It's exactly like the FBI agents turning on each other, when the other agents don't seem to follow the party line. Bush is expendable- but the party line is not. Where Bush does not follow the party line, he will be punished as much as anyone else.
I agree with you- it's a perfect example- but it's an example of the party line being supreme. Loyalty only runs so deep to a person- and Americans turn fast and turn hard on people- it's just they way we seem to be. But a party line- now that seems to run deeper- probably because it is more amorphous; it's easier to avoid seeing faults. People make concrete mistakes, a party line's mistakes can be less visible- after all, you can say it's the implementation, you can blame it on the people implementing it, and so on, and so on.
Now that I come to think of it, there's a lot of turning on people on SI. Some of the biggest, nastiest fights I've seen, and been in, were simply over ideology. People are clearly expendable, and to be hunted down and tortured (at least by some people) where ideologies are in conflict. I do not think a person, as far as personal loyalty goes, has much of a chance against real devoted ideology. I'm not talking about giving up your ideology for someone, I'm just talking about not hurting them because they disagree with you. I really think that's a common thing in people. |
