He's Bin

On Sunday night the fi rst two headlines on Wikipedia front page read

U.S. o cials report that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead. 

Pope John Paul II is beatifi ed at a ceremony in Vatican City.

The two ends of the moral spectrum. While I was reading this, crowds assembled in front of the White House and at Ground Zero chanting USA! in a state of elation similar to stadium cheering.

I belong to the few  whom those chants reminded of the Palestinians who danced and rejoiced on September 12, 2001. To be sure, I am not making a moral equivalence. I am making a socio-political one. Now we understand, or are reminded why one behaves so: revenge.

Revenge is precisely the dynamics of destruction that legal systems of organized nations set out to supplant. From Hammurabi to today's constitutions, the Law charges the State with the responsibility of punishing crimes with appropriate penalties. An eye for an eye belongs to the secular as well as religious Old Testament.

Absent the Law, there rules the Feud. The Greeks understood this archetypal transition best and represented it in the Oresteia.

In the XXI century we, Westerners, deem ourselves superior to the Palestinian who danced on September 12, and one of the main reasons is that we honor the Rule of Law. However we believe no less in revenge. And alas, I am afraid that while only few chanted for the death of Bin Laden, many demand an eye for an eye

in their daily lives. 

I found the reaction of all survivors of the victims of September 11 most digni fied and exemplary. They pointed out that no additional death could bring back the beloved they had lost. The death of Bin Laden a fforded them some incremental closure, but no satisfaction. Justice had been served. At a high price. And Justice comforts the human spirit.

The Greek Tragedy's maxim that through suff ering you attain wisdom (πάθει µάθος), how true!