BobHarris.com - "We Do Not Torture": George W. Bush, surrealist

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"We Do Not Torture": George W. Bush, surrealist

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Monday, 07 November 2005

In his 1928 work "La Trahison Des Images," Belgian surrealist René Magritte famously expressed the ineffable dichotomy of reality and its perception in one simple statement:

"This is not a pipe," said Magritte.

And so we ask: if this is not a pipe, then is it the representation of the pipe? Or is it perhaps a representation of something other than a pipe? Perhaps it is a representation of yet another mere representation? Therefore, what representation is ever authentic? Can reality, in fact, ever be represented?

In 1974, famed American surrealist Richard Nixon took Magritte's conundrum one step farther, with his own mystifying announcement:

"I am not a crook," said Nixon.

And so we ask: if this "Nixon" is not a "crook," are we looking instead at merely a representation of Nixon? Or is our concept of what is "criminal" somehow merely a representation of criminality, one which cannot be embodied by the actual president? Is the president, therefore, somehow above the law?

The art world was again turned on its ear.

But all of this was merely prelude. A deeper questioning of the nature of perception still awaited.

Finally, today, George W. Bush made a stunning announcement:

"We do not torture," said Bush.

This is truly an artistic breakthrough.

And so we ask: what is the nature of "we?" Is Bush simply saying that he himself does not personally torture, perhaps extending the "we" here to include Laura and the twins? Is "torture" itself the elusive concept, not encompassing practices like rendition, waterboarding, sexual humiliation, and savage physical punishment?

Or perhaps (and this would be truly the master stroke) Bush is questioning the meaning of "not"? Perhaps we are to contemplate the nature of negation -- and therefore question the very existence of any objective reality to negate?

Has Bush finally made his final step away from the "reality-based" community, into a land where governance is fully untethered from the humdrum limitations of conventional spacetime? Is the president, at last, above not only the law but reality itself?

We can only gasp, hope, applaud, and enjoy the brie.

As with the other great works, such questions will live on for generations, long after the artist himself has been publicly shamed, reviled, and possibly impeached by a public too small to understand his greatness.