From Shock and Awe to unrest with each other
FROM THE ARCHIVES
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After 9/11, there was an explosion of energy. Right and wrong was black and white and got us at fever pitch, and then people vehemently disagreed about what to do. Thinking about then and now, then was sizzling. As creatures in evolution, it may be massive cultural conflicts, like the Iraq War and Trump, that jar us to greater awareness. The idea of becoming a caring world is in the air, with outrage around militarism floating in a continuum from what got anti-war people in the streets then, to the fury of people opposing each other taking to the streets now. This groove of discontent keeps intensifying, so I take it as possibility that any day it could give -- like the Berlin wall that finally came down.
I’ve left my archives on an old site, and I just came across things I shared that I culled from what came out after 9/11: whole pieces, compiled excerpts, and one-liners collected from many pieces. The one-liners, the SOUNDBITES I’m passing along here, blew my mind. Were we sharper then? Has trumpism dulled us down? I don’t think I’d be able to find so many pithy, trenchant things being said now. You may have to read it in sessions. I found it overwhelming. Is there anything to be done with this? Please tell me if you have any ideas.
Here’s a sampling:
Deepak Chopra - The chances of survival are best if one goes to the roots of terror.
David Corn - The profound vulnerabilities of the United States ought to be weighed heavily when options are considered, and responses ought to be designed to minimize the prospects these vulnerabilities will be further exploited.
William O. Beeman - A despicable act of terror such as that committed in New York and Washington is a measure of the revulsion that others feel at U.S. actions that seemingly limit those rights. If we perpetuate a cycle of hate and revenge, this conflict will escalate into a war that our great-grandchildren will be fighting.
Seumas Milne - For every "terror network" that is rooted out, another will emerge - until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed.
John Mack - We have the possibility in our time of tragedy to create a genuine global community which is different from a self-congratulatory globalism that masks economic inequality.
Noam Chomsky - An aroused public within the more free and democratic societies can direct policies towards a much more humane and honorable course.
David Spangler - When faced with war, we discover new ways of articulating a call for peace, not only for ourselves but for all humanity. However imperfectly formed it may be as yet, there is growing within the human family a vision of our interconnectedness and interdependency.
David R. Loy - If we begin to understand the intertwined roots of this evil, including our own responsibility, then perhaps something good may yet come out of this catastrophic tragedy.
David Whyte - For each of us, in this season of falling away, at this threshold of history, when the old has gone and we are yet bereft of the new, what is the conversation, that until now, we have refused?
Riane Eisler - And if we only talk violent solutions, we fuel the dominator regression that will be fatal to everything we Americans yearn for and aspire to.
Oscar Arias - Instead of building bunkers and shields that fail to protect us, let us build good will and harmony, human capacity and understanding, and in this way we shall build the world we want to live in.
For more:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071213030320/http://theconversation.org/archive/a-soundbites.html
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We inhabit so many dysfunctional boxes - electoral and political, economic and globalized trade, faith traditions that often struggle to look forward rather than into the past. Ripping open the fabric of society is a risky business. But that fabric has lulled most people into comfort and complacency - one of the single biggest obstacles to our efforts to become a mature and wise species.