Bartlett Leaves Bush

Machines, by their very nature are devoted to a particular image. Perceptions, belief, concepts of right, wrong, morality; all of these add to the image. What we have come to see as our identity and goals, career, reasons for living, all are images.
To avoid disruptions in the image, we generally need the help. The machine wants to be around people that share similar beliefs, hobbies and ambitions. This helps reinforce the belief that we have found the true religion or important career, that we are good or talented…all the ideas machines would like to hear.
President Bush has the image that he is a war president; perhaps sincerely believing he can spread democracy to the middle east and around the globe; liberating people from the perils of dictatorship. Believing in god, he trusts his instincts and will not back down, despite mounting evidence of failure.
For years, he has surrounded himself with advisors that share his faith, doctrine, and morality; valuing loyalty, he created an impenetrable circle…sealed to the trickle of dissenting ideas and intelligence in the White House.
Dan Bartlett, an advisor to Bush for 13 years, has just resigned, choosing to leave before the term is completed. To the press, he explained he is leaving to spend more time with his family, but it may be that, as all reports portray a devastated and violent Iraq, many people, even Bush’s closest advisors, are choosing to distance themselves from the president and his image of reality.
Surrounding ourselves with clones does not motivate machines towards the waking state. To push through the tendency of our machines, we must work with very different machines, people we would not normally want to be around. Perhaps listening to music "we" do not especially like, reading articles or books that have other viewpoints, listening and analyzing the other points, morals, views, beliefs, etc. These other machines can help us shatter our images- our inner images and the images of the external- and push us into uncomfortable realms where all we have ever understood is shattered. With this anxiety and tension, we may begin to Work.