The Irony of Finding Joy in Violence

When I heard joyful shouts and patriotic music echoing from outside my window shortly after Osama Bin Laden's death was announced, I felt sad. I was reminded of a short story called "The Snake" by Ervin Krause that I had read in high school. A farmer out plowing his field nearly crushes a snake under his tire; he stops just in time. The snake is unusually beautiful; its skin is shades of fire, but it is cool to the touch and very calm. Awed by its beauty, the farmer moves the snake out of harm's way and continues his task.

Some distance later, the farmer looks back across the field and sees a young boy fiercely stomping the ground and driving a stake downwards into something unseen. The farmer rushes over, but it is too late. The boy has killed the snake, its once beautiful skin torn and gray. The cruel boy is unrepentant. All snakes are "ugly and bad," and so deserve to die. He has killed thoughtlessly and is satisfied with what he has done. The farmer is rightly overwhelmed with disgust. He flings the snake's corpse onto the little boy shouting, "It's alive!" and the terrified child runs screaming and sobbing away. The story concludes:

"The little brute, I thought, the little cruel brute, to hurt and seek to kill something so beautiful and clean, and I couldn't help smiling and feeling satisfied, because the boy, too, had suffered a little for his savageness, and I felt my mouth trying to smile about it. And I stopped suddenly and I said, ‘Oh, God,' with the fierce smile of brutality frightening my face, and I thought "Oh, God, oh God…"

Let me make a few things clear; I don't feel sorry for bin Laden. And, unlike the farmer's mean-spirited trick, our country's response to thoughtless brutality was, in this instance, appropriate. Direct action against al-Qaida is justified. What I take issue with is the outpouring of joy in response to a violent necessity. I don't believe that Sunday night's celebrations were primarily fueled by the lifting of anxiety, or the glimmer of a safer future. The Boston Globe ran a story the next day describing the reactions of Sept. 11 families to the news of bin Laden's death. Emotions of ‘comfort' and ‘relief' are described; this is the reaction of someone with a heavy burden suddenly lifted. Judging by the fact that the song of choice was "America, F--- Yeah" and by the multiple choruses of "Nah nah hey hey goodbye" people were celebrating America's ability to ‘kick a--' and take revenge on our enemies. The revelers were celebrating the fact that a bullet entered the skull of the man who wronged us and tore his brain to shreds. Again, I don't feel sorry for bin Laden; I'm concerned about our reaction. Some people call what occurred Sunday night on our campus patriotism. I don't. Terrorists take pleasure in violence. Patriots, if they must be violent, do so to secure a better life for themselves and their children. They celebrate peace.