The low ranking soldiers that are being punished for the Nazi-style prison tortures in Iraq (yes, Hitler pissed on his lover for kicks and his Nazi's treated people as subhuman amusements) were know-nothing adolescents acting out something that was encouraged by their superiors. Sadly, I find these acts to be compatible with American "traditional values."
Whether it's Puritanical, fundamentalist, or some other religious value, or the abstract philosophical attitudes that permeate our educational systems--Americans have a ridiculously hard time respecting the human body. We consider it profane, never sacred. This not only goes for considering the integrity of others' bodies, it goes for how we treat our own bodies, and extends into our treatment of trash, air and water.
There is an endless list of symptoms that reveal our distance from physical respectfulness. From our lack of interest in cleaning the air we breath, to abusive fraternity and sorority customs, and police brutality, to rational people who will starve, barf, medicate or submit themselves to surgery in order to appear thin or young--we treat human bodies like renewable earth that is astonishingly separate from human minds, spirits and souls.
We are stuck in this segregation like never before: Clothing advertisements pimping models; hip-hop videos with soft-porn singers; public rape trials; reality TV cosmetic surgery; reality TV funeral rites. I saw an 80 year-old woman wearing a red mid-driff with a tennis skirt today. She looked really good, wasn't crazy or weird, but it's odd and disconserting to be 80 and still wearing a middriff. Haven't we learned by this age that we don't need to publicly prove our aging physical beauty in lagging competition with our engaging personalities? You know it's bad when even men are starting to complain that they have low self-esteen (due to the proliferation of perfect appearing men in magazines and on billboards). As much as I welcome men into the "gee, that's not me" club--we really need a healthier balance! It seems that every day we have less and less respect for physical sacredness or limits!
I'm not asking us to treat our bodies like temples (although that's great), let's just work on treating our bodies as well as our cars, or our favorite electronics or CDs, or hell, our kitchen sinks (we keep those flowing and clean, and we're careful what we put in the disposal, right?). Any wrongs that were committed against our bodies through old-fashioned ideas of religious humility or sexual suppression cannot be repaired by wanton exploitation and physical obsession. Lest one thinks that the secular world is causing all of this physical abuse--I know of few born-again environmentalists and have yet to hear George Bush's moral outrage over the atrocities that took place in that Iraqi prison.
It is not surprising to me that adolescent American soldiers (I never let myself forget the influence of chaotic adolescent hormones on people well into their 20s) in the grip of an irrational war might behave toward enemy prisoners in a manner lacking any sense of physical dignity or respect. Enforcing their orders, they probably rationalized that since they have the American understanding that "body and spirit" are to be separate, so should their victims (if they perceived their victims to have souls at all). As Americans we don't recognize that we are but CHILDREN in our sense of holiness. Instead, we act as arrogant, self-righteous crusaders branding ourselves with G_d's stamp of approval even as we find those among our ranks commiting acts of war and horrific abuse.
Until our world leaders and citizens respect the body, mind and spirit as one (you could say that this is the holy trinity) we will not be at peace anywhere--in ourselves, in our homes, or with our neighbors. This isn't some kind of hocus-pocus belief system, it doesn't even have to be about G_d, it's about the basic human requirements one needs to experience life and people with wonder, humor and grace.
