A few weeks ago, before September 11th, I was reading a book length interview with Woodrow Wilson interviewing Bertrand Russel. (Yes, I'm a nerd. SAY NOTHING....) Interestingly enough, there was an entire section dedicated to his thoughts on Nationalism. While I really do disagree with some of his opinions, I agree, especially after the recent events, his views on this subject.
According to Russel, Nationalism is the greatest threat to the mortality, or lack there of, of the human race. Why? Because Nationalism makes people do stupid, stupid things believing that they have a cause. In the American Revolution, it was Nationalism that inspired American colonists to fight the British, it was also the thing which, for better or for worst, which caused them to win. Nationalism will make Afghanistan's citizens, even if they don't approve of the Taliban's reign, take up the guns and kill the enemy of their country. Nationalism is what will make the "soldiers" (i.e. boys with guns) believe that the terrororist attacks were on America as a whole. In a way, a very big way, they were, but more specifically, they were on capitalism and the terrorist's own scary way of dealing with their insecurities. (Thank you psych 101.)
I won't even try to condone what happened. I'm just as disgusted/terrified as the next random person, and to be completely honest, the days following the 11th were the first time that I ever felt patriotic. Ironically enough, those feelings stopped when we started blowing up Afganistan. Funnily enough, that's not even to say that I don't think that we should retaliate. I know that's kind of a contradiction, ok, a REALLY big contradiction, which just proves even more that I am like any other person who is even half sain in America. I have no idea what we should do, and am just thanking my lucky stars that I am not older than thirty, involved in politics, and have to make critical decisions involving America's welfare. Yea for that.
So I have no idea what we should do, but I have a very nice understanding of things that I don't like/what I understand to be very, very bad. One of those big things which is first on my list, happens to be war. I don't like it. Not many people do. (Or that's what I keep telling myself with the hope that eventually it will be true.) War and Nationalism go hand in hand, which is why I knew that we were going to invade Afganistan before Bush did. With the flag count exceeding thrity thousand the growing belief in Bush (egh), it was only a matter of time. I also know that it would take an incredibly strong president who wouldn't mind not being re-elected to avoid smashing the hell out of the Afgan people. Not gonna happen with Bushy boy in any sort of power.
The complete irony, or so I believe, is that we're retaliating to a retaliation. For cripes sake, their attack on America or Captialism or very big poweful symbols/buildings was in response to all the crap that America has done in the past. We're going to turn into Israel and Palestine. You do something, I respond to your something, and then you respond to the something that I did which was all in response to the original something, which after a long line of something eventually seems completely irrelevent. I'm articuate, said the deaf, blind, sleep deprived rabbit. What's even more ironic is that because of Nationalism, retaliation will never stop, increasing the scariness level.
Now all I want to know is when, how, and how many Sesamie Street characters will be involved in the next retaliation to our retaliation.
I wonder how many times I can say retaliation in one sentance.