by Harris Sussman

It is Prince of Peace season and America is at war. Peace on earth,goodwill to men is the usual mantra and our nation is in the sixth orseventh week of bombing Afghanistan. In the Holy Land, more suicidebombers and missiles. Merry and Happy are the words on the greetingcards and tens of thousands of letters have been cross-contaminated withanthrax spores. Joy is the word in the hymns--are we singing along?

We seem to be subjects in a mass experiment in cognitive dissonance.Maybe this is the real meltdown, the Y2K disaster we were fearing.

"This is a test, it is only a test," says the Emergency BroadcastSystem recording. "For the next sixty seconds, you will hear a tonethat will be used to alert you in case of an actual emergency. Remember, this is only a test."

This morning Tom Ridge was on television explaining that hisannouncement yesterday was to "remind America one more time that we areat war."

Without these reminders we might forget.

"It is good to have the Marines here in Times Square," Charles Gibsonsaid on "Good Morning America" this morning, showing Marines in a "lightarmored vehicle," which is a skinny tank. He said it can go 65 miles anhour. He sounded delighted. "Perfect for combat in the cities. Ithandles better than a Caddy," says one website. "The Army hopes to buy2,131 of the vehicles." For the man who has everything, an LAV-IIIunder the Christmas tree. Better than last war's Hummer.

This conversion to a militarized lifestyle is happening all through oursociety. We are on alert. We are in a state of emergency. We areincreasingly under martial law. Constitutional protections have beensuspended for some people in some situations, or for everyone.

Patriotism is most ardent when a nation is at war. Only Congress candeclare war, Congress has not declared war, but we are most definitelyat war. Peace flags are controversial. We should ask why. Does peaceundermine war? Or does war undermine peace? It is not so simple, ofcourse. "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to holdtwo opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain theability to function," is F. Scott Fitzgerald's line.

Terrorism/democracy. "An eye for an eye only ends up making the wholeworld blind," is one of Gandhi's famous statements, in a variation onwhat Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). U.S. governmentpolicy apparently rejects both Jesus and Gandhi in favor of theeye-for-an-eye equation. We have "blind" justice and "blind rage." Albert Einstein said, "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it canonly be attained through understanding." But American policy makersmust believe they are smarter than Einstein.

James Park wrote, "Recent neuro-biological research has shown that youcannot think clearly without engaging your emotions. Thinking andfeeling are inextricably intertwined, and many of the failings of ourpolitical process arise from our reluctance to acknowledge theimplications of this fact. The question to be asked - about our publicand private lives - is how well we manage the interaction between thetwo processes."

Our hearts and minds are struggling, striving for an understanding ofthe right thing to do, the right way to live. Such striving is calledjihad, the greater jihad, in Arabic. Christmas/war. Ramadan/Hanukkah. It's cognitive dissonance for sure. The countdown is on: almost threemonths from September 11 and the fire of the World Trade Centermausoleum is still burning. Twenty shopping days until Christmas,nineteen, eighteen....

Harris Sussman is a consultant on social affairs in Somerville,Massachusetts.
Email: harris@sussman.org

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