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Fear leads to Hate and Suffering, Humor leads to Love and Flourishing
On Terrorism, Causes, and a Call for Diplomacy:
The absurdity of jabberwockys, bugaboos, snakes, rabid dolphins, and giant
spiders from Mars (or, in Bush lingo, enemies of freedom) hiding around every
corner is hillarious. True...things do happen, and have happened to me: being
someone who has been mugged once and nearly mugged on three other occasions, and
stayed in a place where someone was sexually assaulted at knifepoint I have my
own modern day concerns with life and livelihood...at one time, those approached
both a phobia and despair of my own, which I have faced and resolved greatly,
though still am dealing with residually. However, these are different than the
kind of fears we were talking about originally.
As for the end of the world...well...I have arrived at the point that we
can't worry too much about the things that can't be prevented or known well in
advance, and I don't think we should worry too much about those things that
might happen that could, unless we want to live in a society where we constantly
fear everything that could go wrong, and are willing to trade our basic freedoms
for a security blanket that may or may not be full of holes anyway. Not to say
that I think we should be undefended against clearly forseeable dangers, just
that we should protect basic things like freedom of speech and expression,
political identity, sexual orientation, etc. along the way, which I think our
society is on the verge of failing to do. Can our country claim to be a
democracy if we allow our fears of terrorism to create a "Monsters are Due on
Maple Street" scenario? I think not. "
What followed:
Also, I think it is a mistake for our government to spend so much money on
the national defense budget for things like weaponry, and related programs, when
those deal with the effects of terrorist ideologies, not the causes. Al-Qaida,
and the combatants we face on the ground in Iraq daily, would lose their impetus
if more funding and resources were allocated to
diplomatic and humanitarian efforts, in
combination with an combat engagement doctrine that was less prone to human and
technological errors that cause civilian casualties and anger the population.
Our current tactics polarize at least a portion of the Iraqi population towards
joining or tacitly supporting the rebels, or the citizenry of other Arab
countries towards supporting their local chapter of neer-do-goods. At this
point, a more impartial-seeming peace-keeping and relief effort organized by,
say, the UN would stand a better chance at winning the hearts and minds of the
people in terrorist "strongholds" than that of a Western country that is seen by
the local populace as a hostile invader less sensitive to their needs, and whose
presence does not help diplomacy, as it can clearly be argued that our troops'
interactions with local people are somewhat laced with overtures of
ethnocentrism and a mindset of 911-vendettaness.(Note: it is a UN, and not a
US, force based in southern Lebanon...let's hope that works). A UN force with a
less antagonistic engagement strategy along military lines and a more
interactive effort towards diplomacy in resolving ethnic tensions, building
civilian infrastructure, and providing employment would go a long way towards
eroding the opposition in any conflict zone away to nothingness (or close enough
to for a stable government to take effect). Paving the way for a UN force would
also solve the issue of the somewhat suspect legality with which our country
jumped UN procedure and, nearly unilaterally, went stomping off into the middle
of Babylon (yes, that is meant to tie in the disrespect and lack of
consideration for cultural sites and artifacts damaged by the occupation, much
to the greater resentment of the local population).
And:
Philanthropic groups and other NGOs would also have greater access to
conflict zones as the level of conflict deteriorated, multiplying the resource
and logistical capacity available for resolving the issues underpinning the
conflicts. Peace is possible, but why are we not taking a more balanced,
diplomatic and humanitarian approach? Well, our country is the main organizer
of the current attempt to win a War on Terror (again, how you win a war against
a psychological concept while saturating the media with information that rachets
up people's fears of the outside world and each other, and with a foreign
engagement presence that feeds the fires of enemy recruitment is beyond me), and
ours is the most powerful and influential country. For the UN to have a major
role, our current administration would have to be convinced that we cannot
continue to bear the burden of doing it with everyone "with us or against us,"
which we will inevitably arrive at with an Iraqi civil war or the bungling of
another Middle East conflict (Iran? Lebanon? Syria?). Even as rich as we are,
we can't keep this up on our own in this fashion...it will continue to be an
inescapable quagmire with worldwide ramifications for economic, political, and
humanitiarian endurance...it would only be a matter of time before the tough
times would cause strain on other conflict zones, and with a diplomatic vacuum
where the world's only superpower should be standing casting off doves, those
can only boil over too...then we have world war and a dark age....in other
words, hell on Earth...ahh, now I'm fear mongering...but at least it's about
fears that are resolvable, and with the methods that I outlined. Nevertheless,
enough fear, and now for...
The Cherry on Top:
The key to avoiding the endless quagmire on the outside, and the gradual
rotting of social and political cohesion on the inside of our nation, is
educating people about this situation, speaking out, speaking up, not being
afraid to question policy, promoting new policy. We don't have forever...we
have to start working together as soon as possible...and that's just for these
issues, there's still the environment to worry about. Altogether, we could
still have peace and something resembling a paradise on earth if we
synergized...I feel that part of motivating people, aside from education, is
making things fun. We are a society addicted to entertainment...we drug
ourselves with gaming, television, and music daily in between long stretches of
working (for most of us), and that doesn't leave a lot of time for being aware
of issues of import to our nation and our whole world. Now now, I am not
knocking entertainment, I am just saying that that is the state of affairs with
our society (I myself love computer gaming, electronic dance music and clubs,
the occasional drink of alcohol, and season disks of some tv series *imagines
the collective gasp from all the people in front of their keyboards reading
this*).
To unite and motivate such a culture doesn't involve trying to change it
first...that would take too long, besides I personally like technology, and hope
to see a day when we can live a thousand lifetimes through virtual reality in
one, or travel and experience the world in hologram form (without astral
projection or lucid dreaming states) without having to travel bodily, not to
mention regenerating one's physical tissue to be young as long as possible.
Well, anyways, I'll talk about technology in a future post...the first step I
think to accomplishing this, as I have said before, is to not just have a few
celebrities, politicians on board, etc., but to rally around a whole archetype
that is capable of both educating and entertaining. Humor does that...the era
of the comedian hero is here (as I have argued before). Humor is also the
antithesis to fear, as you've discovered while watching that rag-tag
documentary. We may not be playing traditional tarotta, but the last trick is
still coming up, and that, the comedian, will be the only card left to us as
things stand now.
The beautiful thing about humor is it is a universal human condition, is
directly linked with health and well being (Patch Adams, anyone?), and the
jangling of concepts related to most kind of humor is enlightening...even if it
is used as a captivating device it has a wholesome quality to it (unless the
delivery is off, or the context and meaning are spun somehow), but with enough
people working together it would be a successful step to shaking off the dust
and cobwebs of apathy and getting a message through...other entertainers joining
together would of course be essential as well, and ultimately everybody
else...if we built a nationwide sense of community, fear and hatred would be
whispers on the wind. It sounds so grand, but...these are my thoughts on
terror, and the material and immaterial solutions. Let's get working, ja?