the crufatin liveth
The Crufatin Liveth - When reading the reports of how unified the world is in its opposition to terrorism, I wonder if people notice that the leaders of the world are united, but not necessarily the citizens? One of the more common sentiments voiced by people writing about the WTC destruction is “Why can’t we just turn back the clock and go back to the way things were?” And we know the reason why the coalition of world leaders is going to exterminate terrorists: we need to make certain that the established world order can never be disrupted again. I can certainly support that sentiment; my life is happier than I ever really expected it could be, and I support anything that keeps things that way. However, the majority of the world’s people are not happy with the way things are, and were not terribly satisfied with the world order before September 11. It’s easy to see why Pakistan’s military leader would like to see things stay the way they were, but it’s also easy to see why many Pakistanis don’t really care much one way or the other. And despite our refusal to notice, neither do many Americans.
This is something that we try very hard to ignore. Things today are different from the days when kids followed around Bob Seger, Disco, or Rave DJs. The best way to meet other elite kids today is to participate in anti-globalization insurgency. Kids today aren’t happy with the scraps they’ve been left. Who can forget the anguish of the “establishment” when my generation turned Woodstock into an orgy of vandalism and destruction? And in all of the hand-wringing, I don’t recall that any of the journalists really got the point: nobody wants to have their choices and identities defined by anyone else. The more that the establishment opened their arms in (sometimes embarrassingly enthusiastic) acceptance of the new generation’s interest in Woodstock, the more the new generation rejected this endorsement. I saw a psychologist recently speculating that terrorists choose the path of destruction because it is the only path that makes them feel like they are truly in control of their own environment. The dirty secret of our age is how many people actually feel that way.
Go ahead, explore these people’s grievances. Embrace them; heap fiery coals of understanding upon them. Validate them, and take away the last choice they have left.