Do we feel enough moral guilt for what the government is doing?

[DerekG]

I recall a story--released perhaps a month ago--which chronicled the lives of the parents of the deceased Columbine killers. In said report, Kleibold's mother uttered something which still haunts me: "I haven't done anything for which I need forgiveness." I was horrified to read this. Worse still, for me, was the fact that a bare majority of posters who discussed the issue on the DU actually concurred with her statement. It would seem that we have little impact on our children, so why should we begrudge the guardians? Perhaps this consensus is correct. But realize that she answered the ethical question posed by the writer(s) of Genesis--"Am I my brother's keeper?"--with a resounding "No."

Thirteen human beings are dead due to the actions of Kleibold and Harris. Personally, if I had spawned a child who extinguished the light from others, and subsequently ruined the lives of the surviving family members, I would have felt more than a need to be forgiven.

I would have put a gun to my temple and pulled the trigger.

Now approaches the crux. I have just put down William Blum's "Killing Hope," an expose dealing with the legions of crimes perpetrated by the American government over the past 59 years. Blum speaks of a short window of opportunity following the end of WWII, in which the United States, having played an elemental role in destroying fascism, could have honored Roosevelt's anti-colonial rhetoric. Instead, the United States intervened in the affairs of dozens of countries all the world over; by wielding the ideology of Cold Warriorism, America was eager to support the right-wing reactionaries in each case.

It dawned on me that WWII ended precious little; to my horror, I realized that the heart of darkness that resided within Japan and Germany was seized by my own country and devoured. Absorbed. I looked upon the devastation rusulting from the sanctions and the atomic experiments, the cluster bombs and the chemicals, and goddamn it, I came to know what it must have felt like to be a German. I understood perfectly.

My protests and outrage have been negated by the mere fact that my taxes fuel this nightmare; I am complicit in the abominable machine, the American Empire. And though this feeling might be foreign, and even laughable, to those who aren't religous, I have the suspicion that I'm going to Hell when I die.

Does anyone empathize with this perception?

On edit: My apologies for ambiguity. I'm not asking whether anyone feels they are going to Hell; that is a notion quite personal, surfacing from my own religosity. The inquiry is about guilt itself.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Guilt? No.

Horror? Yes.

Despair? Yes.

Outrage? Yes.

I was politically active in the late 1970s when I was young, but I succumbed to the hipster cynicism of the time and "gave up". But a few years ago -- actually, around 1997 or 1998 -- something happened, something that was greatly amplified in November and December of 2000. I realized that the world actually needed me, and that I should answer its call.

Fuck "liberal guilt". Guilt is for prisoners -- action is for liberals of good conscience.

--bkl

[drfemoe]

2. well

if "god" can do a better job of "hell" than this planet, who wants to know 'him' anyway?

Sorry, but I think it's a f'ed up deal.

edit to add: but don't despair .. that's not the answer either.

[Political_Junkie]

3. I agree completely

that's exactly what I've been feeling.

[Solly Mack]

4. Yes.

My heart is full just thinking about it.

I literally cracked up over Ruwanda.

Seriously. I hit the wall hard.
I couldn't tear myself away from the coverage..and I watched, over and over again, the bodies washing down the river.

And all I could think of was...not again...humans have done it again...killing and maiming each other. I felt so much guilt that I couldn't stop it. That I couldn't change it. That I couldn't help. My mind shut down.

I grew up around survivors of the shoal. I'm the child of a woman whose family was burned out by the Klan. Horror story upon horror story. By an early age, I knew what people did to each other.

I had seen enough, and read enough, heard enough.. about the human capacity for causing carnage....but this was my breaking point. Ruwanda...and I was shattered.

I had to learn to believe in good again. That there existed, in humans, the same capacity for good as there did for bad.

but still..humans did this...and I am still a human.

I don't support Bush. I don't support my governments actions...yet, it is still MY government. I am still an American. It doesn't matter to me that I'm not pulling the trigger, or dropping the bomb, or torturing a "prisoner"...I am still an American. In my name, they did this. With my tax dollars, they did this. Against my will, they did this...and I hurt. For chances lost. For orphans crying. For families shattered. For people dying.

I don't know how to right the wrongs...I'm not sure they can be. I can only try to prevent them from happening again.

You're not going to hell for caring so deeply you feel the loss within yourself when humans behave so badly. Such evil, and I hesitiate to use the word evil..but such evil does take away from all of us. It does diminish us.

But we have to keep trying. The alternative is your mind going blank, your heart going numb.. and losing yourself forever.