Tomorrow is 11th September. Just another day, until you turn it around and say 9/11. Those two numbers now have a whole new meaning and I suspect that, if you are like me, you have a very clear memory of where you were when you saw those images on screen of a plane flying into the twin towers and their subsequent collapse. Psychologists call this flash bulb memory. The event is so significant that it is as if the moment is photographed. Of course generally memory is reconstructive and although we imagine that our memories are accurate much research shows that memory is not like the re-running of a film. We change details in line with our new understanding of situations and indeed some memories can be false. There is research which shows it can be relatively easy to insert a memory of something which never actually happened.
(http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/False_memory)
But that is not what I want to write about today. Perhaps what I want to do is to try to make some sense of it and of what followed. I know I will fail, because it is so complex but here are a few thoughts which emerge through my fingers.
I met with someone yesterday who was also trying to make some sense out of it. He asked me if I thought it was genetic! His implication was that in some ways the people who did this were from a region where there was some sort of genetic predisposition towards violence. He couldn’t understand why ‘they’ wouldn’t want what ‘we' have in terms of our Western lifestyle. I pointed out that perhaps the Western lifestyle is far from perfect!! That there are many aspects which people from a traditional Islamic position might abhor. In fact there are many of us from within the Western world who also abhor some of its selfish, hedonistic and consumptive behaviours. In the light of our global problems many are saying that there needs to be a big shift away from capitalist consumerism and the growth of a new deeper understanding of our relationship with the earth in which we live.
However, I doubt, that the men who killed thousands and shocked the world into further war had those aspirations in mind. In fact what they did is the antithesis of the loving, inclusive and wise world which many of us long to see. What they did is only worthy of total condemnation and has arguably led to a further twenty years of pain and struggle for the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries.
I have been watching ‘Bitter Lake’ on BBC iPlayer. This is a film by Adam Curtis which explores the story of US, British and Soviet involvement in the Middle East since a meeting in 1945 between President Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia on board a warship in the Great Bitter Lake, a lake through which the Suez canal flows. We see the Wests’ desire for oil and the desire for power in the Saudi’s. Deals were struck and seeds were sown for a conflict of ideologies and control. The film is long and I have only watched part of it so far. It is also irritating as he tends to jump around in time and place rather than telling a linear tale. However, it is enlightening. One of his messages is the danger of oversimplifying into good vs evil and also of politicians’ lack of understanding of history and culture. You cannot help but be struck by the arrogance of the West and the suspicion that whilst we talk about bringing peace and stability to a country such as Afghanistan that is a secondary motive. When Bush talked about his ‘War on Terror’ I was horrified and frightened. The consequences of this language have brought about many more deaths over and above those lost in the twin towers. It is a prime role of government to protect its people; but what about the cost to other people? In a recent interview Bush declared that what he did had been a success. How was this defined? By the fact that America had not had another attack since then. Never mind the loss of life to thousands in the Middle East and to military personnel. Never mind the refugee crisis which continues to unfold. Never mind the increased anger of extremist groups. You cannot bomb ideas out of existence. I ask myself what the consequence might have been if Bush had declared that this was a terrible terrorist act but that he was not going to undertake any military reprisal. What if he had not risen to the bate? What if all the trillions of dollars which have been spent on weapons and warfare had gone into education, health, foreign aid? I know this is not how governments behave. We feel that it is weaponry and military power which keeps us safe. I think this is partially true but that along the line some people pay a terrible price for it. Ultimately we all pay a terrible price for it.
So you may say I am naive and I expect this is true. There are too many vested interests in war. It has been pointed out that some companies with defence contracts such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing have made vast profits on the back of the war in Afganistan. It is difficult to know the level of truth in this but nonetheless I suspect that money is to be made from conflict. So we will all continue to deal with the consequences of past struggles for power and control. As long as we live in fear of some form of attack from some ‘other’ then resources will go into all forms of defence. This is not just a description of the West but the state of humanity at the moment. But perhaps a day will come when we learn the message of turning the other cheek. Which nation will be the first to lay down its sword?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Lake_(film)
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