...in America, it's easy to assume conflict is something that happens within a small village in MiddleEast-istan, or a tribal war in Africa. Either way, neither is much of a threat to the actual safety of Americans going about their lives.
Here, conflict is real. It doesn't creep around in whispered words in foreign neighborhoods, it knocks at the front door with coastal shells. Even as I write this, I wonder if I should feel foolish-
If everyone else is calm, am I worrying for nothing?
Is this only an American's inability to deal with the reality of conflict?
Or is this shell of Korean bravado just a way of dealing with the fact that their elephant in the room is crazy and armed?
Erich Maria Remarque said (of being on the recieving end of artillery) "...we are in a good humor, because otherwise we should all go to pieces."
The response of adopting a holiday mood is, thus, the only one that makes sense. If there is danger, or if there isn't, no one benefits from being panicked. Shells (or worse) may fall on South Korea, but this country understands a reality that Americans (myself included) have yet to fully grasp-
If children begin their martial training at 3 years old
If ALL men of the country must serve in the military
If clear and present danger is understood to be a ridiculous concept (since you always border such danger)
-Then maybe that country won't suffer from the violent inability to handle violence that plagues Americans. I would remind you here that many in the US on September 12, 2001 (the only time in my lifetime where I've seen an enemy attack MY home soil) were crying out to the government to make the middle east a sea of glass.
There's something here. Why is it that Americans are so incapable of handling danger? Certainly throughout the world there are problems, there are struggles, but we in the United States are truly insulated from most of them. We've never faced threats in the way that they have and currently do in South Korea. In the past one hundred years we've been attacked on our own soil by an outside entity twice (disclaimer: that I can think of). The first was Pearl Harbor, which resulted in our entering into the bloodiest conflict in the history of the world. The second was 9-11. Both events were horrible. I still remember where I was when I learned of the twin towers falling. But the truth is that vast portions of the world feel that threat of violence on a daily basis.
In the aftermath of 9-11 there was a void. A moment of silence in which anything could happen. Our perceptions had been radically altered - they haven't been the same since. But that silence was quickly filled, not by unity, but by this remarkable (although understandable) desire for revenge. That notion has continued to spiral, our push for violence and our embracing of prejudice in the post 9-11 world has had some sobering ramifications for our nation at large.
It is the same fear, the same searching for someone to blame; xenophobic sentiment which leads us to find a threat in an Islamic center two blocks away from where the World Trade Center once stood, leads to the banning of Sharia Law in Oklahoma (which carries with it some unintended ramifications), and leads to the extreme partisanship that we're now experiencing in the political world.
In some ways I can't help but feel that our sheltered way of life has lead to us sweating the small stuff so much that it blows up in our faces - we as a nation have little to no concept of the bigger picture. There's danger there. When we're more concerned with the personal and political destruction of our leaders than we are with raising standards of living and providing for the populace at large, we've lost sight of what's important. And in many ways it comes from what Jeff is basically saying in his post. We in our world lack context.
So what is there to do?
Since I read Jeff's post (a whole whopping 5 1/2 hours ago) I've been contemplating ways in which this struggle could be theatricalized. And by that, I mean I want to find a way to address our American way of relating to violence on a national scale. Obviously I have no answers, and I've not yet even begun to write a play like this. But thinking about the subject reminds me that such plays already do exist. While it isn't addressing the US specifically, Blasted by Sarah Kane is one of them that sticks out to me. It is a play that, among other things, depicts in a stylized manner how destructive impulses can become when faced with violence from the outside.
I don't actually know how to write about this. I want to, but I don't know how. Because there's so much, there's so much going on and to try and sum up in two hours the truly epic struggle we're confronted with seems impossible, or at least disingenuous. But I still feel the need to try - that's the whole point of theatre, isn't it? Or at least one point. The arts can act as a reflective medium, show us the way we are and what we could eventually become as a society, both positively and negatively. Theatre can and should ask questions and challenge us as individuals to think about the ramifications of our actions, to question constantly and consider what we can do ourselves to enact change.
Basically, we need to grow up. It's common in times of struggle to turn to what's known, to huddle within our groups and become distrustful of the rest. Natural instinct. But dangerous, too.
If this post is a bit long winded and meandering, I apologize. I'll finish it now with this thought:
It is the artist's job to, when confronted with a issue that is truly topical and of vital importance, address the issue in a way that might offer some new perspective, or at least ask the questions that need to be asked. So now, looking at this problem of escalating violence throughout the world and partisanship/fear within our own corner of it, what can we ask?
I really don't know. But it's something to think about.
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