"Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected."
--Jung1
So, he's dead. After a near-decade of terror on the run, Osama bin Laden is dead. The bitter irony is that the announcement came the same day that the death of Adolph Hitler was made public in 1945. I remember watching the second tower when it was struck. I remember watching the ego and hopes of a nation reduced to rubble in seconds. We will never forget it; we can never forget it. I also remember feeling distinctly attuned to "doing the right thing" in how we responded -- that our reactions honor those who died in the cultural shadow that is the twin towers. I remember feeling very let down by our response. I remember not wanting the days of war that spawned shortly after, or how those days have now turned into years.
I don't celebrate death -- anyone's -- not even that of a sociopathic criminal intent on the subjugation of those who didn't support his ideologies, nor the deaths of those who died on 9/11 and through the years of terror before and after, nor those who died trying to find him and end his horrific reign. Yet, I clearly feel no guilt over the loss of him, and no grief for the loved ones who survive him. I don't even feel guilty for that lack, and this perhaps, should bother me most. Only in that uncomfortable realization do I find compassion and remember that I am as human as he, even if I struggle to believe that. I am also as human as those whom he hated and killed.
Amidst the many paths we take to reach spiritual enlightenment, the reality is that we live here, in the formed realm. As much as we may dislike it, we can't avoid its rules. In the Earth plane, there has to be regime change, and it's not born of polite handshakes, the changing of guards or the moving in of new furniture. It would be nice if we had that peaceful negotiation and promise of bliss, and if everyone got along. The thing is, if taking this guy out puts us a step closer to having that, so be it. I don't judge the hope of that possibility anymore than I judge those relieved by his death.
It's not so much that he's dead. It's that in the absence of his polarizing and commanding fanaticism, a few more people will live.
References:
1. "Psychology and Religion" (1938). In "CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East," p. 131.
This piece originally appeared on Intentional Insights.com and Kelley Harrell.com.
Follow Kelley Harrell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SKelleyH
Osama bin Laden Killed by U.S. Forces in Pakistan - ABC News
Bin Laden's demise: Long pursuit, burst of gunfire - Yahoo! News
Has Osama Bin Laden been dead for seven years - and are the U.S. ...
No proof of death was provided. Accounts by this administration, heresay, but tangible evidence, nope. Nothing will be provided.
BTW they also found Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa, and bigfoot. The DNA matched up perfectly.
With the revelation of the Barack Obama birth certificate comes universal credibility. We are supposed to now take things second hand, at face value. And if we question it, no matter what the claim, we'll all be called kooks, Roswell conspiracy theorists.
Of course the fact that we've seen dead Muslims every day for the last ten years on television or in print has done nothing in weighing the decision to show Bin Laden's body. Guess we didn't care when they're piled on the back of pick up trucks.
Did you see the body? Or did a bunch of people riding the wave of vindication for the birth certificate ( a ridiculous chapter btw ) issue tell you he was dead, and claim the DNA matched.
His mystique is intact however. Barack Obama had a chance to expose him as the rat he was, as the fallible human oiece of garbage, showing his viscera, his blown apart skull, but won't.
Keeping Bin Laden's legend alive. And that is far more powerful than the man himself.
If you want to see someone's "legend" live on, put his dead-meat photo out there for his followers to see and get upset about, just after you get footage of Americans celebrating his death.
I can't tell if you want to revel in the gruesome nature of OBL's death, or if you really think this is all just a lie.