I don't want this to be a day people remember forever.

[jmtorres]

Osama bin Laden's death was announced today.

I found out when my housemate mentioned it to me. I did not have any really strong feelings about it. Right now I have a lot of cynicism about the political world for which I blame my political film class--think Dr. Strangelove meets Wag the Dog and you know about where my conception of my government at war is.

And apathy. I have apathy.

I probably shouldn't be making this post.

I feel really disconnected from people right now, because what I'm seeing on my droll and on twitter suggests that most people, you know, feel something or other fairly strongly about this. My brain promptly filed it away under "war pageantry" and spent an hour not thinking about it. And then I read the internet and my brain pulled it back out again to examine and try to figure out... why people care. And I get it on an intellectual basis, though most of my intellectual basis is "Other people take part in and buy into the drama machine... right." But on an emotional basis, I got nothing.

I can't tell if my cynicism is a case of understanding too much or understanding nothing at all.

I get why people who suffered or lost loved ones due to bin Laden's attacks feel happy, avenged, that justice was done. I get that vast swathes of Americans feel that they suffered even if the effects on their lives were indirect. I get why this feels important to them.

But I wish this would be a footnote in history at best. I wish for bin Laden, and the pain he caused people, to be forgotten. I wish that the day people celebrated someone they hated getting killed is not a day that we will choose to remember. I hope this fades away.

(Because if it doesn't, if bin Laden and who he was and why anyone cares that he's dead stays with us forever, then hasn't his terrorism accomplished this purpose he intended?)

Comments

[jackandahat]

I'm glad someone else said this - I'm not articulate enough to have posted, but I'm thinking it. I'm not sure what I think about all this, but I'm also not entirely sure I feel anything. It has happened, and... it has happened. And that is that.

[verity]

Um yeah. I'm there with you.

[jetpack_monkey]

I'm in an ambivalent place here, somewhat compounded by a viewing of The Trouble with Harry which had weird and unexpected thematic resonances with today's events, in a sort of "an asshole is dead, this I'm supposed to celebrate?" way.

[xenacryst]

I'll be sitting in your corner with you. My first impression: war pageantry. My second impression: how are they so sure it's really him this time? And underlying all of these is a just-make-it-stop attitude.

[grammarwoman]

how are they so sure it's really him this time?

This, exactly.

[outlineofash]

I feel really disconnected from people right now, because what I'm seeing on my droll and on twitter suggests that most people, you know, feel something or other fairly strongly about this.

This, exactly. When I heard the news last night, the only thing I did was detachedly wonder how much would really change from this.

[branchandroot]

Yes, this. I just... the bigger picture isn't about him. It never was, despite both his and various governments' attempts to make him the Be All Icon of it. So what does this mean? What does this do? Nothing I can see.

I'm reminded of the Stanford Experiment, and the Milgram Experiment. Everyone thought, because the major political heads were dead, it was over. But no. It's always there, right there in all of us, in all of our culture and socialization, and killing a figurehead or two doesn't end anything.

[kopernik]

But I wish this would be a footnote in history at best. I wish for bin Laden, and the pain he caused people, to be forgotten. I wish that the day people celebrated someone they hated getting killed is not a day that we will choose to remember. I hope this fades away.

Yes to this. All of it, one hundred percent. And, optimist that I am, I couldn't bring myself to celebrate largely because my mind tends to go to "how is this going to backfire on us?" immediately.