So, I feel it appropriate at this moment in time to make comment on the death of boogeyman numero uno for the past 10 years. One Osama Bin Laden. In all honesty, I find the celebrations that have occurred since the news broke somewhat sickening. If we're supposed to be the bigger man on a global stage, the police officer of the world, then surely acting like fanatical, bloodthirsty hounds - dancing in the streets at the loss of someone's life - simply reduces us to everything we're supposed to be above?
Then again, we live in an age defined, it seems, by double standards (see: Guantanmo Bay), illicit activity (see: Bernie Madoff) and low-brow bluster (see: anything on television). What ever happened to nobility? To dignity? To pride in one's actions? To sound a little Travis Bickle-esque, the answer just gives me a headache it hurts so much.
Now, far be it from me to sit here and declare Bin Laden a saint, obviously that's not the case, but what gets lost in all this witch-hunting and mud-slinging, is why exactly this whole thing started. These people don't just wake up with hate in their hearts and a bomb in their pants. The uprising of middle eastern terrorism, as with any terrorism, is not a cause, it is a reaction. A reaction to what? I'm not going to get into that here because frankly, who wants to hear it? (If you're interested, call me and I'll chat your ear off about it) but suffice to say that a swift read of anything by Noam Chomsky might begin to tell the tale. Now, again, I'm not condoning terrorism at all - it is of course a reprehensible act of violence which should never be tolerated - but to label them beneath us, or savages, or even fanatics is dismissive. Especially when we're dancing on cars singing "We got him! Woooooooo!"
I think the point I'm trying to make is that I wonder just how f**ked up life has become, when the western world actually feels united delight at the execution of an unarmed man. Is that all we have left to celebrate? We can't 'come together' for any other reason? Not only does that kind of reaction further reduce our standing in the world, but it just makes us out to be petty, mindless, bullies (which, sadly, we are proving to be). If we're going to be self prophesised "leaders of the free world" then it might be an idea to start behaving like one.
I won't hold my breath.
Also, as a side note, I am talking about the US government here, yes, but I feel I have a right to say my piece because anything they do, we, as in Great Britain, are aligned with and are just as guilty of. We might do it in subtler forms, but trust me friends, we do it.
No doubt, Al Qaeda will now launch some form of response to the death of their leader, and it the thing that irks me the most about that fact is that the people actually responsible for this mess won't be the ones who suffer, it'll be us.
Peace.
Let me say that again....Peace.
John.
