This is a post on an article about uneasiness with the joyful noise that's being made at the death of Osama bin Ladin.
Excellent article. For those commenters diagnosing the author with a hatred of Judaeo-Christian tradition, you couldn't be more off base. Whatever the author's personal beliefs, his article shares a humility and a respect for life that are right in line with the teachings of Christ.
I just wanted to say that I take great solace in this article. I generally can accept and understand and even participate in whatever various cultural trends are seizing the nation at a given time. There are occasions, however, where I find myself literally unable to comprehend the emotions and actions of those around me. A couple of movies come to mind to exemplify this phenomenon - Borat and Atonement. In each of these movies I sat hopelessly bored and uninterested while dozens of people around me in the theater laughed and cried respectively and the movies themselves went on to seemingly unanimous critical acclaim. It made me feel separated from humanity and isolated from that which others seemed to take for granted. I simply could not understand what was appealing about these movies, even as I understood the arguments about why people found them enjoyable. I just couldn't find a way to appreciate them, even on their supposed merits.
The death of Osama bin Ladin is like Borat and Atonement for me. I understand academically that people want revenge and are willing to cloak it in the concept of justice. I certainly agree that bin Ladin deserved to die more than your average Joe. Nevertheless I find the rejoicing that is going on inexplicable, and perhaps representative of an extremely dark motivation. The deaths associated with airplane crashes on September 11th 2001 (which accounts for about 2% of the deaths that occurred that day, assuming it was average) were tragic deaths, and should not be a source of rejoicing. Killing bin Ladin is a regrettable but necessary task given the grim reasons for undertaking the effort. Why rejoice in the occurance of 9/11? Rejoicing in vengeance is nothing more than rejoicing in the original deed, as is exhorting the crime to be part of "God's plan."
I don't get it, and I probably never will. But it is comforting to know that there are those, such as the author of this article, that share my opinion of this necessary tragedy. Death is always a tragedy, and Osama bin Ladin's death is absolutely a tragedy given the actions he took to necessitate it. The killing of Osama bin Ladin can help bring closure, but it should not bring joy except to the most sadistic dog kickers among us.
