We Are The Terrorists

There is a necessary reckoning, a collective grappling and grief, which accompanies the assassination of a powerful public figure like Ms. Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.

And when a public figure is especially polarizing, as Ms. Bhutto was, it can be difficult to sort out the complex emotions that arise in the wake of an event such as this.

In the tender middle of every tragedy, however, is a profound opportunity for personal and collective evolution, a moment when all defenses are laid bare and essential questions rise to the fore. To see Bhutto's death as an isolated act of cruelty by an evil group of terrorists, distant and separate from each of us, would be to miss a profound teaching moment.

We are all terrorists. Before you dismiss this out of hand, please take a closer look. The terrorist inside you wages acts of aggression on those you believe to oppress you. The dictator inside you declares martial law when it suits you. The suicide bomber martyrs you and wounds others in your attempts to be heard and to be right.

Global events are a mirror of aggressions taking place on a daily basis within each of us. This poses necessary and immediate questions: Who am I terrorizing? What part of myself or others am I assassinating?

It is our instinctual nature to polarize the world (and ourselves) into good and evil and then attempt to eradicate all evil from view - through repression and denial or through aggression and violence. Until we reconcile the violent parts of ourselves that we have dispelled into the shadow, we will continue to play out violent scenes on the world stage.

We have denied and discarded the unsavory bits of ourselves for so long, that we can no longer clearly see how we're creating our troubled world. By definition, it is not easy to see that which is in the shadow. It is outside of our peripheral vision. It is our blind spot, the Achilles heal of the individual and of humanity. What we despise or deny we push deep into the dark recesses of the psyche, hoping it will be forever hidden there. But instead, contorted into all manner of gruesome expression that we no longer recognize as our own shadow, we confront these twisted and alienated bits of self over and over until they are reintegrated. Ms. Bhutto's death is a painful illustration of our collective shadow.

Our small daily acts of aggression may seem like nothing compared to the brutal assassination of a revered public figure. But the collective consciousness is an assimilation of each of us. As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm. As long as we perpetuate the fracturing and fragmentation of disallowed parts of ourselves, stuffing our emotions and perpetuating a sense of shame and worthlessness even on a small scale, we will continue to create terrorists.

Why? Because operating from this fractured consciousness, we don't have the wisdom or the capacity to create a world that fosters wholeness. If we are not whole, we cannot know or create a world that is whole. As such, there will always be disenfranchised, forgotten and expendable parts. Those expendable parts and expendable people will rise up to terrorize us.

In order to heal this schism, we must reconcile with the shadow. It will require us to collect up all the forgotten, orphaned, disowned, disgusting and estranged parts of ourselves...and bring them back home. All that we have denied and disdained must be held with equal love. Only then can we transmute the lower nature into higher forms. Integration of the poles of our experience is the path toward wholeness.

We are all necessary in this collective healing process since "the only true battle is the one that rages inside" of us, says my friend Valerie Andrewlevich in her poem below. This battle requires a new kind of weapon: a fierce love and tireless compassion for ourselves and everyone around us. Valerie's poem inspired me this week. I thought I would share it with you and as a humble offering to Ms. Bhutto and those who loved her.

The One True Battle (by Valerie Andrewlevich)

At the end of her epic,
She stands on the mountaintop
In her bare feet
Feels the cool hard rock
And the warm soft moss

Her spear in hand,
She reflects on her journey
Crossing the seven seas,
Vanquishing her enemies,
Encounters with dragons,
Affairs with tormented lovers.

She bows her head.
Gives a little nod in gratitude
For all this.

Then, all this begins to fade and melt away.

It is quiet,
Save for the soft wind blowing in the billowing trees
And the bird that calls through the thicket.

She realizes the only true battle is the one that rages inside her.

And that this will require a new kind of weapon.

She must cultivate deep, abiding love and compassion.

She lifts her head, turns her gaze to the horizon.

It is the beginning of a new kind of tale.

Come back for more from Stacey Lawson every Monday in 2008.

Comments

[True]

Beautiful article.

"This vast organism that we call humanity is about to rise from the ashes of its own complacency. The sleeper has awakened." -Frank Herbert's Dune

[JimReed]

Stacey,
I think we can all agree the terrorists are the terrorists. Next week can we do the decider?

