Terrorism - And The Loss of Compassion

As a physician and surgeon, I have been trained to recognize disease by tell-tale and characteristic symptoms.

There is a deadly disease now afflicting our nations, our societies, our churches, synagogues, mosques and temples.

The disease shall be called, “Calloussitis” - the callous disregard for atrocities resulting in unfathomable human pain, terror, suffering and death. It is the direct and complete opposite of Compassion.

Some so afflicted are in the terminal stages of decline - these are the stark, raving, mad psychopaths for example, calling for ever more bombs to be dropped in order to kill even more children, in their thousands. Or, completely crazy “resistance fighters” who believe that the more barbarous and cruel their acts, the more they will get the approval of their God. We must commit these and similar sufferers who are terminally ill, to the Mercy of God.

But this essay addresses the everyday attitudes of the majority of the populations of Western (and probably other) nations - and also our neighbours, friends, acquaintances, ourselves. Calloussitis in this segment of the population may be mitigated, relieved, even cured, by compassion.

The symptoms (together with the affected tissue/organ) of this callous, cold-hearted disregard for human life and suffering are these:

Since de-facto all of us belong to our particular nations, many of us tend to believe that nations (as opposed to “militants”) cannot possibly engage in acts of terrorism.

The picture of a terrorist that the propaganda media has successfully seared into our consciousness is that of a masked, bearded or veiled individual, wildly shouting out the name of his God.

Terrorism however, is universally defined as the killing or injuring of civilian populations to achieve political or military ends. It does not define the perpetrators.

By this universally accepted definition of terrorism, starting in relatively recent times, the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the American nation, is definitely an act of terrorism. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were killed - many more were the victims of burn injuries and cancer.

The deliberate killing through carpet bombing and chemical warfare (“Agent Orange”) by American B-52 bombers, of more than 2 million Vietnamese civilians during the course of the Vietnam war, was manifestly an act of colossal terrorism.

Just because a pilot from 30,000 + feet and wearing a smart, starched uniform is the perpetrator of the terrorist act, it does not mean that an act of terrorism has not been committed. This should be self-evident.

A few years ago, I wrote a poem about this, which is in my collection of poems: “To A Nurse Friend Weeping:”

THE CLEAN-UP (AFTER A BOMB WAS DROPPED FROM 32,000 FEET)

Sweep the soot softly, the ash

now grey, was a village once …

until blinding light and crash

of beams burning announced

another bomb had arrived.

Seared flesh flew against the walls

and burned together, both derived

from pilot, laughing in the halls,

and stalking the fleeing family.

Limbs and broken bodies

were borne away and silly

sirens have never ceased.

But I see no sign of children sweet

- except in the ashes about your feet.

The first step in curing a serious disease, is for the sufferer to realize that he/she is seriously ill. This can be done by reference to my list of symptoms (above) and by an honest examination before God, of what constitutes terrorism. (The follow-up question will be: “is my Government or a country my Government supports committing acts of terrorism?)

Our common humanity demands that we urgently rediscover compassion in our own lives and in the lives of our societies and nations. The law of the jungle is dangerously close to taking over our nations, our societies, our churches, synagogues, temples and mosques - and silencing our individual and collective conscience.

Again and again, the New Testament of the Bible tells us that Jesus was overcome with compassion as in:

“And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.”

“And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.”

He whose compassion took him to the Cross, is willing to give us His Spirit of compassion too:

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Compassion does not need to take sides.

It does not need a complicated analysis.

In its simplest, most beautiful form it may be defined in the words of St. Paul, as the ability to “weep with those who weep.”

Will we regain our compassion and with it, the health and vibrancy of our souls - or will we instead continue to deny we suffer from the deadly illness that callously disregards atrocities and unfathomable human suffering?

Upon the answer to that question, may depend the future of our civilization, the future of humanity itself.