Ding dong bin Laden's dead

[Edward theurj Berge]

binLaden's dead, ding dong the wicked terrorist is dead. (Sung to the tune of the Wizard of Oz song about the wicked witch.)

Ok, yes it feels good to get vengeance on the bastard responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the US. The blood lust is thick and heavy in the US with not just his death but the manner is which it was executed, shot in the head at close range. The left eye, to be exact. An eye for and eye and all that. We feel relief that he was murdered in cold, calculating foresight, which by the usual legal standard is 1st degree murder. Ah, but this is war, where all is fair, eh?

Now I'm not a bleeding heart liberal though I am most certainly a progressive. I get that war is sometimes necessary, and that part of war is killing. And I'm also in favor of the death penalty in certain criminal cases, so I'm not completely anti-killing. After all, "death to all fanatics,"* the famous slogan of Hassan i-Sabbah, the reputed leader of the Hashashin assassins** at one time, is one of my favorite catch-phrases. Still, I have pause to wonder about the animal fury that we've taken up as a people on the news of this execution.

Is it a legitimate moment of revenge? A necessary time-out to revel in justice done? And/or does it reduce us to the level of the savage murderer that perpetrated the crime against us? Does it incite further acts of terrorism when said terrorists see that we are just as blood-thirsty as they, in the name of our God? And where does religious forgiveness play into this? How do we meet pragmatic and insular political ends through the usual religious motives of compassion and love? Just wondering.

* Which slogan ironically includes those who utter it, since they too are fanatics and must kill themselves. It's a sort of Sufi koan to wake one up to their own contradictions.

** Double irony that our elite Seal force that executed bin Laden were modern day Hashashin assassins.

[Balder]

Jon Stewart:  To Kill a Mockingturd

[Edward theurj Berge]

Florida getting erect and growing a set of balls was funny. And indic(k)ative.

[Balder]

Good set of questions in your posts, Edward.  And it's funny -- I've been humming the same Wizard of Oz tune to myself since I heard the news.  Jon joked about the need to feel ambivalent about the situation, but the truth is, I do feel ambivalent about it.  I do not mourn bin Laden's death, but I also do not relate to the celebratory chanting and shouting that erupted in our streets over his killing.

Part of my ambivalence is distrust of my own ambivalence: does it hide shadow somewhere?  Am I afraid of such vengeful jubilation?  I know the feeling of schadenfreude, for instance; or the joy of seeing someone who has tormented me finally getting his due.  But I can't revel in it, for some reason.  I remember when I was a boy, and used to be bullied by a kid a few years older than me, and finally I "lost it" and went berzerk on him and chased him all over my neighborhood, beating him up, finally pinning him to the ground underneath me with a clear opportunity to pummel his face as much as I wanted.  But when I stared into his face, I just couldn't do it.  I gave one punch to his forehead and asked him if he gave up, willing and anxious to put an end to this and even to make amends.  I like to think of this as the virtue of empathy, but maybe this is a character flaw.  Because he said "yes," then attacked me as soon as I let him go.  (I fought back and ended up chasing him straight into his house until his mother whipped us both.)

I tell this childhood story because, while I feel distaste for blood-revelers, I also think we may need them; they probably keep us safe.  While folks like me, with a willingness to capitulate and make amends, would probably get us killed, as long as there are blood-revelers really out to harm us.

[Edward theurj Berge]

It is not a coincidence that the tune from WOZ comes to mind. That story is ingrained in US culture and has some significant morals that we as adults subconsciously (re)enact. For example, that particular song rejoices in the death of a wicked witch who was killed when Dorothy's house, unearthed by a tornado (i.e. "an act of God"), fell on her. So it wasn't D's intention to kill the witch but it happened nonetheless and it was cause for celebration. It is implied that the forces of good (God) expressed through D is what overcame, i.e. killed, the bad one. The story teaches us that good prevails, it's ok for God to kill in the name of good, and it's ok to celebrate the killing of evil. All that in a children's story!

It also teaches us to draw straight lines between good and evil, not see how it's typically a gray mixture. And such strict lines lead to project our own unacknowledged evil unto the other, where it's fine to de-humanize, kill and celebrate in their demise. Not a far jump from being the agent of God thereby letting Him do his Will though our human vessel, e.g. kill in his name. Granted there are a lot more fine morals in the story but the above are most certainly there as well, albeit not as transparent and thereby much more insidious.

[Edward theurj Berge]

In keeping with kela's "what the fuck" this link provides the "true" hidden meaning of the WOZ from The Illuminati Watch.

[kelamuni]

but i thought obama was osama? i'm confused...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w53TMpk6QNc&feature=fvsr "just say 'no' to the new world order." right... hahaha

[xibalba]

Ciao Balder

I get what you mean,

I also find celebration mal placé and sort of vulgaire when I think about all the people who died because of his self-righteous arrogance and madness,

that man was probably confused,  a  boy born among 70 brothers and sisters, raised in a milliardaire home,  but turned to extreme wahabism  to find meaning  - a weird interpretation of Islam, at the level of the inquisitor Torquemada.

 it is also not wrong to tell that I can feel some sort of cosmic like compassion for his soul lost in samsara.

I suppose he is in some hellish bardo at the moment.

 

 

[xibalba]

 

Kela, look at that  pic

the gathering  at the White House.

They are follwing the killing of Bin Laden in real time.

They look like a bunch of geeks playing video games style "counter-strike".

 

Robert Gates to the right seems annoyed, he rather prefers another version "battlefield".

Hiallry has missed, she must reload with new weapons.

The fastest at typing on the Keybooard seems to be Obama.

The general is a mess.

the pizza boy is soon coming to deliver the quatro staggioni, calzone, frutti di mare, kansas pizza, tea party pizzas, etc...

That´s very ambiance  "the society of the spectacle" of Guy Debord or "simulacras" of Jean Baudrillard.

hahhahahahha

kelamuni said:

but i thought obama was osama? i'm confused...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w53TMpk6QNc&feature=fvsr "just say 'no' to the new world order." right... hahaha

[Balder]

Here's a response from Chris Hedges.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Hedges makes clear that our own violence perpetuates the cycle. And agreeing with the likes of Chomsky, that the US created a lot of the conditions for what came back to us, though this by no means excuses those atrocities. It just raises legitimate questions as to which courses actually effect the desired result, less terrorism rather than more.

Killing bin Laden was largely a symbolic gesture of  devolved retribution, since he had no operational connection to the acts. The latest news reports that bin Laden was unarmed when confronted by the assassins, but made "some threatening moves." How threatening can an unarmed old man be? Did he give us the finger, adding final insult to injury? His extermination was the intent going in, no doubt about it.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Rabbi Michael Lerner has a different response, a few excerpts following:

"Our cup of joy cannot be full if our own liberation requires the death of those who were part of the oppressor society.... The task of spiritual progressives at this moment is to reaffirm a different consciousness -- to remind ourselves that we are inextricably bound to each other and to everyone on the planet. The struggle against terrorism will not be won through killing, no matter how many people we assassinate. You don't fight malaria by seeking to kill every mosquito on the planet, but rather by draining the swamps. Similarly, you can't eliminate terrorism by seeking to kill every terrorist (and in the process killing a lot of innocent others as well), but only by draining the swamps of hatred that have been built up as a response to the suffering generated by global inequities and injustices. So the struggle to eliminate terror will only be won when we in the West can show genuine love, caring, and generosity toward everyone else on the planet. A strategy of generosity, not a strategy of domination, is the path forward.

"I understand very well the need for self-defense in a violent world, as well as the rage and upset felt by many, including me, at the murder of innocent civilians on September 11 and on many other occasions. Within the current distorted framework of military conflict in which we are to some degree entrapped, I also understand the strategic importance of capturing or, if there is no other way to stop them from sending more murderers to kill innocent civilians (and every other possible route has been tried), then self-defensively killing the leaders of those who seek to kill or terrorize our own people. But the fact remains that it is through new policies of generosity and caring for others, not through killing the bad guys, that we will create a world of peace. To the extent that Americans celebrate the death of bin Laden because they believe that it will bring peace to the world, I want to acknowledge the goodness and decency of that aspiration. Yet we as spiritual progressives must simultaneously help our fellow Americans, indeed, our fellow human beings in every society, see that it is the path of nonviolence and the Strategy of Generosity that is the only path toward lasting peace on our planet."

[Balder]