Archive Home Page Subj: Re:evil-to oberon
Date: 95-04-21 17:41:42 EST
From: Joe Uhrig
Any thoughts on evil in relationship the the bombing and tragic loss of life in OK,OK ?
Subj: Re:evil-
Date: 95-04-22 09:50:13 EST
From: Joe Uhrig e
>>All I can end with is that NO HOMOSEXUAL group would have bombed a bldg and killed babies like these cowards. <<
Basically true that our community is more nonviolent in response to it's external issues, the notable exceptions being Stonewall and the SF Riots after the Dan White verdict. I do think however that we tend to take things out on ourselves more than other social groups. For so many of us our basic cultural indoctrination has been to internalize.
Let's not be so quick to vilify and scapegoat people and groups of people into the categories of good and evil.
The OK bombing seemed to uncover a lot of underlying emotions in the same manner as Ranch Apocalypse or the Union, South Carolina killings. The first thing we do in the face of such obvious evil is try to put a face on it so that it becomes easier to understand and so that we can focus our anger and grief on someone. Errant blame shifting was initially a characteristic of all three incidents. Whose fault is it? Who is to blame? Natural process inexorably recovered it's place as the leading taker of life less than 5 minutes after the bombing. The deaths in these kinds of incidents are barely blips on the larger screen, but the powerful collective emotions, horror, anger, grief, powerlessness, now greatly amplified by the media on a global stage, linger for resolution.
Who is to blame? Well obviously the person or persons who created and exploded the bomb. But that's the answer that satisfies our emotional need to compartmentalize and punish the evil (for now it has a face) without exposing ourselves to the uncomfortable larger more difficult questions of why it exists at all. For a brief time now we'll have found people and groups and issues to personify evil. The collective hole will have been plugged. We will have filled in the blank. Yes see what the religious right is about, the liberals will say. Yes that is the work of Satan, the conservatives will say.
Or is it so simple. There are other ways to view this, and if I read my symbols right, in this as in so many other events in human history, I think someone's feet just struck another apex of the apicies of the stairs.
The deepest horror uncovered in all three was a realization of what was done to children and powerlessness in the face of it The powerful emotions of the rescue workers and the anguish of those who lost someone they loved, our praying for a miracle that can at least let us extract even the smallest measure of hope from the tragedy.
The widely published newspaper photo of the fire captain gazing down in anguish at the dead child he is carrying pretty much says it all.