Skeptic Project

TZM: Response to Media; Death of Osama bin Laden

On May 1, 2011 Pres. Barack Obama appeared on national television with the spontaneous announcement that Osama bin Laden, the purported organizer of the tragic events of September 11th 2001, was killed by military forces in Pakistan.

Within moments, a media blitz ran across virtually all television networks in what could only be described as a grotesque celebratory display, reflective of a level of emotional immaturity that borders on cultural psychosis. Depictions of people running through the streets of New York and Washington chanting jingoistic American slogans, waving their flags like the members of some cult, praising the death of another human being, reveals yet another layer of this sickness we call modern society.

It is not the scope of this response to address the political usage of such an event or to illuminate the staged orchestration of how public perception was to be controlled by the mainstream media and the United States Government. Rather the point of this article is to express the gross irrationality apparent and how our culture becomes so easily fixed and emotionally charged with respect to surface symbology, rather than true root problems, solutions or rational considerations of circumstance.

The first and most obvious point is that the death of Osama bin Laden means nothing when it comes to the problem of international terrorism. His death simply serves as catharsis for a culture that has a neurotic fixation on revenge and retribution. The very fact that the Government which, from a psychological standpoint, has always served as a paternal figure for it citizens, reinforces the idea that murdering people is a solution to anything should be enough for most of us to take pause and consider the quality of the values coming out of the zeitgeist itself.

However, beyond the emotional distortions and tragic, vindictive pattern of rewarding the continuation of human division and violence comes a more practical consideration regarding what the problem really is and the importance of that problem with respect to priority.

The death of any human being is of an immeasurable consequence in society. It is never just the death of the individual. It is the death of relationships, companionship, support and the integrity of familial and communal environments. The unnecessary deaths of 3000 people on September 11, 2001 is no more or no less important than the deaths of those during the World Wars, via cancer and disease, accidents or anything else.

As a society, it is safe to say that we seek a world that strategically limits all such unnecessary consequences through social approaches that allow for the greatest safety our ingenuity can create. It is in this context that the neurotic obsession with the events of September 11th, 2001 become gravely insulting and detrimental to progress. An environment has now been created where outrageous amounts of money, resources and energy is spent seeking and destroying very small subcultures of human beings that pose ideological differences and act on those differences through violence.

Yet, in the United States alone each year, roughly 30,000 people die from automobile accidents, the majority of which could be stopped by very simple structural changes. That's ten 9/11's each year... yet no one seems to pine over this epidemic. Likewise, over 1 million Americans die from heart disease and cancer annually - causes of which are now easily linked to environmental influences in the majority. Yet, regardless of the over 330 9/11's occurring each year in this context, the governmental budget allocations for research on these illnesses is only a fraction of the money spent on “anti-terrorism” operations.

Such a list could go on and on and with regard to the perversion of priority when it comes to what it means to truly save and protect human life and I hope many out there can recognize the severe unbalance we have at hand with respect to our values.

So, coming back to the point of revenge and retribution, I will conclude this response with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., likely the most brilliant intuitive mind when it came to conflict and the power of non-violence. On September 15, 1963 a Birmingham Alabama church was bombed, killing four little girls attending Sunday school.

In a public address, Dr. King stated:

“What murdered these four girls? Look around. You will see that many people that you never thought about participated in this evil act. So tonight all of us must leave here with a new determination to struggle. God has a job for us to do. Maybe our mission is to save the soul of America. We can't save the soul of this nation throwing bricks. We can't save the soul of this nation getting our ammunitions and going out shooting physical weapons. We must know that we have something much more powerful. Just take up the ammunition of love.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King, 1963

~Peter Joseph
wwwthezeitgeistmovement.com

Overall, this seems like a very thoughtful write up..I also see that Merola carefully avoids going into the 9/11 conspiracy although he does very gently touch it meaning he still hasn't changed his opinion about it.

And Peter Joseph Said "THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM SPAWNED 9/11!".

Muertos has a much better analysis of Merola's shallow rhetoric than Freeflyer.

Peter is a failed CT crank.

Yet, in the United States alone each year, roughly 30,000 people die from automobile accidents, the majority of which could be stopped by very simple structural changes. That's ten 9/11's each year... yet no one seems to pine over this epidemic. Likewise, over 1 million Americans die from heart disease and cancer annually - causes of which are now easily linked to environmental influences in the majority. Yet, regardless of the over 330 9/11's occurring each year in this context, the governmental budget allocations for research on these illnesses is only a fraction of the money spent on “anti-terrorism” operations.

I knew CT's would resort to "WHAT ABOUT THE MILLIONS WHO STARVE IN AFRICA" OR "WHAT ABOUT THE MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED IN AMERICA WHO STARVE TO DEATH".

If it's so simple as Peter says, why is Peter not solving the problem? Why can't Peter go into detail about these structural changes if he has all the answers? It's easy because he doesn't know anything. He can sit there on his mighty forums and post crap like this but it's just illogical crap coming from a person who doesn't really know anything about people. Yes, the guy who talks so much about society being mentally ill really doesn't know or interact with society at all...

The rest of the junk Peter says in this is not sourced (wasn't surprising) and is complete junk not accurate data to meet his agenda. Peter complains about why 9/11 gets more attention and funding than other fatalities is not really a smart thing as 9/11 events occurred in just 1 day that took out two building in one of the biggest cities in the world killing a lot of people within a concentrated area within a few hours.

9/11 happened fast hit hard, and worse of all no one knew it was going to occur besides the terrorists who committed the act. The fact that Peter is spitting in the face of the people who died in 9/11, their families, relatives, and friends is amazing. Peter is trivializing the 9/11 fatalities by comparing it to other fatalities that more people die from and then questioning why we do not focus on these other fatalities more than 9/11. By Peter's logic I could say three times as many ants die in a day than the amount died in 9/11 therefore ants should be more important than the people who died in 9/11. 9/11 is a tragic event and for Peter to make light of such a tragic event is sickening. Some may be wishing the past could be the past as far as 9/11 goes but trivializing the events of 9/11 is not right.

I'm glad Osama Bin Laden is no longer alive as he's a terrorists but I'd be happy either way if he was killed or captured. I'm going to celebrate over this because this is the single person that brought thousands of Americans over to a third world country.

Peter does not know how to research, present data, or even know how to source data correctly. Peter trivializes the 9/11 event for his own agenda which shows his lack of intelligence and shows more into his conspiracy theory play book.