I Just Don't Get People

Despite years of practiced cynicism and disdain for my fellow human being, lately I have been wandering around in a bit of a haze, repeatedly shocked at the state of affairs I find the world in right now. Yes, yes, yes. World history is full of man's cruelty to man: slavery, war, genocide. From the very beginning, if we believe the Bible, man was inclined to kill to get what he wanted. In the name of God and Country people go out and spill the blood of millions. The fact that we are continuing in this righteous tradition should be no surprise.

But somehow it is.

I'm not some bright-eyed Pollyana-like optimist who thinks that everything will eventually be OK. I'm also not a conspiracy nut who is convinced that our government is out to get us and you can't trust the Man. I'm somewhere in the giant grey area in between. I'm not expecting the bomb anytime soon, but I keep a sturdy hand on my purse while in public. All this is colored with a very snarky attitude, mind you. Yet I'm still amazed when I read the headlines.

For example, today the NY Times informed me that Moscow now has terrorist bombers and that they killed around 12 people. Then, in an even less surprising article, I read about how there were two suicide bombers on buses in Be'er Sheva in Israel, home of the suicide bombing. In the Israel article, Israel reported that earlier, they had stopped another Palestinian strapped to the gills with explosives. His plan was to detonate the bombs when he was close to a large number of Israeli soldiers.

Neither of these stories are really "news". This happens everyday. The only things that change are the details. I should open my email and expect to read this. The surprise should always be when the top headline isn't about death and destruction.

I don't really have any answers. I feel I'm just asking the same questions that are being asked around the world by people far smarter and far braver than I. I don't pretend to have any insight into the way people work or why. I don't imagine that I'm being particularly perceptive by even bringing up this issue. Today something in my mind just snapped when I read those two articles one after the other. I don't understand the sort of person that would feel the need to blow up a bus in order to prove a point. Maybe I don't believe in anything enough or maybe I'm too much of a coward.

Since I am a pessimist, I'm not going to make the Rodney King plea, "why can't we all just get along", because that just won't happen. But there has to be a middle ground between getting along and blowing each other up, doesn't there? Probably not.