America, Land of Hypocrisy

It's been an eventful three weeks in my life. I got married. My year-odometer ticked over again. I said goodbye to my best friend, having no idea when I'll get to say hello again. And the country of my birth got a massive kick in the ass.

I suppose it's a testament to the nature of the later event that I've started this rant approximately 4,692,188 times. It seems like every time I sit down to write it, I find some new aspect which draws my focus. I think I can easily say that this is the most significant event that my American generation has had to face. We're children born on the outer fringes of the Viet Nam era. The worst thing we had to deal with was the bless'd death of Disco. We greeted the PC into our home with open arms, and are one of the driving forces behind the widespread Internet that we know and love today. It's been a time of peace and prosperity. Frankly, I think it's about time we got booted off the pedestal where we enshrined ourselves.

Believe it or not though, that isn't the focus of my rant today. While I do indeed think that we've been, in essense, "asking for it" all these years, I truly wish that things hadn't come to this. I'm a distant and cynical person by nature, but even I feel chilled at the images of planes smashing into buildings and people desperately flinging themselves out of 100 story windows to almost certain death. But what chills me even more is the attitudes of this country after the fact.

The hypocrisy that I've seen pouring forth from the minds and mouths of my fellow Americans is as sickening as any terrorist's actions. Moreso, because we're supposed to know better.

Almost as soon as the Twin Towers fell, Americans were shrieking for blood. ANY blood. They screamed that they wanted justice. They didn't want justice, they wanted revenge, and they didn't care where it came from, so long as it came quickly. The Internet was ablaze with people openly wondering why we didn't nuke pretty much every other country off the map. "They're not American, therefore they're the enemy!" seemed to be the driving force behind this mob mentality.

Yes, we've been hurt. Yes, we've lost a bit of innocence. But to think that the answer to all this pain and suffering is to cause MORE pain and suffering ... And we're the supposed leaders in human civilization?

Ah, but these are the thoughts and feelings of the general populace. A mob mentality indeed. Surely our leaders know better than to harbour such brash and hateful attitudes.

What a naive fool I am sometimes.

Here in this country, we uphold certain rights. Certain liberties. One of which you may recall as "innocent until proven guilty". Why then, I find myself wondering, are we already condeming countries for these acts? Why are we so certain that one man in particular is the chief mastermind behind the plot? Does the evidence seem to point that way? Well, the authorities would certainly like us to believe so. However I was hearing his name tossed around even before all of the planes had been grounded. Where was the man's fair and equitable trial? Or is it okay for our country to disregard judicial proceedings when it suits us?

When I hear our president state in press conference that he wants a person "dead or alive", that seems like a pretty strong conviction in MY book. It's hard to try the dead, after all.

Crush dictatorships. We must force all others to adhere to our way of government. Only then can the freedom of democracy thrive.

Nuke Afghanistan. Nevermind all the innocent people. They didn't mind about OUR innocent people, why should we extend them the same courtesy?

Am I the only one who feels sickened watching us turn into those we claim to stand against? Am I alone in feeling repulsed by the outlook our nation is taking?

It's a sad, sad day when the only reason we take the time to give a damn about anybody else is because of a terrible tragedy. And yet, in the same breath, we seek to blindly inflict our pain tenfold.

We are, slowly but surely, becoming that which we claim to so vehemently oppose. I think that, more than anything else, is the true tragedy.