adam.oliner.net

The only way to kill an idea is with a better idea.

Let’s take terrorism as an example. The idea is simple: effect social or political change by manipulating a community using violence or the threat of violence. That is, by using fear. Our government has taken up the notion that they might destroy this idea by killing people and blowing up buildings. Also by moving people around and by creating new buildings. This will fail.

The President has never described what victory in the War on Terror looks like, with any specificity. There won’t be a white flag, or some glittering dawn on which the terrorists of the world will throw up their hands and say, “Oh well, we gave violence a shot. Let’s try spreading our message with catchy pop lyrics.” The War will not end when bin Laden dies, nor when we kill Al Qaeda’s #2 for the umpteenth time (we’ve done that so many times it’s a joke). Ideas don’t die when their inventors or proponents do.

You would think, of all people, that Christians would understand the ineffectiveness of killing the central adherent to an ideology.

Of course, I could be wrong. Perhaps the military will finally locate and kill Osama bin Laden, and instead of unifying Islamic extremists behind a globally recognized martyr, it will shatter their confidence and sense of purpose, rendering them impotent to terrify Americans. Perhaps we will manage to find and slaughter every last person who believes violence can effect social change, without a hint of irony or hypocrisy, and maybe we’ll manage to do so without creating any new terrorists. It could happen.

After all, we killed Jesus and totally nipped that Christianity thing in the bud.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.