Disappointment

The events in Paris are terrible, indiscriminate killings, lives truncated without warning, fear and hate manifest. That cannot be doubted or questioned.  Though the reaction of some people could be, and I've found it wanting. Disappointing. I'd say there's a 40/60 split. 40 percent of what I read on social media was compassionate, caring messages of regret, love and support. Although sadly about 60 percent of posts I read were knee jerk, xenophobic, right-wing or jingoistic.  People baying for blood and revenge, as misguided and delusional as the terrorists, both motivated by the base instincts, the only difference is one group have made good on their words to the extreme. Some posted both. And so the cycle continues, even spirals down a touch further as acts of hate feed and are used to justify acts of hate.  Always the innocents will suffer more than the guilty, and resolution remain distant.

We forget that this was, thankfully, a rare occurrence for the West, although this is life for much of the Middle East and North Africa, and has been for decades, in fact it's life for many around the world. That same day hundreds died in the Middle East and we said nothing, no out pourings, no one changed their profile picture. We looked away, we always look away; well that's not entirely fair, our corporatized media left us ignorant; willfully ignorant? Or is that too far.  And that's how it is and how it's always been, we are fed a highly editorialized, myopic, western centric view of world events. We are told that events 'over there' have nothing to do with us, that the weapons and the money which fuel terrorism just materializes out of the ether.  Far from the truth, but that's a whole can of worms on own. And I see that as the root cause of our empathic deficiency and plurality.

People can't seem to equate their shock, anger, fear and a gut need for retribution and revenge, with the very same emotional responses which fuel terrorism and are used by the terrorist recruiting sergeant. We have no empathy for 'others'. What happened in Paris was appalling, and the loss of life devastating, and that was one event, whereas in terms of loss and destruction, it pales in comparison with the daily loss of life to terrorism, or the war on terrorism, which occurs throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Only recently Western forces bombed a hospital, by mistake granted (although that will be cold comfort to the families of those who died in what to them is terrorism) and we just brushed it away, collateral damage, no justice. Just like the memes circulating in the West blaming refugees or migrants or Muslims on mass, for the death and destruction, those in the ravaged Middle East and North Africa blame the West on mass; of course neither are accurate, I and many others don't support the actions of the western military industrial complex, just as the majority of those in the Middle East and North Africa don't support extremism or acts of terrorism.  Really most are just ordinary people just like us who want none of it. But increasingly people don't want to or wont hear that, and that frightens me, people on all over the world are becoming entrenched.

I've noticed a growing polarization when you try and point these things out or call for unity, empathy and compassion rather than an escalation of hate you're subject to personal attack and accusations of being a terrorist sympathizer by those who already on the road to a form of radicalization themselves by far right extremism, whether they know it or not. There's little space for debate, you're either with us or against us, there's no place for anyone deploring terrorism and rejecting escalating military action. It's black and white, and we're the white...obviously. I'm sure it's similar in the Middle East and North Africa too for those who don't see everybody in the West as culpable enemies as described by those radicalized by extremism, just in reverse. I despise and deplore terrorism of all types, against anybody/thing, be individual, group or state sponsored, but blaming and stigmatizing or demonizing whole swathes of innocent people is not the answer and only serves the fuel hate, fear and division. Say that though and , as I've said, you're shouted down as either a sympathist, a traitor or just plain weak.  How many innocents will die or suffer as a consequence of the innocents who died and suffered in Paris? Horror will beget horror, ad infinitum.

I don't know the answer or even the path to the answer, but I do know that if we want a better world, a good start would be to ensure that liberté, égalité, fraternité are global and manifest for ALL in more than just words.