©2004, UrbisMedia
The late social historian Lewis Mumford wrote in his classic The City in History that it was back in the days of ancient Iraq, then called Mesopotamia, that the notion of the Priest-Warrior-King first emerged. Names like Sargon the Great, Gilgamesh, Nebuchadrezzar, and Assurbanipal still evoke fearsome rulers who could boast, as the last of these did: “Like the onset of a terrible hurricane I overwhelmed Elam in its entirety, I cut off the head of Teuman, their braggart King, who had plotted evil. . . . Hamanu, Elam’s royal city, I besieged, I captured . . . I destroyed it, I devastated it, I burned it with fire.” Now that’s “shock and awe.”
Priest-Warrior-Kings were dangerous guys. They took their authority directly from God—divine right—and that, permuted with leadership of the troops and royal lineage, translated to absolute secular power. These days we have rulers with religious authority (Iran), royal authority (Saudi Arabia), and warrior authority (Israel). (I just co-incidentally chose three places in the Middle East.) But there are probably no rulers who combine all three.
Curiously, the country that comes closest, is the good ole US of A, and its good old boy selected president, George W. Boosh. Yes, a certifiable dunce from Texas could be a modern-day P-W-K. Who else could arrogate to himself the authority to “change the world” and teach “brown-skinned people” the ways of democracy.
True, its questionable to call a guy who couldn’t even be a “weekend warrior” much of a warrior. But that doesn’t stop him from calling himself a “war president.” And a born-again Christian ex-drunk driver doesn’t really fulfill the requirements that we would expect of an ayatollah or a Pope Julius; but he is somewhat the darling of the religious right and believes that God (and Scalia) wanted him to be president. Anyway, he prays more than he reads. As to Booshian pretentions to royal lineage, I would suggest you read Kevin Phillips’ An American Dynasty. (References that Barbara Boosh is a direct descendent of one of Queen Elizabeth’s Welsh Corgies are, however, probably not true).
But being a wannabe P-W-K is not just fulfilling some of the demographics. You need an attitude about your place in history; you have to feel “chosen”(by Scalia) to fulfill a destiny, a destiny that is scripturally revealed, that history will end with the triumph of good over evil. So what makes the Boosh a candidate P-W-K is that the times appear propitious. By propitious I mean consider the popularity of the millennial “Left Behind” series of quite successful books about those who will, at the end of time, receive the “Rapture” and ascend to heaven with Jesus on the Second Coming, and the rest of us who will—lower your voice and speak in hoarse Satanic tones—descend in to “the everlasting fires of Helliburton.”
For example, can you discern much of a difference between the titles of some of the Left Behind books and the Boosh military adventures?
Tribulation Force (Not a military campaign, but a Rapture book)
Enduring Freedom (The Iraqi campaign. Yeah, sure)
End of State (Rapture book, not the fate of California under Steriodenegger)
Soul Harvest (Rapture book, soon to be Baptist campaign to convert Sunnis and Shias)
Apocalypse Dawn (Rapture title, and apt description of mornings in Sadr City of late)
Resolute Sword (Iraq war campaign, but could be a reference to a Clinton affectation)
Desert Storm (Daddy Boosh’s Iraqi war, back when Colin Powel had integrity)
Glorious Appearing (Rapture book, but also Boosh’s emergence from rabbit hole in Nebraska
on 9-11, 9-12? 9-13?Whatever.)
The Indwelling (Rapture book; also reference to the month Boosh spent on his ranch
prior to 9-11)
Don’t they all sound like they should be intoned by the sonorous baritone of James Earl Jones (or more aptly, Jim Jones)?
Still not ready to accept the Boosh as your Priest-Warrior-King and receive the Rapture? Then hear this, from the book of the Bible from which the Rapture prophecy comes:
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while. . . . And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth.” Revelation 20:1–3, 7–8
Right. And you thought I was kidding.
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©2004, James A. Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 4.18.2004)