Conscious Choice: The Disease of Terrorism

June 2003 | Body & Mind Health

The Disease of Terrorism

by Julia Mossbridge

Beyond calling some senators and sending a few pre-written emails, I have not participated in the recent re-awakening of the peace movement. It’s not that I didn’t have time or that I feared for the safety of my three-year old son (believe me, I have explored those excuses!). No, the real reason is that I’ve been unable to answer a question that’s been nagging me since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Like many of us, I believe that each person offers a gift to the world. Regardless of what we are given, we need to discover the gift in each offering. So after the terrorist attacks, I asked, "What is the gift?" One answer, an answer I’ve heard again and again from progressive folks, is that the gift of the attacks was a wake-up call — a reminder of how our foreign policies and our economic focus has left many people feeling as if they have no other option than to hit us where it hurts. There may be some truth to this, but the problem with this kind of answer is that it doesn’t take into account the tough job that world leaders have, nor does it recognize the leadership and compassion that our country has offered to the world. So I find myself still asking, "what is the gift?"

While working on this problem, I started to think about my friend Chris, who was diagnosed with cancer. I noticed something: her cancer wasn’t deserved, but she used it as a gift anyway. She took the opportunity to learn what kind of person she wanted to be and what work she wanted to do. She used it to re-vision her life.

By the same thinking, it seems that when people use violent means to express themselves, there is disease afoot. It doesn’t have to be our fault, but we do need to try to understand and solve it. And if we can allow ourselves to re-vision the way the world works, we may receive a precious, healing gift.

For my generation (Gen X), cynicism is part of our genetic makeup. My cynical side is champing at the bit, saying "Why change anything if the attacks weren’t caused by something we did wrong?" Why re-vision? Because something is not working. Terrorism, like a tumor, is a symptom of a problem. If that’s the case, then what’s the cure?

If there were a sudden outbreak of polio in the Gulf States, we would recognize the danger quickly, as we have done with terrorism. But we would also work with those countries to try to figure out why it happened, how to stop the spread, and how to prevent future outbreaks. We wouldn’t try to act on our own (or just with the Brits) to solve it, because we’d know that wouldn’t work. But that’s what we’re doing in the war on terrorism. We’re doing it not because we’re stupid or because our leaders are malevolent. We’re doing it because terrorism is doing its job: we are afraid and we misunderstand how to heal the fear.

There are all sorts of stories about why we’re fighting the war against terror (that is, the war against fear): oil, money, power, actually trying to stop terrorism itself and more. But the underlying reason is that we’re afraid. If we’re fighting for oil, we’re fighting because we fear we won’t have enough. Ditto money and power. If we’re actually fighting against terrorism, it’s because we can’t think of any other way to heal our fear than to fight it. But notice — no matter what we’re fighting for, fear remains.

That’s because you can’t "fight" fear any more than you can spread polio to cure it. As Marianne Williamson puts it in A Return to Love, "You can hit darkness with a baseball bat, but it doesn’t go away. To make it go away, you need to turn on the light." The only light that seems to work is love, and the only way to turn it on is connection. Remember the whole world standing with us in grief and compassion on 9/11? I want to bring this sense of unity into my activism — working toward that unity as a present-day reality. Who’s with me?"

Apparently millions! I combed the Internet to find others who see that there is no future but one based on love and I found my people. There’s the Global Renaissance Alliance whose motto is: "Re-envisioning the world," the Department of Peace Campaign with the motto: "We can make it happen," Peace By Peace, their motto is: "We don’t want to fight the old system. We want to build a new one," and the Millionth Circle Movement with the motto, "Change ourselves and the world."

I am joining them all; I plan to be part of the gift.

Julia Mossbridge, a Chicago-based writer, is also a mother, cognitive neuroscientist, and author of Unfolding: The Perpetual Science of Your Soul’s Work (New World Library www.unfolding.org).

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