 |
|
Transformation in Tragedy
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Reflections on the Events of September 2001
The evening of September 11 I talked with an eight-year-old friend about what had happened earlier in the day. He, like the rest of us, had been bombarded all day by the rhetoric of war, yet the only thing that could help, he said, was peace. I could only agree with this wisdom, but how can peace come about? In the wake of such horror, is there an opportunity for something beyond the cycles of retaliation and violence? I think there is.
Outrage, fear and the desire to avenge our national pride are expectable and appropriate responses to such a devastating attack on our nation and the terrible pain and loss we have endured. Over and over again in the hours following the event the president and other national leaders have drilled into our minds that this is a war of good against evil. No one can disagree that the perpetrators of these dark deeds must be found and brought to justice, even if it means holding accountable people in the countries that give them refuge. But if these actions include outright attacks on those nations, thus killing more innocent civilians, will this not give birth to addition enemies out of the rubble of destruction?
And who exactly is the enemy? Is it the terrorists who committed the acts and those who direct them? Is it all the Palestinian individuals and Arab groups who applauded them? Is it the Islamic nations that harbor them or, like Iraq, sympathize with them? Well, yes. But is it also all those who hate America, or are highly critical of aspects of our way of life? Is it all the critics of American privilege, wealth and military power, for surely the targets chosen are symbolic of these elements of our society? The list can become rather large and amorphous.
We have been told repeatedly that this was an attack upon American civilization itself, our way of life and everything we stand for. But what exactly lies at the heart of our civilization? If this is a war of good against evil, then what is the best for which we stand? It is here, I believe, that an extraordinary opportunity lies before us.
Two centuries ago, our fore bearers lit the torch of democracy and justice that today shines in so many corners of the world. In the wake of our shared national tragedy, we again have an opportunity to bring forth a new possibility for the nations of the earth. This time it will be a revolution in the way of being human, a consciousness that lifts all boats, in which every person on the planet has a chance to be included, and no one will be left out.
It will be a consciousness that is self-reflective, awake to the arrogance of power, not blind to the injustices of privilege and wealth around the planet. This way of being will know not just the anger of the victims of terrorism, but also the suffering and despair in the Middle East and other regions where that deadly virus breeds. The capacity of the human mind to polarize and find enemies to hate will always be there. But, if we reflect deeply, we will discover in ourselves the ability to recognize this tendency and resist its destructive excesses.
We have the possibility in our time of tragedy to create a genuine global community which is different from a self-congratulatory globalism that masks economic inequality. This new way of being is sensitive to human suffering and oppression everywhere. It is committed to a politics of healing. We have the chance now to move toward an authentic common human identity that yet respects and protects cultural richness and diversity. In this transformation of consciousness we have a unique opportunity to find the peace for which my eight-year-old friend and so many others have longed since the beginning of civilization.
John E. Mack, M.D., is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, psychologist and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mack is the founder of the Center for Psychology & Social Change. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including A Prince of Our Disorder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), and most recently, Passport to the Cosmos.
|
|
|
|
