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Final Roots of Terrorism Forum: Be the change

Ghandi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” A simple truth, but for humans traumatized by terrorism, one that runs counter to powerful human instincts of revenge, hate, and blame.

Are we captives to these primal thoughts? In the aftermath of Sept. 11, many Americans are struggling to resist the urge to strike out. We are shaken, anxious, and angry as we ask, “What can we do?”

The final Roots of Terrorism forum speakers— Terri Elliott, Philosophy; Marvin Megibow, Psychology; and Celeste Jones, Social Work—gave their individual perspectives on how we might better understand trauma and violence, and how we can be the change we wish to see.

Since Sept. 11, Terri Elliott has kept Ghandi’s words, which she opened her talk with, close to her heart. One of her practices, which came out of being present with her students the morning of the attacks, has been constant focus on the thought, “I want my world to be a place that is full of peace and love.”

“I’m working a lot in my research with the interplay of language, thought, and reality. There is a fundamental interplay between thought and reality that could be understood within complex metaphysics, but also within daily life. So, all day long, ‘peace, peace, peace, peace’—writing it and saying it and thinking it and breathing it,” said Elliott.

Elliott also wanted to make this intention concrete. She remembered her travels to Tibet and India, where prayer flags hang from trees and buildings, their messages carried by the wind. She started a “peace flag” project on campus. The project has completed many peace flags, and is now looking for ways to display them.

At a peace march in Seattle recently, Elliott was struck by the looks on many faces. “People were chanting very aggressively, with mean looks on their faces, ‘No war! No war!’ and I was thinking, ‘This is not a peace march; this is not peace that I’m feeling right now. This is just more hostility; this is just more fear that we’re putting into the world.’ So, this is another thing that I would encourage, that we peace for peace, that we not fight for peace.”

Marvin Megibow, Psychology, described some responses to trauma as emanating from primal thinking, characterized by taking things out of context, dividing people into friend or foe, or overgeneralization. He emphasized, “This can be adaptive in certain kind of life crises situations, like on a battlefield, but in everyday life it unbalances us.”

At the group level, primal thinking leads to the development of groups in which individuality is suppressed, and the world is “us” or “them.” This process is “enhanced by prior held prejudices and stereotypes of others,” Megibow explained. It is the kind of mob thinking that leads to riots after a football game, to panic in a burning theatre, and to attacks on innocent citizens.

Megibow said that we must “individually and collectively refuse to adopt the devaluing of all human life that the terrorists modeled for us.”

Celeste Jones has worked with trauma victims, ranging from individuals recovering from rape to communities (she consulted with Oklahoma City after the bombing of the federal building). Communities experience phases similar to those individual trauma victims go through. These phases consist of a heroic phase, where the emphasis is on minimizing damage and rescuing victims; the honeymoon phase, which lasts about a month, with an outpouring of help; the disillusion phase, when people start dealing with the reality of what has happened and what is yet to be done; and the reconstruction phase.

The reconstruction phase can take years. In Oklahoma City, it took several years to tear down the remains of the federal building, decide on what to do with the space, and build the memorial. “It is going to be interesting to see how we as a nation come together and recover from Sept. 11. I think it’s going to be a struggle in some ways, because trauma is like a pebble hitting a river or a pond, it reverberates—out to the economy and how we live,” said Jones.

Jones noted that in times of trauma, it’s helpful to know the phases of recovery, because “it’s nice to know there is going to be an end.” She believes that, as in any huge event in our lives, if we step back and ask, “What is this all about?” we will see the good that has come from it. Perhaps, she suggests, it is that we’ve gotten to know our neighbors a little better, or we’ve talked more about important things to people. “It’s important to acknowledge the positive changes. I believe there is always a positive angle that comes from such trauma,” said Jones.

Barbara Alderson