When feeling good about life we are able to block out the bad, which we know is ever lurking, yet somehow we are blest — the bad is for others. The young mother in a grocery aisle turns her back on her child secured in a shopping cart and is confident that the child will still be there — missing children are for others. When we drive by a serious traffic accident, we are momentarily saddened by the awful things that happen to others, yet we are comforted by automobile commercials that motivate us to hit the open highway in our spanking new BMW and let it all out with abandon. When our child, radiant, comes home with a report card of straight A’s, we not only praise the child but pat ourselves on the back for being supportive parents and block out the distress of another child coming home with C’s and D’s to parents who don’t give a damn. Aye, we are indeed blest with as smooth a style of pursuing pleasures and purpose as is so skillfully depicted in commercials.
We devoutly believe that God takes care of those who are worthy of his love — and, of course, include ourselves, but do not hesitate to exclude the unworthy others, especially of the “wrong” faith. Though half the nation never even heard of the Geneva Convention, we expect a handful of rural, backward kids to understand it — the urbane know that ignorance of the law is no excuse. The worthy are blest with knowledge, those who are without refineries are those who cut up in school or prefer early sex or drugs and doom themselves to a lowlife. The Trojans got what they deserved for being so ignorant not to suspect the tribute left behind.
Formations of such viewpoints on others are remnants of humankind’s origin of family, clan, neighborhood, and the tribal glue of common faith eventuating into territorial and spiritual identity. Even now within families there is always black sheep. A brother who makes it in the world is not beholden to the sister who, owing to some aberration, doesn’t. Within the clan you can bet there is an uncle who never lived up to expected nuclei of faith and success. There is always the neighbor who is eccentric and never waters his lawn, nor removes from the street the empty trash cans. There will always be that noisome fan at Yankee Stadium that will root for the Red Sox, or a NASCAR dad who doesn’t drive a muscle car and wears a “Vote for Kerry” baseball cap. And woe to the woman who has an indomitable spirit contrary to faith’s decree that she is inferior. The world seethes with distaste for otherness.
Americans are overwrought that a generous gesture of liberation is interpreted by Iraqis as an imperial occupation. Afghans are afflicted with unrequited love in that the US has jilted them. The Middle East cannot seem to see outside its collective desert tent and comprehend why the US unconditionally supports Israel, the sole nuclear power in the region. The French cannot understand why the US continues to hold a grudge over a simple lovers’ quarrel. The US cannot forgive Spaniards for pulling out of Iraq simply because 90% of the people opposed the war at the outset — why can’t they think like the English who defy the wishes of the populace?
When will the United States learn that there are indefinable differences in the world — from the stoning of women and mutilation of female children to the joy of beheading and suicidal bombings — that cannot be democratized? The US has its hands full trying to keep its own people in line — the likes of drug addicts and dealers, serial killers, unethical corporations, evangelistic fifth column, brutality in its own prisons, abusive parents, hate crimes, the contempt for labor, dissonant cultures of fifty states, border crossings and general decline of morals. The myriad of subcultures of extremes — hedonism, egocentrism, religious factions, sectionalism, rich and poor, labor and management, private sector jobs as opposed to governmental services — all mock the intent of a United States. Nevertheless, there is no solution to this other than moderation; for there is insurmountable diversity in human nature that must run its course.
The UN, too, is in this quagmire because of the curse of the Tower of Babel. The current genocide in Sudan is unsolvable because, well, Africans will be Africans; it is their nature to cleanse opposing tribes. Never-ending condemnation of Israel is automatic, without rebuking terrorism, because Israel is married to a manifest of expansionism. Libya is now a member of the human rights commission because they surrendered WMDs that were rotting away anyway. Now that China is becoming an economic powerhouse, the US and UN turn the cheek on human rights violations. In spite of modest UN efforts, Haiti is forever a basket case. Cuba is in a hospice and the world pares its fingernails and waits for its demise. Along with much of the world, the Middle East insults and injures its women and there is no outrage. UN provisions to those suffering from famine such as in Africa and North Korea, do little but generate profiteering by their leaders. Earth bleeds from people and nations in cultural and jingoistic conflicts.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: May 23, 2004.