Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once

-O God, that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes." And Samson grasped the two middle pillars upon which the house rested, and he leaned his weight upon them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." Then he bowed with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were in it. So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain during his life.

Samson tore to the ground the temple of the Philistines, according to this long held biblical myth. One man, to tear down the place of commerce, of belief, of principle, of law and order. One man to unmake the order, the fine creations of men. A super man. Nietzche coined the term and Hitler had no doubt to whom he was referring.

Now we have a situation. The Ugly American, William Borroughs instrument of control, could certainly be Samson, bringing down a global temple of oppression, the axis of Evil. Certainly, it's possible and it's nice to think of oneself as the hero, bringing light to the ignorant, giving shelter to the weary, doing right for right's sake and damn the consequences. But Samson was one man, one idea, to bring down the temple and America has no such united ideas except that single one which over-rides all other, the idea of America itself.

You can say Samson was a methaphor, certainly, but when we stand in the Temple and the temple is the American ideal, to spread the ideals of democracy and freedom throughout the world. It is no longer the ideal that we spread, but the actions that the ideal brings, corporation, consumerism, and security above all and these are spread with the ideal as their figurehead until the ideal becomes a hated thing. Now the American people stand in the temple, looking dazedly around, wondering why it's collapsing and who this monster is who pulled it down on our heads alongside those who would abuse it as a figurehead. We benefit from suffering of other people and now wonder, wonder greatly, why our temple is falling.