Bloodlust

It is difficult to articulate exactly why, but there is something very significant about a nation that so continuously finds purpose and joy in the corpses its government produces, while finding it in so little else. During the Bush years, I frequently wrote about how repetitive, endless fear-mongering over Terrorism and the authoritarian radicalism justified in its name was changing — infecting and degrading — not just America’s policies but its national character.

Among other things, this constant fixation on alleged threats produces the mindset that once the government decrees someone to be a Bad Guy, then anything and everything done to them (or ostensibly done to stop them) is not merely justified but is cause for celebration. That was the mentality that justified renditions, Guantanamo, vast illegal domestic surveillance, aggressive war against Iraq, and the worldwide torture regime: unless you support the Terrorists and Saddam, how could you oppose any of that?
~ from A Remaining Realm of American Excellence by Glenn Greenwald ~

I don't know about you, but I find it very disquieting to see so many of my fellow citizens cheering the deaths of men like bin Laden and Gaddafi. Most of the world's religions as well as philosophical systems like Taoism stress the importance of being merciful. In too many cases, the US acts out of vengeance, not mercy.

Yet, in a nation where the majority of people idolize a Jewish carpenter -- someone who urged us to turn the other cheek -- far too many folks are running around high fiving each other at the news that another defenseless "bad guy" was gunned down.

As I remarked in the comments section of another post on this overall topic, when we trash our so-called reverence for the rule of law, how can we say we are different than the supposed terrorists we oppose?

It's one thing to want to bring alleged criminals against humanity to justice. When individuals mastermind and/or participate in wanton slaughter, they should pay for their misdeeds. I am not suggesting otherwise. But summarily murdering them when they are defenseless is barbaric AND it doesn't serve our own best interests either.

If we refuse to show mercy, then those who oppose us will see no moral need to show any mercy either. They will think that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. All we will end up creating is a race to the immoral bottom -- a place in which each side will try to outdo the other by committing atrocity for atrocity.

Is that the kind of world we really want to live in?