The Twin Towers (Articles) Page 2

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The Twin Towers (Continued)

The second tower of humanity's distinctiveness is our ability to love. Our altruism poses one of the most difficult challenges to the doctrine of selfish genes. But, however science eventually explains such behaviour, it remains a uniquely human and strangely powerful characteristic. When love is turned outwards beyond our immediate families it becomes still harder to rationalise; but when it happens, it produces effects that reach miles and years beyond the original acts. From old times we have heard it said that when someone hits you, you should hit him back, giving black eye for black eye and broken tooth for broken tooth. Turning the other cheek does not sound a good survival tactic, but it is a powerful way to change minds. Militarism never won the Cold War; instead, ordinary human need, diplomatic cooperation and open-hearted generosity toppled walls and watchtowers.

If the western world were to foment itself to hatred, seeking revenge on ill-defined enemies, it would pull down the twin towers of wisdom and love and put us on the level of wild animals. The outcome of military vengeance would confirm evil men in their misguided beliefs and persuade others to move inwards from the fringe and become terrorists themselves. Where a hundred fanatics are destroyed a thousand will take their place. There is a natural and appropriate desire for justice, but revenge is dangerous. Revenge is wild and irrational, but justice is precise and considered. Our most desirable objective is to change minds, which would be fanned into stronger hatred by the wind of revenge, but may be melted into cooperation by the warmth of love.

How could we possibly love people who can turn civilian planes carrying innocent citizens into lethal weapons of mass destruction? That is not the point. Terrorism is a minority force, measured in tens and hundreds rather than millions; but it will bloom from smoking ruins if we allow hatred to take root. Our love target is the millions of people whose desperation and fear makes them believe the hotheads and give them sympathy and support. If we clothe and feed refugees and oppressed peoples we make it harder for them to hate us. If we crush and punish the poverty-stricken masses we will give the extremists evidence to support their propaganda.

The most likely outcome of the terrorist attacks on New York's Twin Towers was that animal hatred would wreak revenge and feed the fires of terrorism. The most noble, the most creative and the most distinctively human response would be to raise the twin towers of wisdom and love and respond so creatively that terror is stopped in its tracks.

POSTSCRIPT (September 2002)
The attacks of September 11th 2001 presented a unique challenge to anyone seeking to predict the future. One year on, it is gratifying to see how restrained the West has been in its reaction. Wisdom seems to have prevailed and, perhaps, we have shown ourselves to be more grown-up than we could have hoped. But hatred is still in the world and we cannot afford to naively return to our parichial preoccupations. Whilst looking back at the horrors of last year, we must keep focused on the current needs of those regions of the world that nurture our greatest threats.To hold back the tide of hatred we need to generate counter-forces of hope that will deny terrorism its supply of disillusioned and embittered recruits.