Thoughts on September 11th (I).
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'You don't get in life what you want. You get what you are!'
- Les Brown.
What you like, others may not. This simple piece of truth seems to be one of the most difficult ideas for us humans to learn, and this lack of perspective is what ultimately cause events such as what happened in New York on September 11, 2001.
History is filled with examples of crusades, holy wars and all kinds of evangelisation attempts in political religious and cultural terms. Many of these past attempts were enforced with armies and guns. Today the world may be (or seem) more peaceful, but the lack of understanding continues, and so does the problem.
As painful as it might be to analyse the terrorist attack on the WTC and other similar deeds, and as terrible as it might be to admit it, the growing 'popularity' of terrorism against western targets is not a tale of good guys versus evil ones, but the reaction of mass murderers who are capitalising on the resentment of a significant portion of humankind against western policies, and especially those of the United States of America.
While terrorists are indeed criminals, their existence should not come to us as a surprise, since western governments on more than one occasion pretended to use them in order to further their own policies abroad, training and supporting them until these criminal groups acquire a life of their own.
And guess what? If terrorist organisations are able to capitalise on the resentment of many people, instead of trying to view the matter as a John Wayne-against-the-bad-guys story, we westerners, and especially the citizens of the United States should try to do a little bit of self-critique, for in the actions of our own governments elected by none else than ourselves, there is a great deal of responsibility in what is happening.
