Prometheus: The Emergence of the Police State in America

A MYTH ILLUMINATES THE CHANGES THAT HAVE TRANSFORMED THE American state in the years since 9/11. It is the myth of the Greek titan who stole the secret of fire from the gods and was then punished eternally for bringing to birth a new world. American exceptionalism, its traditional sense of being different from other nations, is bred from the Biblical injunction to be a city on a shining hill and a light unto the heathen, but these days it carries a distinctively pagan inflection. Prominent members of the State and Defense Departments call themselves Vulcans from their conviction that the use of American force is overwhelmingly good and unavoidable (Mann 2004). Neo-conservatism, the most influential intellectual current in American politics today, rejects Catholic just war theories1 and draws inspiration from Leo Strauss's cryptic interpretations of pre-Christian philosophers (Singer 2004). Individualism, maverick defiance, talent for innovation, belief in the future, and a sense of responsibility for bringing the future to fruition those traits that Americans most passionately believe about themselves uncannily evoke the myth of Prometheus.