|
Jewish World Review Oct. 12, 2001/ 25 Tishrei, 5762
Marianne M. Jennings
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
HUMAN nature has reared its, well, natural head. Social reformists have long denied its existence or, alternatively, suppressed it through scoffing. But fright and flight arouse human nature. We have become children with monsters in our closets. We are at once irrationally fearful and spiritually susceptible.
Human nature pursues self-preservation, despite its politically incorrect demands. Guns are flying off the shelves into the homes of those who have never owned a weapon. Those who mocked the Second Amendment find guns soothe nerves. Guns sales are up, 500% nationwide since the WTC attacks. Guns ward off the monsters.
Human nature knows danger. A Time bureau chief in Jerusalem, Lisa Beyer, discloses that Israelis profile unabashedly in their fight against Arab terrorists. Racial profiling is an incendiary term used to intimidate police officers. Now human nature has a majority of African-Americans supporting profiling to curb terrorism. Survival instincts ignore the magnanimity of intellectualism. Diversity be damned, we got monsters here.
There is the monster within -- diabolical human nature. Father Judge and New York's finest aside, there was ugliness in NY with looting by rescue workers of the WTC Tourneau watch shop and sprinting by financial district types past day care workers from WTC 5 who had babes in arms and frightened toddlers in shopping carts. Some men tossed their shirts over the tots to deflect dust, but failed to lend a hand as they ran past women plodding along in shredded cloth slippers. Shirtless monsters.
Human nature's greed ghoul slowly emerges. With a mourning period less respectable than that of Scarlett O'Hara's token one for hubby 2, Frank Kennedy, the lawyers now circle Ground Zero, eyes wide with contingent fee wonderment. Mighty ugly battles over who gets how much financial relief from charities are percolating.
September 11, 2001 exposed our soft underbellies, both the vulnerable part and the smarmier side. Much to the chagrin of New Age theorists, good and evil exist; we speak freely of both. These absolutes belie the postmodern notion that all bad conduct is in the genes, the chemistry, the upbringing and thereby excused. There is not only agreement on evil, there is consensus that what was eating the perpetrators is no excuse.
The likes of such universal moral condemnation haven't been seen since Roseanne's version of the national anthem and Tom's leaving Nicole. No one has spoken of possible bipolar disorder in Mohamed Atta or Hani Hanjour. Capitalist deprivation lectures are missing. The hijackers are evil - even Tony Blair allows so.
Human nature craves such absolutes. Absolute authority without judicial review frightens relativists. The godless era of moral relativism with its butterfly reincarnations, candles, soul mates, and Enya music is terribly unsatisfying for monstrous fears. Intellectualism mixed with sensitivity and brownie-flavored espressos starve the spirit.
Human nature seeks something more than detached and comfy spirituality. Fully 82% of the country went back to church within the first week after the WTC destruction. Christian bookstores reported double-digit growth, mostly due to Bible purchases.
Absolutes, church attendance and scripture purchases are manifestation of human nature's recognition of the existence and jurisdiction of a higher authority. Human nature wants a force greater then self for solace and some absolutes and accountability for curbing its dark side.
What can lasso human nature, retaining its charming vulnerability while curbing its ugly side? Channeling human nature requires divine accountability in a disciplined life. The structure of religion works.
But, my colleagues argue, religion got us into this for the hijackers wrote of their desire for eternal glory with their higher authority via mass slaughter. Their conduct was hatched in envy, revenge and all that is the antithesis of any religion. Those who self-select religious tenets are dangerous in their cloaks of self-righteousness. They honor only what appeals to them and become enslaved by the dark side of the soul.
Several of the hijackers visited topless bars in the days before September 11. A religion offended by women's foreheads showing in public hardly endorses lap dances. These religiously motivated hijackers spent their final hours of life in utter disregard of their faith. Two others toured Wal-Mart, ate at Pizza Hut and filled a rental car with gas on September 10. Not exactly the stuff of worship and spirituality, unless the reverence is for MTV's Real World.
Religion should not be condemned or ostracized. It should be welcomed back for its absolutes can quell the fear that grips those in survival stores purchasing masks. Religion, when all of its tenets are honored, seizes the best of human nature and condemns and curbs its monster side - something difficult for relativists to accept as their hollow and spiritually unsatisfying theories collapse about
10/05/01: Sensitive man
|