10 Years

I, along with everyone else in the western hemisphere, learned last night that Osama Bin-Laden had been killed and buried at sea (cue the conspiracy theories).  Now I could care less about him and his organization and his supposed activities but the response to his death has been astonishing.  I was watching the Mets-Phillies game last night (I can't believe, with their rotation, that the Phillies are losing any games but they'll still win it this year) and the news of Bin-Laden's death was released.  The game actually stopped while fans gave a standing ovation while chanting "U S A".  It was sickening to see this group of people staring at their cell phones waiting with bated breath for updates regarding the death of someone that they "hate" for reasons completely unknown to them.

The fact is that Americans needed an outlet for their anger and fear 10 years ago, finding it in a relatively benign individual.  Psychologically, such outlets are necessary for maintaining sanity because explanation is a form of control.  Consequently, some joy at his death is logical.  However, something about a large group of people cheering for a man's death left a bad taste in my mouth.  It felt like a lynch mob.  It felt barbaric.  It felt sub-human.  It felt as though what makes us human was suspended for a moment.  It was a disturbing event (and the Phillies lost).

Update: Later in the morning, I thought a little about what was driving these douchebags at the Mets game (and elsewhere) to cheer to Bin-Laden's death.  Patriotism seems to be the most likely candidate, an absurd concept that appeals to the lowest common denominator of humanity.  To believe that the "enemy" of one's country is also an enemy of the individuals that comprise that country is to suspend individuality, a suspension only the most timid and pathetic of us will make.  Those who identify so strongly with their country are regressing to a stage of development many of us vacate in early childhood.  Such a regression is the hallmark of an anxiety-riddled person without the wherewithal to sustain such pressure and retain that which makes them adults.  They rely on their country to identify what they are as people.  By extension, only children and regressed adults should be experiencing joy on this day.  Only those without a concrete sense of self and who are, fundamentally, devoid of makes us people, can enjoy the death of someone that has had so little direct influence on their lives.  The influence Bin-Laden had on many was cursory at best and, while the US is painting this as a victory I can assure you that they are shitting their pants in fear.  Small-minded individuals have been willing to sacrifice their children and their lives for the country so long as there was a common enemy, someone to hate as a group.  With the death of Bin-Laden only the most moronic won't ask the most logical follow up question: "For what purpose are we still sacrificing, our enemy is dead?"  The US had better find a new communal enemy to convince the weakest, and most numerous, of us that there is still a reason for their sacrifice, otherwise even they might start asking the questions the rest of us have been asking for 10 years.