| Parable of the
Nightmare NBC interrupted its regularly scheduled programming two nights ago to tell me that Gerald Ford, the President between Nixon and Carter, had died. In the classic Greek tradition of "Say nothing but good about the dead," over the next day other TV stations highlighted his athleticism, his normal-guy nature, his long and loving marriage. Above all, the talking heads spoke of how he ended the United States' "long national nightmare" by being nicer than Nixon and later pardoning him for his crimes. Ford pardoned Nixon to spare the country a long and ugly trial about a long and ugly presidency, to save the nation another trauma in a series of them. It was the very same list of traumas, added to under Carter despite his efforts to the contrary, that made the people pine for even the waxy, wrinkled, warring hands of Ronald Reagan to wrap their wounds in $100 bills under the promise of Morning in America. Logically, one more trauma could only have hurt, but in this case it may well have helped. A long and detailed trial about the litany of crimes committed by Richard Nixon and his administration would have forged a public record of the dangers of executive power. Executive privileges and imperial ambitions would be on one side of a titanic "equals" sign, opposite corruption and oppression. But no, Ford decided to pardon him. There would be no trial. There would be no detailed revelation of Nixon's crimes outside of the occasional book and later the occasional Internet site. It left the masses unprepared for the pre-mortem return of Nixon's ghost. I want to tell you a story... ... There once was a man who had a terrible nightmare. He knew he had it because he remembered it vividly. The cold fear, the sweating anguish, the dark gnawing feeling -- he awoke with every scrap of the nightmare's terror still clinging to his brain. What was worse was that he had it many times. He had it so often that the memory of it bubbled to his waking mind and kept him from enjoying his life. At last the man asked his friends what caused nightmares in the first place, so that he might find and remove the source of his own. His strong friend said that nightmares came from unpleasant feelings about things once seen or felt, so to end the nightmare he must let bad things temper him into unmoving emotional hardness. His weak friend said that nightmares were simply a happenstance of nature to which everyone fell victim, so to end the nightmare he must simply ignore it and hope it will never come again. Finally, his clever friend said that nightmares came from lingering guilt about actions once performed, so to end the nightmare he must study what he had done, honestly admit that he had done it and move forward in his life with whatever lessons he learned. The man, unfortunately for him, fancied himself wise. He would take the different suggestions of his friends and combine them into a single course of action. The man swallowed the pain of the nightmare, realized that nightmares are meaningless because everyone has them and solemnly acknowledged that the nightmare he had was bad. That night the man went back to sleep, certain that he had overcome his traumatic experience. That night he had the nightmare again. The next morning and every morning thereafter, he awoke in sweating terror, utterly baffled. The next day and every day thereafter, he swallowed the pain, dismissed its importance and admitted the nightmare was bad. That night and every night thereafter, he had the nightmare again. |