Does our immigrant mentality cause terrorism?
Simon Gray | 07.08.2004 01:42
And I believe our dear old white haired great grandparents only had the best of intentions.
The United States exists because our immigrant ancestors risked everything to travel across the ocean with their hopes and dreams. They bought one-way tickets and left behind family and history because they believed they could have a better life in the new world. There was no going back. Whatever this was in America, it had to be better than what they left. This cannot have been a mistake to leave their homelands. It had to have been the right thing to do. After 3 generations of kids growing up with this mentality, we still believe it today. We believe that life in Europe has to be worse, in our minds, than what we have built here. We like to boast that everything we have in the United States is better than anything anywhere else.
If we escaped from living under a tyrannical government back in Europe, and now we live free, we may boast that we are more free than anyone else on the earth, and that people in other countries wish they lived in the United States, and had the freedoms that we have. We may not even know what life is like today back in Europe, and we donít care; weíre Americans now. We may not even be able to list what freedoms we have that people in European countries donít have. Doesnít matter; our Warrior Instinct is absolute. In our minds, the United States is the best place to live in the world, regardless of whether itís true or not.
But, this kind of arrogant boasting also causes bigger problems for us. We are the only country that thinks we are better than everyone else. We practice this attitude in our dealings with the rest of the world. Our American companies go into smaller countries and set up businesses that make money off the natural resources and labor of those people. And then we take the profit home. This alone is enough to make people want to attack us. But on top of that, we boast that we are better than them, and therefore somehow have the right to take what we want from other peopleís countries. And if they donít like it, then we will blow them up with our superior weapons.
We set ourselves up for terrorism with our primitive Warrior Instinct!
And then, when we are attacked, we say it was because these terrorists are jealous of how good we have things in America. Again, our short sighted arrogant Warrior Instinct sets us up for more attacks. And the more we are attacked, the more we will fight back. Because our Warrior Instinct only sees black and white, and we have to be right.
The only question now is, can we get beyond our Warrior Instinct to put an end to terrorism?
The black and white thinking of our Warrior Instinct is exactly what we need as a species to survive on the earth. Unfortunately, it also what creates most of our problems. Many of us here in America are still panicked that the British ships are going to turn around and force back into being a colony again. We talk about our freedom as though it could be taken away at any moment. Realistically, what nation is prepared right now to invade the United States, roll tanks down our streets, blow up our houses, fly helicopters over our government buildings and force our public servants to surrender? None. We're no a weak little country like Iraq for crying out loud, we're the United States of America! So why are we so panicked about our freedom?
Warrior Instinct!
Simon Gray
e-mail:
simon@simongray.com
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