We need more anger, and less
My posting to CPTALL listerserve:
People have been pointing out to me that there is in fact coverage of Qana.
There may be coverage, but for example the coverage I just heard on NPR goes: "Firestorms continue on both sides of the Lebanese border in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. At eleven, A Region in Crisis." It does NOT say "63 civilians killed this morning in Israel's US-funded bombing of Lebanon, most of them children. Coming up at 11 - Why are we supporting the stronger side in their devastation of a democratic nation?"
And it really is a question. Is this administration's determination to turn the world into Armageddon religiously based at bottom? (God have mercy!) Oil based? Military-industrial complex needs an enemy based? Oligarchy needs a war to unite home front and maintain power based? I'm confused about what the heck is going on, it seems so unnecessary.
I also want to put in my two cents on the question of hatred and revenge because I am of two minds about some of the things I've read here on the CJP listserve.
I actually think anger and hate are justified. I, like many in the Mennonite subculture, tend to avoid and feel uncomfortable with those emotions. And because we are afraid of them, as somehow evil, we then feel insecure about speaking up for pacifism, because we know we haven't been there. This timidity is actually somehow refreshing, in the broader context of American arrogance and nationalism, but I can feel somehow it's still not quite right.
If we know that emotions are information and anger and hate are clues that a violation has taken place, we can provide full acceptance for them, even when people are locating their sense of self within those emotions. How could they not, in the midst of the violation? You look at someone bright and beautiful whose dreams have been reduced to "I hope we have water today" and you'd be sorry to see it if they weren't angry! People are going to be full of anger when they are violated, that's just the way it goes.
But I think it's also "just the way it goes" that without a way to expend the energy of anger toward a world without violation and retaliation, we're all doomed to more of the same. It's intimidating to face rage and still speak up for forgiveness, and maybe now isn't the right time, but when is the right time? When does injustice ever let up?
It isn't that I forgive from the goodness of my heart. I have done all my forgiving for the selfish reason that I don't like how hate and anger poison my system and personality. (And truth be told I forgive the bare minimum to achieve this!) I haven't dealt with occupation and bombing and loss of life and limb, of course. I'd probably be homicidally and suicidally frothing at the mouth.
But on the other hand, how can you take militant nationalism personally, despite it's personal consequences for you? What is the point of hate as a response to collective insanity? The same with personal transgressions too though - you eventually realize it has nothing to do with you, it is the perpetrator's limitations, so why should your life face backward, consumed by vengefulness?
But I don't know how, during and not after, you can keep that perspective, when you are still being held down, powerless, and the pain is so fresh, and your life, even facing forward, feels completely ruined.
So I have to say that, while the violation continues, we still need the anger, and trying to shush it because it breaks our denial adds to the problem, and reduces our own humanity. Right now we need more outcry about everything going on, not less.
Ultimately, though, I don't want a world of more of the same - there has to be a way beyond hate and domination and "you slap me, I will break your arm!!" a sentiment which makes me feel tight and sick for everyone involved.
It brought tears to my eyes to listen to the Kojo Namdi show today - the topic was Rwanda, and women who'd lost everyone to deliberate mass killing, while hidden in spiderholes, were telling their stories, and rebuilding their country, along with the other side, and writing about what happened and why, and forgiving. Their beauty and peacefulness, along with their pain, radiated from the radio and touched me.
People have been pointing out to me that there is in fact coverage of Qana.
There may be coverage, but for example the coverage I just heard on NPR goes: "Firestorms continue on both sides of the Lebanese border in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. At eleven, A Region in Crisis." It does NOT say "63 civilians killed this morning in Israel's US-funded bombing of Lebanon, most of them children. Coming up at 11 - Why are we supporting the stronger side in their devastation of a democratic nation?"
And it really is a question. Is this administration's determination to turn the world into Armageddon religiously based at bottom? (God have mercy!) Oil based? Military-industrial complex needs an enemy based? Oligarchy needs a war to unite home front and maintain power based? I'm confused about what the heck is going on, it seems so unnecessary.
I also want to put in my two cents on the question of hatred and revenge because I am of two minds about some of the things I've read here on the CJP listserve.
I actually think anger and hate are justified. I, like many in the Mennonite subculture, tend to avoid and feel uncomfortable with those emotions. And because we are afraid of them, as somehow evil, we then feel insecure about speaking up for pacifism, because we know we haven't been there. This timidity is actually somehow refreshing, in the broader context of American arrogance and nationalism, but I can feel somehow it's still not quite right.
If we know that emotions are information and anger and hate are clues that a violation has taken place, we can provide full acceptance for them, even when people are locating their sense of self within those emotions. How could they not, in the midst of the violation? You look at someone bright and beautiful whose dreams have been reduced to "I hope we have water today" and you'd be sorry to see it if they weren't angry! People are going to be full of anger when they are violated, that's just the way it goes.
But I think it's also "just the way it goes" that without a way to expend the energy of anger toward a world without violation and retaliation, we're all doomed to more of the same. It's intimidating to face rage and still speak up for forgiveness, and maybe now isn't the right time, but when is the right time? When does injustice ever let up?
It isn't that I forgive from the goodness of my heart. I have done all my forgiving for the selfish reason that I don't like how hate and anger poison my system and personality. (And truth be told I forgive the bare minimum to achieve this!) I haven't dealt with occupation and bombing and loss of life and limb, of course. I'd probably be homicidally and suicidally frothing at the mouth.
But on the other hand, how can you take militant nationalism personally, despite it's personal consequences for you? What is the point of hate as a response to collective insanity? The same with personal transgressions too though - you eventually realize it has nothing to do with you, it is the perpetrator's limitations, so why should your life face backward, consumed by vengefulness?
But I don't know how, during and not after, you can keep that perspective, when you are still being held down, powerless, and the pain is so fresh, and your life, even facing forward, feels completely ruined.
So I have to say that, while the violation continues, we still need the anger, and trying to shush it because it breaks our denial adds to the problem, and reduces our own humanity. Right now we need more outcry about everything going on, not less.
Ultimately, though, I don't want a world of more of the same - there has to be a way beyond hate and domination and "you slap me, I will break your arm!!" a sentiment which makes me feel tight and sick for everyone involved.
It brought tears to my eyes to listen to the Kojo Namdi show today - the topic was Rwanda, and women who'd lost everyone to deliberate mass killing, while hidden in spiderholes, were telling their stories, and rebuilding their country, along with the other side, and writing about what happened and why, and forgiving. Their beauty and peacefulness, along with their pain, radiated from the radio and touched me.
posted by Atieno | 12:31 PM
|
0 comments
