Two of the blogs I read regularly have had items that touch on accepting responsibility for our environment. Tamar wrote on Chaim Yavin's documentary dealing with Israelis and Palestinians and disengagement. Mary Beth cited J. Krishnamurti speaking to our sense of apartness as a breeding ground for violence. Before I leave for the rest of the week I wanted to talk about this a little.
Karl Rove and the people like him would have us accept that their representations are all true, that all others are necessarily false, and that to question that is unpatriotic. If it wasn't so serious, I'd say it was silly.
One can absolutely understand the visceral reaction following something like the attacks in New York, Madrid, and London. The problem is that the visceral reaction is wrong. The visceral reaction, of course, is to defend oneself by any means... fair or foul. As the adrenaline wears off we reflect that we cannot possibly kill everyone who hates us. Each death serves to create more enemies. It's frustrating, but in truth when you fight terrorists at their level they have "won"... they have brought us down to their level.
Osama bin Laden is a criminal who's in it for the power. The same can probably be said for Zarqawi. The troubling question is where does someone like Osama bin Laden find people who believe that the very best use of their lives is to wrap themselves in explosives and blow us up? What, if anything, have we ever done to make them feel this way toward us? This isn't about exonerating terrorists. This is about accepting the part that we have played in creating the world in which we live.
Where does the anger come from? Where does such hopelessness come from? What are its antecedents? Why them? Why us?
Karl Rove won't tell you the answers. The corporate media won't tell you the answers. The Halliburtons of the world are enjoying best years of their lives. The major oil companies are reporting record earnings every quarter. If they can keep us stuck in fear... maybe come up with an easy mnemonic like "Islamofascist" to emphasize the differences... they can continue to channel the violence to further their goals.
"...a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.--J. Krishnamurti"
2 comments:
The intellectual poverty of our leaders - corporate and government - is breathtaking. Their answers to everything, domestic and foreign, have advanced no further than the schoolyard and suck the souls out of us all. Yet so many go along.
When I allow myself to think seriously about these things, I despair.
AQ, you said..."Each death serves to create more enemies. It's frustrating, but in truth when you fight terrorists at their level they have "won"... they have brought us down to their level."
Exactly...that touches on the Moral Level of War. Alway's maintaining the Moral High Ground. This undermines the enemies propaganda. Good Point.
Post a Comment