You're angry. Accept it.

[firecat]

You might think you're angry at the people responsible, or you might think you're angry at the people who want to stomp those responsible into the ground. Or both. Or something else.

Be angry. Accept it. But don't pretend that your motives are more pure and compassionate than others'.

"Holier than thou" is exactly what leads to stuff like this. There's only a tiny step from thinking you're better than the local thug who is badmouthing Muslims and thinking you're better than the passengers on the plane you are about to use as a large bomb.

The only response to something like this is to try to get it to stop. But trying to get it to stop is also what leads to more things like this.

Comments

[cha.livejournal.com]

I'm not angry - just very sad.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Great post! However, at the moment MSGV.
(My State of Grieving Varies).

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Yah... I'm a bit angry, but mostly sick, and resigned. If I could afford it, I'd plan to have lunch tomorrow at the local Mediterranean resteraunt - something tells me they could use the clientele, and the support, but money problems continue to make any kind of financial planning an extravagance. I'll try giving blood later this week, or sometime next week, when the donations are dropping off. Last time I tried I was turned away for low iron count; I'll do what I can to bring that up before I try again.

I'm just crossing my fingers and toes and praying that we won't wake up to news like this again tomorrow.

[firecat]

Yeah, we have been discussing how soon to go to our local Afghan restaurant.

[nimma.livejournal.com]

I'm not angry, though, at least not yet. Horrified, numb, but not angry. Not sure why. I try to picture what could have been in the mind of a person who would fly an airplane into a building full of ordinary people working in an office, and I just can't. It's incomprehensible. It's like watching a shark eating someone swimming in the water next to you; you're screaming, in shock, but do you hate the shark? Nobody expects human behavior of a shark. Those people must have been completely insane, completely inhuman...

Am I wrong? Is there some way a human being could retain a shred of sanity and do such a thing?

[xp85goblin.livejournal.com]

I think almost any definition of the term "Evil" applies however, which is a concept that makes no sense outside the human sphere anyway. To me, the term "Evil" connotes inverse altruism, which is to sacrifice oneself to cause suffering in others with no hope of gain to oneself or those you hold dear. I think that what these people did fits that definition in spades.