A part of us we have to watch

While I was still living in Ireland in 2008 I took part in an Amnesty Ireland stunt aimed at getting people in O’Connell Street to sign a petition against Guantanamo Bay. Overall the reception was very positive and nearly everyone we approached agreed willingly to sign. I recall, though, that one man, strutting by with his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, stopped in front of the petition and said “What’s this?” – as if, somehow, we didn’t have any right to be there. When I explained to him what it was and, tongue in cheek, invited him to sign, he refused. Then, as an afterthought, he exclaimed: “You do-gooders – ye make me sick!” and strutted off.

I had to remember that I was representing Amnesty and that it was not my role to exchange insults with this oaf. However, while I still don’t have any sympathy with his attitude, even at this distance in time, I am not naive enough to think that it is unusual – or even that it is not shared by others who are, to all intents and purposes, decent men and women.

Actually, I suspect that most of them are men. I recall that once, on Ireland’s stalwart chat show, The Late Late Show, an interview was held with a woman who was the victim of an abduction and a savage attack that necessitated facial surgery. At one point she remarked that, whereas her female friends were full of solicitous questions about how she was feeling and how she was coping, the almost universal reaction of her male friends was “Oh, if I could only get my hands on that ****er!”.

That would probably have been my reaction too. 

I recall similar feelings the Dunblane massacre, (in 1996, when unemployed shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 schoolchildren and one teacher before killing himself). The next day an office colleague echoed my own thoughts when he remarked that the worst aspect was the fact that the perpetrator had killed himself, thus forestalling any punishment (by which he – and I – meant retaliation or revenge). In fact, I heard afterwards that even an ambulance worker at the scene said that he had great difficulty in resisting the urge to do violence to Hamilton’s corpse. 

These vengeful emotions remind me of a quip in the 1980s detective series, Micky Spillane’s Mike Hammer, in which Stacy Keach played a highly sexed, macho private eye. On one of the (rare) occasions when he refused an invitation  from a pretty woman to stay the night, he remarked in the voice-over “Part of me wanted to stay but that part of me had got me into trouble before”. Similarly, the part of me that responds to violent tragedy by wanting to see people suffer can get me into trouble too.

A lot of the support for Guantanamo – or the reluctance to condemn it – springs from justifiable anger at the atrocities of 9/11. That anger leads to a desire to see people suffer in retaliation. Some people feel they would not be showing due respect to the victims of the atrocities if they were to stop to think about some fundamental questions, such as: whether or not it is only the right people are suffering in Guantanamo; whether indiscriminate round-up and torture of suspects is the best way to find the real perpetrators; whether this approach will prevent a repetition of the incident; or even whether it will bring real solace and succour to the families of the victims. The answer in all cases is an emphatic “no”.

None of this is intended to imply any compassion on my part for the real perpetrators. While I have grave reservations about the summary execution of Osama Bin Laden, I have no sympathy for him. Nor do I mourn the passing of Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi, but that does not detract from the fact that huge questions still surround the manner of their killing (yes I know Hussein was tried and, even if the procedure was unsatisfactory, any credible trial would have found him guilty – what I question is the Americans’ role in the whole affair and their failure to account for their previous and long-standing role as his friend and ally).

So, by all means get angry when you learn of acts of injustice and violence and by all means wish the perpetrators harm but please pause to put these emotions into a wider context. 

I’m saying that primarily to myself.