examination is an oddly American trait, and one from which all of us may learn something about our own, general human nature. News of the death of Bin Laden sparked raucous celebrating across the US, particularly at the former site of the World Trade Center in New York and in Washington, D.C., the country's capital. And while in much of the world, particularly in the US, great satisfaction might have been felt at the terrorist's death, a good deal of criticism of the public celebrations also came from various quarters. Indeed, revenge is a very human reaction to perceived wrongs, and social scientists have opined that no one should be particularly surprised at the general reaction to the killing. Extensive studies have shown that most humans have an immediate desire for revenge when they are wronged, be it through something as mundane as a broken love relationship to a more serious incident that may be considered criminal. In most of the more mundane cases, however, that desire drops off over a relatively short time. People are, in the end, far more forgiving than we may consider ourselves to be. Most people subscribe to the “just deserts” approach to crime, believing that the criminal should be punished with the same severity as that of the crime. Public celebrations of a person's death are like the reaction of any kind of mob action. A small number of people may have a very strong reaction that they want to display, and then others are “infected,” taking part in actions and behavior that, by themselves, they would never consider acceptable. Nevertheless, civilized societies must work to control these instincts, lest blood lust take over demonstrations and result in releasing the wholly animal nature of humans. There are countless examples of mob actions in virtually every country in the world which appear extremely distasteful in retrospect, even to those who were a part of the mob. So, while the celebration of the death of an international criminal may be entirely human, it is also time to give consideration to the line that separates our animal nature from our higher consciousness, and make sure it is well delineated. __
