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The True Power Of Terrorism
By Virginia Bola, PsyD, Fri Dec 9th
Those of us hundreds of miles from ground zero sat glued to ourtelevision sets with horror and disbelief as two of the tallestbuildings in the world slowly disintegrated in a violence ofdust and death. Since that bright September morning in 2001, none of us havefelt the same. Undergoing an unexpected and brutal nationalrape, we shuddered at our own vulnerability and defenselessness. In grief, anger, and frustration, we gathered our tattereddignity around us and vowed repeatedly that it would neverhappen again. Next time, we would be ready, we would defendourselves, we would regain our sense of power andinvulnerability. We set out resolutely on the journey to makeour world safe again.
Security was tightened at airports, border crossings, ports,bridges, and nuclear generating stations. Laws were passed toabridge civil liberties to better fight those out to hurt theUnited States. Action was implemented in Afghanistan to find theterrorist cells and overthrow their political supporters. Thelong-standing conventions of war prisoner treatment wereabrogated in the name of national security. Iraq was invaded ina preemptive strike to limit the likelihood of future attacks onAmerican soil. Where has the yearning for security led us? We have become the enemy. In the hazy logic of the Patriot Actor ethnic profiling at airports and borders, and the speciousarguments supporting the treatment protocols at Abu Ghraib andGuantanamo Bay, America has bought into the mindset of terrorism. When individuals are kidnapped, psychologically or physicallyabused, threatened with pain, rape, torture, or death, theybecome terrified shells of their former selves. Often, theystart to identify with their captors, their wills bent to thetwisted but all-powerful logic of their oppressors. The prisonerbecomes the kapo and exhibits more brutality than his superiors.This is the true price of terrorism: the response it elicitsfrom its victims. Since all of us are direct or indirect victims of 911, we allneed to guard against the mindset we have assumed. We must askourselves about our priorities. Is improved safety worth theprice of voiding our civil rights? Is the defense against terrorworth the abdication of our humanitarian and ethical ideals?Shall we descend to the degradation and torture of our enemiesin order to defend our "superior" way of life? The United States has always, no matter how misguided or hatedits temporary policies may have periodically been, stood as abeacon of freedom and fairness in a world too often enslaved andunjust. It is this beacon, this ideal, this dream that millionsof American soldiers, through multiple wars over more than 200years, have fought and died for.
It is too precious to beobliterated by a suicide bomb or hijacked airplanes flying intobuildings. It will flicker and die only when the values itrepresents no longer exist. It has been imperiled before: in the sacking of Washington, theinternal convulsions of the Civil War, the formalizedinstitution of slavery, the destruction of Native Americancultures, the seizure of Panama, the machinations ofMcCarthyism, the dropping of the atomic bomb. Somehow, ladyliberty was able to dust herself off and recapture theinspiration and vision she represents to the world. Now she faces her biggest challenge yet: surviving intact in aprevailing climate of fear. There have been wars before wheretoo many young men died before their time. This time, thedisturbed sleep of the watchful, wary soldier in his bivouac hasmoved into the bedroom of suburbia. We no longer feel safe,agonizing over the vulnerability of our children and loved ones.We watch the danger alerts turn different colors and know thatsometime, somewhere, another strike will come. The long heritage of openness, personal liberties, restraint,innocence until guilt is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, andthe willingness to defend those rights to the death, hasdissolved into the murk of security above freedom, life aboveideals, and apathy above involvement. We invade each other'sprivacy as a mechanism of defense. We abuse and humiliate ourprisoners in the name of preventing their future abuse andhumiliation of us. We expand our "no fly" lists to close thattraditionally-open golden door. We shut down our borders lest aterrorist lurks among the tired, poor masses. A post-911-world will never be as innocent as before, no morethan the permanent changes wrought by the assassination ofPresident Kennedy or the bombing of Pearl Harbor could beavoided. Reaction to tragic, horrifying events is inevitable,both personally and politically. It is when that reactionbecomes the basis for major decisions and colors how laws areinterpreted, ethics are enforced, and relationships aredeveloped that we must step back and look at our deep-rootedprinciples and identify where they have become warped andwithered. It is when we look at the world through the eyes of those whohate and threaten us that we see the true power of terrorism:not to destroy us but to assimilate us. That is when theterrorists will know that they have truly won. About the author:Virginia Bola is a licensed clinical psychologist with deepinterests in Social Psychology and politics. She has performedtherapeutic services for more than 20 years and has studied theeffects of cultural forces and employment on the individual. Theauthor of an interactive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: AnUnemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker'sEdge, she can be reached athttp://www.drvirginiabola.blogspot.com
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