But our terror is not what you might expect. Our government has been so successful in its efforts to "terrorize" us, to paralyze us and motivate us with fear that this culture of fear has now become mainstream.
I find myself arguing politically that no, we need to focus on our people, on social issues, healthcare, poverty, etc. In return I get "we need to go after bin laden." And that's it. For some people it is literally all about fear, fear of the unknown, fear of small, radical groups of muslims.
The other day I made someone so angry with me that the person flew off the handle simply because I felt that supporting acts of torture was wrong. The inevitable argument I faced was "what if your family was in trouble and torture was the only way to help them?" And then I was blamed somehow for the acts of torture the enemy has committed on our own boys in the armed forces?!
I abhor torture. I don't like war, murder, oppression, slavery. I don't like that my fellow men are so capable of resorting to such action simply because they want something they don't have. I also don't like the fact that my fellow man might actually lack something they NEED to survive. But I guess these days I am in the minority since I am not letting the fear mongering going on by our government, and other entities, penetrate that far into my life. At least for the moment.
Am I a wrong? Is torture justifiable?
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