When I heard of the news of Osama Bin Laden's death, my first thought was, "what a tragedy." Not that he was dead, I am, much like the rest of the world, a bit relieved that he is no longer alive and thus no longer able to end lives. Rather, I mean it is tragic that a human being, who has been blessed with all the wonderful faculties and apparatuses that come with owning a large brain, had his mind so violently twisted and warped by politics and religion. Letting religion (or any absolutist ideology) do your thinking for you is like buying a new computer, with top of the line hardware, then instead of installing an operating system, just smearing peanut butter on the graphics card (and then citing faith when a tech geek tells you the world won't conform to your perception of what it should be).
Perhaps I was a bit naive, but it was unsettling, and a bit startling, to find so many people celebrating the murder of another human being. Death is something only a psychopath celebrates. We don't mourn the man and his actions, but we mourn the waste of that life. The thing that makes Hitler Hitler, Bin Laden Bin Laden, etc... is a lack of acknowledgement and respect for the value of life. When we, as a species, forget this-- and boy have we ever-- we become no better than the enemies we deride. What began on 9/11 and culminated in his death was tragic and, while I agree completely that it was a necessary evil, the important thing to remember-- if we are to avoid the ignoble pitfall of becoming the thing we despise-- is that it is indeed an evil.
Recognizing this, and showing compassion in the face of tragedy, is what separates the just from the unjust; no level of flag-waving, no misguided vendetta. Honorable, ethical men kill out of necessity, never with joy or pride. Speaking of pride...
Nationalism sucks. When I see a group of semi-educated suburbanites marching en masse and chanting "USA!", I can't help but think, "this has to be how Nazism started." I'm not comparing any of these people to Nazis, I'm just saying that you don't get from point A to point Nazi without a little bit of mindless-chant-marching in between.
Being proud to be American is like being proud to have male pattern baldness or that gravity exists. You can't be proud that it didn't rain today or that birds can fly. Basically, you can't be proud of something you had absolutely no control over. Your birthplace (and subsequently your world-view, religion, etc...) required absolutely no decision or effort on your part; you were born into it all. If you were born to Eskimos, you'd be a proud Inuit-- with all the assumptions and creeds that come with being an Inuit. One might argue, "Sure, I can't control the fact that I was born here, but I did choose to stay once I grew up." Okay, I'll concede that, but it's a bit disingenuous to refer to it as a proper decision. Since day one, we have all had America's greatness crammed down our throats. I'm not arguing the veracity of that claim, I'm merely pointing out the inconsistency in repeating rhetoric, ad infinitum, and calling it choice. You can be happy you're American. You can feel blessed, lucky or relieved, but you can't feel proud.
Most of the people I know who identify themselves as Christians, sure as fuck don't behave that way. If being Christian means behaving as Christ did, once you cut out all the bullshit, I am one of the only Christians I know. Likewise, if you transpose the bible to the constitution, and it's forgers to Christ, then goddammit, I am an American! And proud of it. I think the constitution is one of the best documents that exists for the creation and maintenance of a functioning, peaceful society. It's not perfect; progress inevitably entails change, but it is a good blueprint and the further we stray the ideas that fed it, the worse off we are. I am proud of the times I've dissented against this government run-amuck. I am proud of my choice to stay in this country and enact change. In these cases, I am proud to be American, but this is not what the majority of people are proud of when they post it on facebook or buy a patriotic bumper sticker. They mean they are proud to unquestioningly surrender their minds to an idea, whether knowingly or not. Same goes for the religious.
In the last century or so, we've come a long way, but because of the emphasis put on antiquity and tradition, we are breeding generations that are more and more inclined to fight tooth and nail to keep things the way they are. We shouldn't force people to change, we should teach them to; show them why it's not only okay, but preferred. Society as a whole is becoming disconnected from all the underlying things that make it possible. For instance: technology, science- both political and natural, philosophy, a universal and natural origin for ethics. When you are being taught what to think, but not how, just what do you use to determine the accuracy of a proposition? What makes it any different or more credible than its rival?
Some people look around and see a world that is changing, in a manner that they think will make it better. When I look around, all I can see is other people ruining everything.
bewbz rawk
