Oh, lord... Maccabee's been talking to cabbies again

the story started off with bale, the cab driver, talking about what life was like under idi amin in his native uganda, and progressed to this...

M: "What do you think about Bush?"

B: "Bush is a dictator. Did I offend you?"

M: "No. What makes him a dictator?"

B: "You cannot joke about killing him. Hell even under Amin we danced and sang death songs at him. He had a hotel complex that he tortured people in. The difference between Bush and Amin as far as that goes is that I knew where my relatives were being tortured, and no one knows exactly where the Americans are torturing their victims."

M: "Do you believe we are doing horrible torture to thousands or to a few?"

B: "Is there any difference? My experience is that once torturers begin torturing, the torturers have a hard time stopping."

M: "Seriously, do you think we are torturing thousands?"

B: "They won't let you see one dead soldier. Even under a flag they won't let you see it. They don't tell you the truth about anything. They lie lie lie. My experience tells me this. I don't really know. But if I had to guess, I would guess that your government is doing the worst things you can possibly imagine. Liars are lying because they cannot tell the truth. When I see Bush speak, I don't see a stupid man as you do and many others. I see a man who is too shamed to tell the truth. He has caused so much pain and knows it, but if he admitted one little bit of it, it would come crashing out like a dam. You understand? Bush is in a lot of pain."

M: "What do you think will happen to America, Bale?"

B: "What do you mean WILL happen? What hasn't happened yet? You torture in secret. You invade for what? The government reads your e-mail and listens to your telephone and makes you take off your shoes and pull out your computer. For what? Who do you need to protect yourself against? Is your computer going to attack you? Who should you be afraid of? Your government is more scary to most people than any terrorist. I feel for you really. Because I don't think you have any idea how far down the road you already are."

M: "So you think we are already at a dictatorship," I asked.

B: "I think you are far worse than a dictatorship. You are in a dictatorship but most of the population is still living in another time. Once America was the cat's meow. The problem isn't so much your government. It is your population. Here you are have lost so much in freedom, so much in prosperity and so much in reputation, and you have to ask me if you are living under a dictatorship," He answered a call for a pick- up. "I will have to leave. There is a passenger across the street. But I will leave you with this. Dictatorship looks different to everyone. Some of them are disguised and people can't see past the disguise. In China, it was years before anyone questioned why they all wore the same clothes. In America, if you are rich or conservative, dictatorship can be very pleasant. You understand?"

no doubt about it, if you can establish a basis of trust, cabbies will very often give it to you straight up, no bullshit...

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