The Survival Instinct

The BBC showed a massive crowd in Mumbai chanting "death to Pakistan". With these rival nations as the sub-continent's nuclear powers, many observers are alarmed by these bellicose Indian demonstrations. Other observers were gladdened that somewhere the people were not so weakened as to abandon the primordial calling to endure, to cling to the killer instinct that has allowed man to survive against the ravages of nature and of other predators even against the predation of one's fellow man. When the hunter becomes the hunted, he must have the will to use all the tools in his arsenal, all the arrows in the quiver despite what UN General Assembly resolutions might say or war crimes proceedings in the Hague. No comparable fervor to the righteous rage of Mumbai existed in the US after 9/11. I saw no gathered masses shouting "death to Afghanistan", "death to the terrorists", or even "death to the Taliban" after the bloodletting. We are so restrained in the USA that we take al Qaeda murderers to a tropical island and fete them with new prayer rugs and Korans and ethnically appropriate food while they cut their captives' heads off with rusty knives. Why, we are so civilized that we are working out trial procedures for Osama bin Laden for the eventuality of his capture. It seems resistance to our own annihilation has been bred out of many Americans. Thankfully, there are still fighters in the ranks who have what it takes. Certainly not all of the warriors are in uniform. Would anyone be surprised to see an automotive worker someday flatten Brian Ross whose catty report about private jets broke the momentum for the Big Three bailout? Most UAW members still have the backbone to defend their livelihoods and the continued prosperity of their families. A nation and her people need hard men to keep them safe -even if the hard man is an inarticulate bumbler climbing on a fire engine or wearing a skirt as in the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher.