The world is becoming immunized to the horrors of terrorism
The world is becoming immunized to the horrors of terrorism
By Rex Murphy, National Post, July 15 2016 (last updated July 16 2016)
If what occurred in Nice, France, on Thursday was a one-of-kind event, I’m certain the world’s response would be dramatically more powerful and intense. Who rents a truck with the intended purpose of driving it into a crowd of people celebrating a national holiday, with the intended purpose of running over and maiming as many as possible? Unfortunately, the world is becoming immunized to these horrors.
However unfashionable it is to bring up the ancient codes of chivalry in these micro-aggressed and progressive times, there remains in all minds that have not been reduced to captious putty, the idea of even self-proclaimed “warriors” killing women and children — innocent, defenceless and not at all complicit in the world’s woes — should shake us to the core. The act goes against all codes of honour in conflict and — regardless of how often it is breached — what has severed as a taboo in wars and conflicts throughout all history. Paris, London, Boston, Madrid, New York, Orlando, Jerusalem — it will soon be easier to name the cities not attacked than those that have been: always with the same markers, the screeching calls of Allah Akbar, and then — with a gun, bomb, pressure cooker or truck — they kill, wound and traumatize as many innocents as possible.
As for Thursday’s butchery being that of another “lone wolf,” well considering the number of recent attacks, we must ask how many lone wolves make a pack? The Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant and its many variants — from al-Qaida to Boko Haram and their numerous heartless epigoni — will kill anybody, anywhere, in the cruellest way possible. The horrors they perform on their local killing fields in Iraq, Syria, Africa and elsewhere — burning people alive, sex slavery, bombs tied to the throat, decapitation — testify to an absolute amorality, a fiendish savagery that, in all but scale, rivals the barbarity of the Nazis.
We’re in a grim time, and we’re getting used to it — a thought that is deeply troubling. There are words written 97 years ago, in the aftermath of the Irish troubles and the First World War, that claw for our current attention: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world …” And then this prophetic declaration: / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”
It is not often that high poetry illustrates world events in such a natural fashion. But the words of Yeats, with their apocalyptic tone, were fit for their time, and in a more insidious way, fit for ours, as well. Nowadays, the terror is amorphous, springing not from the deadly quarrels of antagonist nations, but out of some nebulous cauldron of fundamentalist Islam. A contempt for Western modernism, violent primitivism, Messianism, the deadly lure of anarchy itself and sheer blood lust — these are the ideas that are responsible for those children who lie crippled and dead on the streets and sidewalks of Nice.
There is always a portion of mankind who will seize a convenient “cause” to cover the exercise of unbridled sadism and murder. There will always be isolated souls, angry at their own insignificance and emptiness, who seek the cloak of a “purpose” to justify or rationalize striking out against innocent civilians, when all they are really doing is attempting to mask the hollowness of their own lives. But these days, one event runs so quickly into another that it no longer makes us recoil in horror. Indeed, most of us barely have time to process the moral dimensions of the latest hideous attack before the next one consumes the headlines.
No one knows how to stop these attacks — certainly not how to stop them over any quick period of time. We do, however, know that the evasion of naming them for what they are is not the route to travel. Swaddling ourselves in earnest hashtags, movie stars or first ladies taking grim-looking selfies while holding up the latest pasteboard slogans (“Bring Back our Girls”) are pathetic, excusatory diversions from any real call to action. Singing hymns to diversity, or the endless search for “root causes” and “explanations” — when the plain cause and explanation is usually present out of the mouths and declarations of the killers themselves — is no way forward.
Western leaders spend more time trying to muffle the domestic reaction to terror attacks than on the terror attacks themselves. They readily fire up the increasingly numb and hollow tropes of racism and xenophobia when ordinary people speak what they actually feel after each fresh horror. It is little wonder, then, that people turn to more radical solution offered by the likes of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage: when legitimate expressions of concern are put off limits, people will seek a voice for their fears and worries.
The events in Nice should not be allowed to fade from our collective memory. An age of terror is upon us. The sight of the bodies of children on a highway in France should provoke a response that is far more permanent and substantial than doe-eyed leaders trotting out the tired litanies of “our thoughts are with the citizens of (fill in the location of the latest atrocity).” The merciless character and unappeasable appetites of murderous jihadism call for real and determined leadership.
Tags
Who is online
623 visitors
Unless the world leaders start to call a spade a spade and deal with the problem instead of whitewashing and denying it, the warnings of Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Geet Wilders become more and more credible.
Maybe we can do something powerful... like asking baristas to call out "black lives matter"...
I can't believe I missed this seed. It's certainly worth a bump to the top of the FP.
The world is becoming immunized to the horrors of terrorism.
Yes most say nothing of the terror and murder the evil communist committed against the people of Tibet. How many did they slaughter and terrorize? Some reports are up to one million. Is the Dalai Lama the only world leader with the balls to stand up to the atrocities committed by this evil communist tyrannical government?
I've never seen anyone (except perhaps Senator McCarthy) so terrified of and obsessed with communism as Dean Moriarty. Take a pill, Dean.
Our concern is the problems of today, Dean. We can't do anything about historical events. We don't have a time machine to enable us to go back and right the wrongs of the past.
I'm afraid you have become immunized to the horrors of communism. Life in Cuba, North Korea and China are still a living hell for millions of people. You often speak of how horrible Iran is but who has killed more the Chinese or Iran? I've read stories of the government forcing mothers to step on the heads of their newborn babies and drown them. We know from the Dalai Lamas books and lectures how they burned, raped, looted and murdered his peace loving people. I am aware since 1979 China has made big strides in moving towards a more free society but we still read of people being murdered for their organs and other atrocities. I know of women in China that will sell themselves to strangers to escape the poverty and speaking up against the government can still cost you your life.
It is probably correct that when China was strongly enforcing the one child policy that a lot of local officials caused forced abortions, but more recently such an action results in the official being dismissed from his/her position at the very least. As for past crimes, well as you've said yourself, America has not been any different when it comes to murdering civilians even for cause, such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki as examples. People being murdered for their organs is as much a lie as Israelis murdering Palestinians for their organs. It's probable that executed criminals have their organs harvested, but their execution would have been for cause. As for women becoming prostitutes, are there no prostitutes in America or in any other western country? Finally, speaking openly or publishing something critical of the government may well lead to jail time, but not execution usually. So, when in Rome... I can be just as critical of America with its wild west mentality and gun love, and as you yourself have said, for interfering militarily in other countries.
Thanks to terrorists...and no one else.
I think we need to look at our own actions and how our bombs and drones fuel terrorism. Would they hate us if we were not invading their countries toppling their governments and kicking in their doors. Until we acknowledge our own failures and stop killing them they will continue to want to kill us. Im not saying it was right but we know that 911 was a retaliatory action.
How does that explain attacks in France, Denmark, etc., etc.? This is a global issue, not just in the U.S.
Both France and Denmark were killing Muslims in Iraq since 2003 were they not? Should they be surprised that their actions result in reactions?
Denmark was? I thought it was because they insulted Muhammad?
It could be but we also know Denmark was involved from 2004 through 2007.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-National_Force_–_Iraq
Check out "Armadillo" sometime. Good Doc on the Danes.