of "personality |
| wrongful wars all around the world, an aggressive | | | | psychology" to self-proclaimed spokespeople for |
| inattention to the climatic disaster facing the world, | | | | society or for America, being unofficial, |
| bullying of all countries resulting in international | | | | unaccountable, unchecked and unbalanced, have the |
| isolation, and an economic collapse. That there was | | | | capacity to commit greater violation against people's |
| much howling about the character of Bill Clinton, but | | | | lives and liberty, and to oppress them in far greater |
| not about the character of George Bush, offers | | | | manner, than the American government is allowed to |
| valuable insight into the character of the people who | | | | do. |
| were behind the said howling and valuable insight as | | | | Empowering these entities resulted in a de facto |
| well into what they describe as their values and | | | | totalitarianism of these entities, along with the |
| which values they wrongfully claim to be the values | | | | predictable and associated abuses: runaway |
| of America and use this false claim to bludgeon | | | | corruption, aggressively enforced similitude at all |
| America and the rest of the world. | | | | levels, destruction of all meaningful liberty, inquisitions |
| In fact, America achieved its greatness through | | | | against ever greater numbers of people, aggressive |
| innovation, ingenuity, and creative thinking. It leapt to | | | | fear-mongering convincing people to give up their |
| the forefront of the world in early 20th century - a | | | | freedom and to destroy freedom in others, and |
| time of scientific and technological ingenuity; a time | | | | subversion of psychology and law enforcement into |
| also of the rejection of the Victorian norms. It is in | | | | participating in these and related crimes against |
| this time that Charlie Chaplin produced most of his | | | | Constitutional law. Until the very freedom, originality, |
| work, and it is in this time that J. Edgar Hoover began | | | | ingenuity and innovation that made America great in |
| his campaign against what made America great. And | | | | the first place became a danger to the power of |
| as the same character, refashioned in different times | | | | these entities and, being falsely portrayed as |
| as psychology or religion or "traditional values" or | | | | "narcissism" or "sociopathy", itself became the target |
| "family values," persisted through later history in | | | | of their wrath. |
| destroying America's genius, it is valuable to examine | | | | In 1990s America, the young people on college |
| this character and its effects on America through its | | | | campuses were faced with a manufactured hysteria |
| history, and examine also its validity as well as its | | | | that brainwashed young women into being afraid of |
| merit to the country. | | | | everything and everyone. This resulted in a state of |
| There is one thing that character voters are right | | | | affairs that was injurious especially to young women |
| about: Character is of importance. The problem is | | | | - a state described by Gwen Stefani as "I'm just a |
| that the character that has been behind most of the | | | | girl, living in captivity.. I've had it up to here." The |
| problems in American history is their own. The | | | | panic thinking extended to the economy by 2001, as |
| invasive, oppressive, paranoid character that would | | | | the investors who were burned by the collapse of |
| seek to remove an exceptionally successful and | | | | the dot-com bubble thought that real estate was a |
| benevolent president for a personal mistake, but | | | | more safe investment. It was not. The computer |
| would accept a puppet being put into office through | | | | industry boom of 1990s resulted in real prosperity. |
| fraud and corruption and having this puppet bring | | | | The panic-driven real-estate bubble of the Bush |
| America to disaster, is the only real ongoing problem | | | | decade did nothing but make life more costly while |
| with America. And it is this character that has been | | | | no wealth was generated and incomes declined. And |
| behind its greatest failures, from 1930s isolationism to | | | | as it popped at the end of the decade, the result |
| the McCarthyist nightmare to the abuses of FBI | | | | was predictable: economic collapse. So much for the |
| under J. Edgar Hoover to the politically correct | | | | wisdom, the value, and the moral authority, of the |
| hysteria of 1990s to the unmitigated disaster that | | | | security drive. It is Benjamin Franklin who said that |
| was the Bush regime. | | | | the people who would sacrifice liberty for security |
| America owes its existence as the country, its | | | | are not worthy of either. And, as history shows, |
| technological and commercial success, and its | | | | neither do they get. |
| greatest scientific inventions, to the people whom | | | | It is time that America remember what made it |
| these voters would describe as evil. Thomas | | | | great in the first place. It was very much the |
| Jefferson, John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, | | | | innovative Charlie Chaplin character that has resulted |
| Steven Jobs, Bill Clinton, Walt Disney, and everyone | | | | in its greatest accomplishments, not the invasive, |
| else who has been a major contributor to America, | | | | oppressive J. Edgar Hoover character that has |
| would be described by these voters as possessing a | | | | resulted in greatest violations against American |
| narcissistic or a sociopathic character. So would of | | | | people. The character voters are right about one |
| course the ancestors of all white, Hispanic, and Asian | | | | thing: Character matters. But the problem is their own |
| people living now in America - people who have | | | | character, not that of the innovative, ingenious |
| rejected their homes, their countries, and their | | | | people whom they want to demonize and to |
| traditional way of life, to seek a better way of life in | | | | destroy. |
| America; something that people who have such | | | | |