A shift in tactics but not philosophy
The recent events in India that concluded with a hotel in ruins and over 200 killed, including most of the hostage takers, reminds us that the world still isn’t a safe place. At least six Americans lost their lives in the incident, which in some respects may be thought of as India’s answer to 9/11. The world’s second most populated nation (and largest democracy) has seen its share of international news lately as an Indian Navy ship sank a suspected “mother ship” of Somali pirates who have threatened shipping in that region of the globe.
While it’s doubtful these two incidents are related and the more recent crisis is thought to be Pakistani-based, it brings out the idea that it doesn’t take a large army to create chaos. It was a small network embodied in nineteen hijackers that engineered the chaos of 9/11; similarly less than a dozen gunmen attacked ten sites in Mumbai. But unlike the 9/11 terrorists the gunmen apparently were determined to survive their assault and had an escape plan that didn’t come to pass.
Obviously the question then becomes whether a similar incident would be possible here in America. While there’s generally no need to make our nation into a police state, there are probably some high-impact, high-visibility targets out there such as the Super Bowl or President-elect Obama’s upcoming inauguration where security is going to have to be airtight. Certainly those who partake in the events will grumble about this but it’s a consequence of depending on others for security.
If you look at the deeper meaning of the Mumbai incident, however, it’s also a reminder that tensions between groups which have gone back centuries aren’t easily solved with words. I guess these gunmen weren’t exactly enamored with the sentiment expressed below.
In the famous “Coexist” sticker, we have representations of Islam (the crescent and star), Wicca (pentagram), science (theory of relativity), Judaism (Star of David), Buddhism (the karma wheel dotting the “i”), the symbol for Taoism as the “s”, and Christianity (the cross). It’s obviously a nice concept; unfortunately we’re always going to have people who fail to live with the differences we have with one another.
To play devil’s advocate though, what would the world be like with one religion, one race, and one belief system? Probably the closest we have to that situation is a nation like North Korea, which is a totalitarian’s idea of paradise but not so great for those unfortunate enough to be born there. While the Marxist ideal is for a society made equal (the phrase “from each according to their means, to each according to their needs” describes the Marxist philosophy well) Orwell was correct when he observed in Animal Farm that some are more equal than others.
One thing many portions of the globe have in common is the lack of equality in opportunity coupled with equality of outcome for most, with that outcome generally being people living a hardscrabble, hand-to-mouth existence. While this also occurs here in America, most times it’s the fault of those who didn’t take advantage of the opportunities presented to them – still we’re also generous enough to continue making an effort to improve their lives through various means. It’s one reason that those Americans killed in Mumbai were in India to begin with.
Perhaps we in America more than anyone do coexist, but there’s always going to be those who see that as a weakness to be exploited. When weakness is evident the strong attempt to take advantage, and we as humans aren’t always exempt from the law of the jungle – the recent Mumbai tragedy tells us some would rather follow those rules than the rules of a just society.
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Maybe this doesn’t quite relate, but I think it’s worth bringing up as an afterword. Apparently my guess was correct that my lofty status on BlogNetNews indeed didn’t make another blogger’s day. On the other hand, it’s good to have friends too.
I’ll just choose to coexist for now since I have better things to write about.
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