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nexxo · 03-21-2003, 01:56 PM

OK, I'm not an expert on politics, but I do understand people. I know there are some people out there who feel disempowered, deprived, inadequate and hostile enough to want to wipe out a lot of people in some revenge/rage trip (in fact, quite a few). usually these unstable persons are solitary and isolated individuals, and therefore luckily are not likely to get their hands on the means to do so.
They are the people we refer to sometimes as "going postal".

The problem starts when such individuals get together, and get organised. Ingroup-Outgroup dynamics and recursive feedback loops of distorted beliefs ensue, and soon they start behaving in ways of which any person would normally have asked themselves: "Hang on-- just what the heck am I doing!?!". They also pool their resources, and as such they're able to access the hardware they require to do their damage.
They are the people we refer to as terrorists.

Terrorists are not some sort of random magnetic particles that cluster together by accident. Potential candidates are slowly bred en masse in conditions of deprivation, disenfranchisement, persecution and oppression. After years of this, they feel that they have nothing left to lose; no faith, no hope, no dignity, no future. No soul. Instead, they feel frustration, humiliation, powerlessness, insignificance and anger. But when they get together, they start feeling important, powerful and validated by their equally dysfuntional peers. Add an ideology/religion that specifies a scapegoat to channel their rage, and stand back. They will do anything for their peergroup, their only perceived source of feeling that they matter. Peer pressure? Lord of the flies? You ain't seen nothing yet. And they will do anything to get their own back. Reason does not come into it anymore. They will spit at the world with their dying breath.

The reason I'm going on about this here is that I don't believe this is a question of WMD, those who supply them, or how forceful or indecisive the UN is. Remember that 9/11 was wrought with a few hand weapons and some ordinary off-the-shelf civilian airliners. As it said in "The Usual Suspects": "Real power is not about how many weapons you have, or how many men. It is about having the will to do what other men won't".

Rather than focussing on the whole WMD issue, perhaps we should focus on just how entire societies get to be screwed over so badly that they're driven to that utterly insane state of mind where people want to just hurt/kill entire populations. Perhaps we should focus on why those with real power let it happen. Perhaps, just perhaps, we should focus on why the Western world frequently ends up being the target of this insane rage.

03-21-2003, 01:56 PM	#18
nexxo Cooling Savant Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Brimingham, UK Posts: 385	OK, I'm not an expert on politics, but I do understand people. I know there are some people out there who feel disempowered, deprived, inadequate and hostile enough to want to wipe out a lot of people in some revenge/rage trip (in fact, quite a few). usually these unstable persons are solitary and isolated individuals, and therefore luckily are not likely to get their hands on the means to do so. They are the people we refer to sometimes as "going postal". The problem starts when such individuals get together, and get organised. Ingroup-Outgroup dynamics and recursive feedback loops of distorted beliefs ensue, and soon they start behaving in ways of which any person would normally have asked themselves: "Hang on-- just what the heck am I doing!?!". They also pool their resources, and as such they're able to access the hardware they require to do their damage. They are the people we refer to as terrorists. Terrorists are not some sort of random magnetic particles that cluster together by accident. Potential candidates are slowly bred en masse in conditions of deprivation, disenfranchisement, persecution and oppression. After years of this, they feel that they have nothing left to lose; no faith, no hope, no dignity, no future. No soul. Instead, they feel frustration, humiliation, powerlessness, insignificance and anger. But when they get together, they start feeling important, powerful and validated by their equally dysfuntional peers. Add an ideology/religion that specifies a scapegoat to channel their rage, and stand back. They will do anything for their peergroup, their only perceived source of feeling that they matter. Peer pressure? Lord of the flies? You ain't seen nothing yet. And they will do anything to get their own back. Reason does not come into it anymore. They will spit at the world with their dying breath. The reason I'm going on about this here is that I don't believe this is a question of WMD, those who supply them, or how forceful or indecisive the UN is. Remember that 9/11 was wrought with a few hand weapons and some ordinary off-the-shelf civilian airliners. As it said in "The Usual Suspects": "Real power is not about how many weapons you have, or how many men. It is about having the will to do what other men won't". Rather than focussing on the whole WMD issue, perhaps we should focus on just how entire societies get to be screwed over so badly that they're driven to that utterly insane state of mind where people want to just hurt/kill entire populations. Perhaps we should focus on why those with real power let it happen. Perhaps, just perhaps, we should focus on why the Western world frequently ends up being the target of this insane rage. __________________ "There is a thin line between magic and madness"