The Zeitgeist Movement
Response to the Media
'Death of Osama Bin Laden'
On May 1, 2011
Pres. Barack Obama appeared on national television
with the spontaneous announcement that Osama bin Laden,
the purported organizer of the tragic events of September 11th 2001,
was killed by military forces in Pakistan.
Within moments, a media blitz ran across virtually all
television networks, in what could only be described
as a grotesque celebratory display,
reflective of a level of emotional immaturity
that borders on cultural psychosis.
Depictions of people running through the streets of New York
and Washington, chanting jingoistic American slogans,
waving their flags like the members of some cult,
praising the death of another human being,
reveals yet another layer of this sickness we call modern society.
It is not the scope of this response to address the political usage
of such an event, or to illuminate the staged orchestration
of how public perception was to be controlled by the mainstream media
and the United States Government.
Rather the point of this article is to express
the gross irrationality apparent,
and how our culture becomes so easily fixed and emotionally charged
with respect to surface symbology rather than true root problems,
solutions, or rational considerations of circumstance.
The first and most obvious point
is that the death of Osama bin Laden means nothing
when it comes to the problem of international terrorism.
His death simply serves as a catharsis
for a culture that has a neurotic fixation on revenge and retribution.
The very fact that the government which,
from a psychological standpoint, has always served
as a paternal figure for its citizens, reinforces the idea
that murdering people is a solution to anything
should be enough for most of us to take pause and consider
the quality of the values coming out of the zeitgeist itself.
However, beyond the emotional distortions and tragic,
vindictive pattern of rewarding the continuation of human division
and violence comes a more practical consideration
regarding what the problem really is
and the importance of that problem with respect to priority.
The death of any human being is of an immeasurable consequence
in society. It is never just the death of the individual.
It is the death of relationships, companionships, support
and the integrity of familial and communal environments.
The unnecessary death of 3000 people on September 11th, 2001
is no more or no less important than the deaths of those during
the World Wars via cancer and disease, accidents or anything else.
As a society, it is safe to say that we seek a world
that strategically limits all such unnecessary consequences
through social approaches that allow for the greatest safety
our ingenuity can create.
It is in this context
that the neurotic obsession with the events of September 11th, 2001
become gravely insulting and detrimental to progress.
An environment has now been created where
outrageous amounts of money, resources and energy is spent
seeking and destroying very small subcultures of human beings
that pose ideological differences
and act on those differences through violence.
Yet, in the United States alone, each year,
roughly 30,000 people die from automobile accidents,
the majority of which could be stopped by very simple structural changes.
That’s ten 9/11′s each year,
yet no one seems to pine over this epidemic.
Likewise, over 1 million Americans die from heart disease
and cancer annually, causes of which are now easily linked
to environmental influences in the majority.
Yet, regardless of the over 330 9/11′s
occurring each year in this context,
the governmental budget allocations for research
on these illnesses is only a small fraction
of the money spent on “anti-terrorism” operations.
Such a list could go on and on with regard to
the perversion of priority when it comes to what it means
to truly save and protect human life
and we hope there are many out there who can recognize
the severe imbalance we have at hand with respect to our values.
So, coming back to the point of revenge and retribution,
this response will conclude with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King,
likely the most brilliant intuitive mind when it came to conflict
and the power of non-violence.
On September 15th, 1963, a Birmingham Alabama church was bombed,
killing four small girls attending Sunday school.
In a public address, Dr. King stated:
“What murdered these four girls?
Look around. You will see that many people
that you never thought about participated in this evil act.
So tonight, all of us must leave here
with a new determination to struggle.
God has a job for us to do.
Maybe our mission is to save the soul of America.
We can’t save the soul of this nation throwing bricks.
We can’t save the soul of this nation getting our ammunitions
and going out shooting physical weapons.
We must know that we have something much more powerful.
Just take up the ammunition of love.”
For more information, visit: www.thezeitgeistmovement.com