The Twin Towers
The attack on the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center
on 11th September 2001 was such an inhuman act that the world watched
in disbelief. This aggression touched many nations directly, as
their citizens were brought together so implausibly to die on the
same spot. It was a crime against the world and an assault on humanity
itself.
But humanity's twin towers of uniqueness are still under attack.
The assault seen on television screens across the world was a malicious
act carried out with animal hatred; but the truly human response
is to rise above hatred. Two distinctive characteristics make the
human spirit soar above the rest of creation and, when those twin
towers are brought down, we become little more than wild overbearing
predators. The dual characteristics that mark out humanity are the
towers of wisdom and love.
Wisdom is a distinctively human feature, but is best displayed
in the best of humans. It is the unlikely skill by which we order
our lives with a long-term view. It enables us to act, rather than
to react. It empowers us to make considered choices, rather than
to follow our instincts. King Solomon asked God for the gift of
wisdom and the Bible recounts a quaint, but revealing story as proof
that his prayer had been granted. In this homely narrative, we read
of two women who each laid claim to the same baby. They argued their
cases with such vehemence that lower officials were unable to choose
between them. Brought before Solomon, the wise king ruled that the
child should be cut in half and one piece given to each "mother".
Contrasting emotional responses immediately identified the true
parent, who was given back her child. This strange tale identifies
wisdom as the ability to predict how other people's minds will respond
to circumstances. Solomon knew that, when put under pressure, these
women would reveal their convictions.
Animals - and humans behaving like animals - are driven by instinct
and emotion and controlled by action and reaction. Base instinct
meets attack with counter-attack, but we didn't tame wild animals
by such methods. In wisdom we learned how the animals' minds worked,
and reshaped their behaviour, teaching them to want what we wanted.
When we hunt and attack wild beasts we make them wilder and more
dangerous. When we hunt and attack wild terrorists we confirm them
in their fanatical beliefs. We may trap, contain and destroy a few
extremists but, to win the battle against terrorism we need to reach
people's minds. The most extreme minority may never be amenable
to reform, but acts of towering wisdom can change the minds of the
wavering masses of people from whose ranks the new extremists might
otherwise come.
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