War as Terrorism

Cheryl Sanders-Sardello

There seems to be a space in the consciousness of society that allows for violence, destruction, chaos, and lies that we either refuse to look at out of fear, or refuse to recognize out of hubris. This is the space that continues the tradition within man’s hearts of waging ‘war’ on one another to get done whatever it is we want done, to, for, against, or in spite of other human beings. The idea that war is a solution to anything has been evaluated, debated, condemned and extolled for millennium. The same thoughtful response is, that it is not an answer. The same criminal reaction is, that we will do this this one last time, and this war will end the need for all war. As a species, we are very slow learners. We in fact do not abhor war. In fact, some would even admit they love war. General George Patton admitted this openly. James Hillman opens his new book A Terrible Love of War by quoting Patton, and examining the soul of a love that could love something as terrible as war. It is fascinating, and deeply moving, to hear this confession and declaration, and to explore the panoramic sweep of who we are as creatures of war, through Hillman’s book.

The most remarkable thing about war is, that even when everyone knows it is a sham, and the true purpose of the activity of war has nothing to do with the stated explanation, still, we transform our character to take up banners. War can bring out something noble from the heart of its participants. It does make something other of us than what we were before. It also keeps us closely akin to something lesser than the truth of humanity. War does not ever bring about solutions. It changes the questions so completely and dramatically that a new path is always forged, once one person has been killed for the sake of a “cause”. The new path may or may not bring us to a better place, but it always brings us to a different place.

What we do not ever realize is that war is never over. Once a war begins, the fighting may stop, the dead may be buried, a truce may be declared, but for those who died, and their families, there is something in the heart that continues to participate in the conflict. The soul knows the loss, the confusion, the anger and need for revenge that the war created, and at some level, that does not end. Today, there is outer evidence of this soul reality by the continued fighting and killing in certain areas, like Northern Ireland, parts of Africa, Russia, Israel and Palestine; there are actually more examples that one can bear to enumerate.

In our time, the unending nature of war on a soul level has recreated itself into a form of war that has not received so much publicity before in the history of warfare. This new warfare is now called terrorism. Now war wears a new face. The rules are different, and harder to understand. We no longer get to acknowledge the features of war we once applauded; the noble camaraderie, the generosity of spirit toward the innocent victims, the unexpected courage in the face of unspeakable danger. All this is lost on a terrorist. We cannot imagine the motivation of the terrorist, so we cannot justify such behavior, or rationalize it in a way that at least excuses it because we are, after all, at war. The “war” is lost as a viable imagination of an activity in which we are all engaged. I have nothing to do with terrorists, so what can I possibly think about what it is that they want? Terror is just terror.

The spread of terrorism as a calculated instrument to influence society creates an unbearable relationship in the body between thinking and feeling. The proliferation of terrorism has left the body in a state similar to shock, that leaves a residue of defensive thoughts, guarded feelings, and a will to protect or prevent further internal suffering. The increasing effects of terrorism can be perceived at every level of society, as we become more and more aware that thinking and feeling are being reduced to primal reactionary levels. To watch the evening news is to witness that much of what people do has become rigid, ritualized, reactionary and/or automatized.

Essentially terrorism retards the spirit by eliminating the soul as healthy and interested in the world, others, virtue or art. We fall into a sort of autism of consciousness that cannot be touched by reason or feeling, conscience is absent and behavior is willful, but without awareness. This aberrant behavior is not just in the young, or the criminal; egregious behavior is the hallmark everywhere, regardless of economic, social, educational status or religious affiliation. And just as we seem untouched by the litany of gore on the evening news, the world itself seems untouchable and untouched. (That is not to say that it is not exploited, but because it is perceived as dead, it is a victim whose organs are waiting to be harvested, with no thought of consequences, only of conquest.) Touch is crippled by the loss of safety, security and a sense of hope. We are banging our heads against the wall waiting for that which irritates us to go away.

The corollary to this ‘autistic’ consciousness is that when nothing is too terrible to show our children; in movies, on television, in books or comics, in life in general, then fear is not relevant enough to warrant protection or conscious awareness of the impact of fearful images and ideas. So the only way to shake the ‘autistic’ consciousness of the world to attention is through something that is absolute, which, for that which seeks destruction, is terrorism. Terror throws us back into the immediacy of our fears. Terror cannot hide in abstraction, theory, phobia or fantasy. We cannot pretend to be ‘working on issues’ when a terrorist strikes. We have played with fear so long as entertainment, it is easy to think terrorism can be confronted as an ‘issue’ along with everything else we have declared war on (poverty, drugs, illiteracy, teen pregnancy, abortion, the ‘evil doers over there’, etc. etc.). Our declarations give us a sense of power, or at least certainty, bolstering our inflated belief in authority, control, even understanding. The hubris of assaulting what we want to change with the same mentality that caused the difficulty paralyzes us by ineffectuality, bought at a great price, which includes not recognizing the ineffectuality for years.

The prevalence of the dualistic idea that if we know what causes something we can change the outcome by changing the cause fixes us into the mentality of literalism. Terrorism refuses to play by these rules. The work is to reimagine the soul’s ability to be creative within the world in community. That which would destroy community is working from within the soul, and makes possible living in fear that cannot fight terrorism with anything other than some other kind of terrorism. To face the presence of terrorism requires learning what it means to be a whole human being, grounded in the body, creative in soul, free in spirit that unites with all beings, in all time. Learning, something we do slowly, asks something of us that is more than preparation or prevention. Learning asks us to work to create a new image, a new imagination, a new soul capacity that, from the heart of each individual who takes up this task reimagine the world without war, fear or the corruption of the other for the sake of gain and power. It is no less than a metamorphosis of the human heart. It is not sentimental, or idealistic. It is hard work and thankless, relentless, and daunting. It is a lonely job. Yet, as more people, who have great courage, begin to see through the shattered image that is terror, there is hope for a world not only free of terror-ism, but ultimately, free of any of the faces war, and the need for our “terrible love.”