> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Dan Minette
[snip]
> Do you think that things like equality for women, tolerance of different
> religions, civil liberties, elected governments, etc. is evil?
Heavens, no. To that point, the author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic
would be aghast at the way women are treated in Islamic culture. I am
trying to speak out only against the illusion of self-righteousness and the
hateful language and actions that arise from it. Those (not you) who
interpret that as wholesale condemnation of the United States misunderstand,
but it is to be expected, as it is the same kind of misunderstanding as I'm
criticizing.
> Well that's true. But, I think that expecting Americans to have no anger
> after such an incident us very unproductive.
I certainly didn't mean to suggest either that others shouldn't be angry or
that I'm not angry myself. I am afraid, however, of what we might do in
anger. At the risk of repeating myself, I'll say that what I reject is the
self-righteousness that I hear in angry words. I'm not surprised, though,
that what I wrote didn't come out that way, so I want to thank you for
pointing it out. I know myself well enough to know that I err on the side
of fearing anger in any form, so I need to try especially hard to
distinguish legitimate human anger from self-righteousness that turns into
hatred and unwarranted violence.
> But, speaking of forgiveness now is highly inappropriate.
You brought it up, not me. I spoke of not losing hope for peace and
reconciliation, even as we hold terrorists accountable for their actions.
> I'd also like to throw out one possibility. Talking with friends who
> immediately turn to what we've done wrong, I've gotten the sense that some
> of this talk is a coping mechanism. If we are to blame, then we have
> control...we can prevent future attacks.
That's an interesting thought and I suspect quite accurate. On the other
hand, it's not fair to equate rejection of self-righteousness with blaming
ourselves. We need to hang onto our national conscience these days without
lapsing into passivity.
> I think that denial is a very
> understandable first reaction...its in all the books on grief for goodness
> sakes. But, I think we need to accept that we cannot prevent this type of
> action by behaving properly.
It is impossible for us to behave properly! That is what self-righteousness
forgets.
Nick
