Meaningful Glances

Every once in a while, a news story distinguishes itself as particularly moving, tragic, or enlightening. I'd like to add another category for exceptional news: catastrophically stupid. I want to make very sure the reader understands this early on - I'm incensed. Angry to the boiling point and spilling over the edge. The news story in question is but flint and tinder to a bonfire that has been built over years of listening, reading, and otherwise observing. Here's the story: "Florida pastor plans 'International Burn a Koran Day.'" And at the very mention of it, I've divided any potential readers. Some are offended that a relatively inconsequent man could cause such a stir by the mere mention of such a heinous display of religious intolerance. Others might have been cheering that man on, relieved that someone finally had the guts to take a stand against a radical and violent creed. Still others might be disgusted at the media onslaught and de facto validation of this jerk that looks like he walked out of a Mark Twain look-alike contest minutes before appearing on national TV. I, readers, am all 3 and yet none. And that is why I described this the way I did - catastrophically stupid. In no particular order of stupidity, let me explain.

1) Terry Jones is stupid because he's a jerk who wanted to antagonize a billion or so people, but actually believed that he was doing the right thing! That's right - Terry Jones thought it was a GOOD idea to burn a book that fanatics the world over place more value in than their own lives (or yours!). That is a recipe for a family-size portion of fanatical and murderous hatred. Terry Jones is also stupid for trying to leverage his sudden fame/infamy and make himself out to be someone much more important than he is. It's as simple and childish as my daughter trying to leverage the fact that I want to give her a hug in to being chased and tickled a little more.

2) Those fanatics the world over? Stupid. They are stupid for placing more value in words on paper than human life. Do I really need to state it in a different way? But what constitutes fanaticism and how many murderous, hateful Muslims are there out in the wide world? Here's a quick litmus test that you can do at home: Consider how different this news story would have been if it were bibles, talmuds, or books of mormon on tap for the burn pile. Or, next time one of those ubiquitous Jehovah's Witnesses knocks on your door, tell them you'll gladly take their Watchtower magazine and use it to get a fire started in your wood stove. Might they be offended? Yes, but would you fear for your life? Then ask yourself if you'd say the same thing if it were the Koran and a Muslim on your doorstep. Ding! We have some pretty conclusive, if not scientific results, do we not? Is this based on ignorance, as the media would have you believe? Perhaps, but if the old adage is an adage for any reason at all, actions still speak louder than words, and Muslims are the current world leaders in religiously motivated violence. Sorry, peaceful Muslims, too many bad apples have people avoiding the produce aisle altogether, and I can't really say that I blame them. And here is where it gets even more stupid...

3) The media, the politicians, and every other talking head that made this a huge story is stupid because the attention given to this news item only proves that Islam is to be feared. The president saying that Islam is a peaceful religion AND that pastor Jones ought to seriously reconsider his plan to burn their holy book does NOT imply to me that the president really believes a word he's saying about Islam. It implies that he believes there will be decidedly violent consequences for burning the book of a supposedly peaceful religion. Every talking head and politician who vehemently rebuked pastor Jones gives lie to the peacful nature of Islam. I live in America. People here insult and get insulted every day. Wander online to play a game, as I some times do, and you will learn some of the more colorful ways that people get dissed on a daily basis. We take pride in our freedom to speak out, consider it a matter of identity as Americans that we can say anything to anybody at any time, more or less without fear of repercussion. It's actually a bit disgusting in it's own right that we feel so empowered, but that's another story for another day. So here we are in pastor Jones' back yard again, hearing a man speak his mind, his intention to insult a bunch of people - you know, being as American as they come - and what does the world do? It sucks in it's collective breath and utters what amounts to a "Holy $#@&, people are gonna get murdered over this!" DOESN'T THAT TELL YOU ANYTHING?

But I've digressed a little - my intention is not to convince anyone that Islam is either violent or non-violent as a whole. I mean to say that an awful lot of people are afraid of insulting Islam because there are enough examples in even just recent history to demonstrate that Muslims don't just get mad when insulted, they murder your face off. Know a peaceful Muslim? Great - I've run in to more than a few myself! Does that knowledge make the wackos any less real? No. In fact, the existence of peaceful Muslims over against face-murdering Muslims, or by the same token, peaceful Christians and vigilante abortion-doctor-murdering Christians, is not puzzling at all. It's quite simple, really. Peaceful people are peaceful by and large because they are peaceful. Ditto for violent psychopaths (you peaceful psychopaths get a pass here). I'll grant that there are many people who have found their way from violence to peace through various religious tenets, but you cannot tell me that there aren't just as many people going in the opposite direction for the same reasons. And that leads me to stupidity number four.

4) It is so absolutely futile (and stupid) to play the numbers game like I see so many people doing - Muslims have killed this many people and Christians this many, atheists this many, and so on, ad nauseum. What better way to cheapen the value of life than by comparing religiously motivated body counts (nonreligiously, I suppose, in the case of atheists)? And what better way to artificially up the stakes than by postulating which group will burn forever in hell and which will enjoy eternal bliss? Nutjobs who claim to have been to the "other side" and back notwithstanding, not one human has any firsthand knowledge of what happens after death, so why are we so obsessed with this idea of posthumous judgment? Well there, at least, is a worthy question. We reasoning beings have a corporate sense of justice and yet are faced with a tremendous amount of injustice in the days we live. It is not unreasonable to hope that, somehow, all of that injustice will be dealt with in a satisfactory manner, but as life goes on and we see more and more injustice go unanswered, the hope for that great leveling gets pushed to the realm of the supernatural where it resides, unassailable by the pesky dictates of reality. Grossly oversimplified, maybe, but generally true, as far as I can tell. Let's face it, just about everyone secretly gets a little pleasure out of imagining Hitler and Stalin suffering endlessly for their particularly epic crimes. It's certainly more appealing than imagining that they're just dead and that's it...isn't it? Just like it's much easier to imagine a loved one is lounging with angels on clouds after succumbing to cancer than it is to think of them as just dead and breaking down to their component elements. So let me bring another digression back around to the point at hand by asking why this hope for heaven and fear of hell has driven so many people to kill or be killed over the centuries? As much as I hate to leave a question hanging, I have no good answer for this one. Admitting that pains me but makes it no less true. Why, indeed, is so much of the world's violence rooted firmly in sacred texts and fomented in churches, mosques, and other places of religious assembly? I do not deny that peace is preached from pulpits as well, or sung from minarets, but again I ask, does this make the violence less real? Does it mitigate the grief of the widowed and orphaned survivors of a war between a sovereign nation retaliating and a religiously motivated group of terrorists? Tell the families of the 3000+ killed on September 11th, 2001 that, really, Islam is a peaceful religion and see if their eyes light up with relief. Tell the children whose parents have been killed accidentally by America's ongoing counter-strike that we are a peace-loving, Christian nation and see if they embrace you, the bearer of such wondrous news.

I understand that violence is a fact of life for all animals and obviously not least for us human animals, but we have that most special of abilities in the animal kingdom - the ability to think and reason at a comparitively high level, and we ought to use that gift to reason our way to maybe a little less violence and the incitement thereto. In other words, don't be stupid!