[hrayovac]

Lawson has it right. I watch with care who on the public stage causes, either consciously or not, the schism she refers to.

Forgive the political plug please, but we are nearly voting in the Iowa caucus. Why I like Obama: Obama is not an agent of division and confusion. Rather, he is an advocate of healing, humanity and clarity and this is why every American should support him. Then we can begin to work on our violent natures.

[EngineerBill]

Ms. Larson:
I always wondered what one of those executives that are mocked in a Dilbert comic strip would be like, I wonder no more!

[fact finder]

Corporatism promotes terrorism by endorsing and profiting from illegal wars every where. Yes if you do not oppose the illegal actions of any entity then you are by compliance an terrorist.

[NorthernCross]

You may be a terrorist if you like, Ms. Lawson, but most of the rest of us are not. of course, you are welcome to travel to North Waziristan to present your idea of healing schisms by reconciling with shadows to Ayman al-Zawahiri or OBL anytime you wish. I'm sure they'd be pleased to entertain your suggestions.

[tbone99]

Try reading The Lucifer Effect.Its not all in our head - we live in systems which effect us.

[Crowhaul]

"She realizes the only true battle is the one that rages inside her." Yours are words for those hermetically sequestered individuals in dire need of a reality injection:

I would love to toss you out, for example, on Bolaq street in central Kazan, sans map, iPhone, and currency for a few hours... or on the mean streets of Dagian Lu in industrial Xindu during one of their blackouts... Then have you tell me the only battle is the one that rages inside you. It's not.

[Ginzaman]

Under the Military Commissions Act and Bush's Executive Orders, my writing that I oppose the Iraq War is "interfearing with the progress" of said war. And because of this I could be picked up at any time for being an "enemy combatant", tortured and killed. And nobody would ever know.

[fabrom]

Very good post, Ms. Lawson. For those self-rightous bloggers above who deny we are the terrorists--keep in mind that most Americans supported the invasion of Iraq. The terrorist instinct is alive and well in too many of us.

[Wiredwilly]

People have been terrorized by the term " terrorist ".
I feel like I'm in Salem during the Witchcraft trials.
Sanity would be better served if we stopped using the term altogether.

[Stevelagain]

Umm, no, I'm not a terrorist. I don't board planes full of people and kill the innocent, neither would I ever do it. Yes, some of us are simply innocent and NOT terrorists.

No the terrorists wants more than my attention. They are not a naughty toddler to be lectured, they really are evil, vile, and violent. They want my country, my house, my wealth, my way of life, and finally my freedom. They want to dominate the middle east, Europe, the pacific rim, and finally America.

They want what they say they want, a global domination of their religion over us and to either kill us or see us bow to them and become servants to them. They see their control of a billion in their religion as the key to taking control of the globe. Even in American Muslims are afraid to be seen speaking out against them.

It's no more complicated than that, I do not have to look to myself with inner loathing for the terrorist within and blame myself for the acts of terrorists.

[rh654]

Those "shadows" are a part of a survival mechanism - almost Darwinian in nature - even with the thin veil of "society" we believe protects us - plenty of bright people who have buried their shadows have learned too late why these survival mechanisms have remained in place across many, many generations.

Now looking at the writer's background - she has been more than happy to work for some of the very corporations that help to expose the rest of the world to the very negatives that she believes is helping to create terrorists.

Perhaps her "shadows" are more about her inner-demons between how she earns a living and the masters she serves and her beliefs in a world view...?

[userw014]

Bullshit.

This argument is like saying that women cause wars by making babies, an idea that I was introduced to my first week of college back in 1979.

This argument is emotional self-flagellation.

Come on, be practical. A good argument is includes a model of the problem that offers a solution. And incremental solutions are the most likely to be adopted, no matter how unsatisfactory they might be in the short run.

For dramatic solutions, think about what it took to turn pre-WWII Japan and Germany into modern, peaceful democracies. Think of that solution applied to the Indian subcontinent.

What was the US like 50 years after it's founding? How many waves of corruption and reform have rushed over our own country?

I think I'm starting to spew BS now, so I'd better end this.

[a]

at the end of the day, most americans don't kill others like with bhutto. we all have bad feelings but most of us don't act on them. do we (the u.s.)make mistakes - yes (especially iraq) but to compare all of us to people like bin laden is disgusting.