Unimaginable?

Unimaginable? I keep hearing and reading how unimaginable the horrors that Hamas visited on Israel are. They are horrors. Brutal. Disgusting. They are not unimaginable. They are very imaginable. They are far too easily imaginable. We just don’t want those thoughts in our imaginations, in our nations, or anywhere in our consciousness. But they are far too imaginable.

Humans are capable of all sorts of things we want to banish from our imaginations and thus make them unimaginable. But in reality that’s a fool’s errand and only leads us deeper into shock and grief when the “unimaginable” happens. If we stop imagining away the reality that horrible, brutal, hateful people will do harm to others and instead will see some sort of light we’d be better off in my opinion. Otherwise it’s willful or wishful blindness that allows ignorance to grow. And those who visit the “unimaginable” on the world love to prey on the ignorant.

There’s an interesting cultural disconnect in our imaginations, especially at this time of the year when horror films dominate popular culture featuring horrendous humans doing horrendous things to other humans. Most see both the real world horrors and the Hollywood horrors through the same screens. Is there really a difference? Obviously there’s an appetite for that kind of “unimaginable” entertainment.  And yet, we claim to be surprised and shocked when it happens in the real world. Imagine that. 

We are not going to imagine hate away. We are not going to imagine violence away. We are not going to imagine ourselves into a safer world. We can work for one. And yes, that requires some imagination. But the world is what the world is and humans do to humans what humans are capable of doing. Especially when there’s profit in it.

Yes, I’d like a calmer, saner, more peaceful world where we can all live together with respect, kindness, and love. If there’s something that’s unimaginable to me, it’s that place.