Jonathan Dodd’s latest column. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
I remember what I was doing on 11th September 2001, when those planes crashed into the Twin Towers. I was doing some woodwork at home, in between a lovely holiday and having to go back to work. I remember watching the whole process unfold, and I remember going through the whole gamut of emotions, just as everyone in the world did. Or maybe not quite everyone.
Apart from the thoughts and feelings I had about it, there were two things that became uppermost in my mind, and they remain there. The first thing, before I knew anything about it, was this thought. “What have we done to these people to make them so angry that they’re willing to do this to us, at the cost of their own lives?” The second thing came from watching some news footage of a cafe, somewhere in the Middle East, filled with people cheering and shooting into the sky as they watched the same scenes.
The use of religion has, frankly, always been cynical
What makes someone become a suicide bomber? I never heard anyone explain this to me adequately. We’ve had our own difficulties, not so long ago. There were the Troubles, with bombs going off in pubs and hotels and people dying on our doorsteps, but as far as I know there were no IRA suicide bombings. The whole emphasis of their tactics was to do the deed and survive to see victory. And now there’s peace, more or less, in Northern Ireland, and some progress has been made.
Most countries have had revolutions and civil wars and periods of unrest. Sometimes these have been caused by internal arguments, sometimes by harsh regimes and injustice, and occasionally there have been outside efforts to destabilise governments. There have been plenty of religious wars, although the use of religion has, frankly, always been cynical.
Their obsession with big guns and the need to use them
Northern Ireland was a power struggle between two sections of society that were inimical, but it would never have come to violence had not one section discriminated so completely against the other. The current difficulties in the USA point damningly to the continuing discrimination and inequality between white and black communities. Of course their obsession with big guns and the need to use them doesn’t help much.
The outbreak of terrorism that we’re living through lately is new to us, because the people who commit these unspeakably despicable atrocities are not just prepared for their own deaths, they expect not to survive. And nobody, as far as I can tell, has spent any time analysing what this is all about. They say that in order to defeat your enemy you have to understand them, but we seem to be completely unwilling to do this.
This isn’t a rag-tag gang of out-of-work malcontents
Back in the Second World War there were certain Japanese Kamikaze pilots who sacrificed themselves by crashing their explosive-packed aeroplanes straight into warships. It is well-documented that they lived in a culture in which they were told that their Emperor was a god, and thus they would leap ahead in the wheel of life and death, and either achieve Nirvana or get much closer to it. There are reports that they still required a lot of brain-washing and drugs to be able to do it, and they were all trained soldiers, used to obeying orders.
In contrast, most of these latest suicide bombers, or perpetrators of other hideous acts, are not known to the authorities, and seem often to be working on their own. Many are well-educated or have good jobs. This isn’t a rag-tag gang of out-of-work malcontents. We are shocked by this because we have the unshakeable belief that people with families and good jobs are always going to be grateful.
What would need to happen to me?
We make another assumption too, that there’s a limited number of these nutters, and that once they’ve all killed themselves it’ll all stop. But they just keep on coming. Where are they coming from, and what makes them volunteer? I suppose I should add in to this mix those gunmen mostly, but not solely in the USA, who feel the need to massacre innocents. But these are often characterised as being loners or with a history of mental issues, undetected or ignored for too long.
I’m not qualified myself to attempt to answer any of these questions. I have no idea, and all my feeble attempts to understand just stall on one particular point. I can’t imagine that I, here and now, in this life, could possibly find myself in a position to volunteer to do such a thing. And that gives me a small window to peer into. I have asked myself what would need to happen to me to bring me to the point where I could?
I would need to be possessed by a terrible anger
I would have had to have people I know or love taken from me in terrible ways. I would have had to witness injustice far beyond what we consider normal. I would have had to have suffered myself, through terror or torture or starvation or the loss of all hope. And I would have had to know that there were people out there who were living comfortably while perpetrating all this on me, or my family, or my people, or my country. And I would need to be possessed by a terrible anger.
None of us have any idea what that must feel like. Personally, I’m grateful that all my own angers are petty and insignificant. None of us want to imagine that we have any responsibility for any of those things being perpetrated on others in our names, or with our blessing. And none of us can be sure that our own hands are clean.
Words that in themselves are innocuous but that carry so much baggage
I’m not trying here to apportion blame, either through action or inaction, for any of the suffering in the world. I’m not trying to whitewash these people and their disgusting and ultimately stupid acts. I’m attempting to encourage us to stop just doing that lazy and pointless labelling thing, which does nothing to help, but makes us feel smug and righteous and somehow safer. We need to stop using all these words that in themselves are innocuous, but that carry so much baggage.
What words? Refugees. Terrorists. Suicide Bombers. Illegal immigrants. Economic migrants. And so on, and so on. Every one of the people who are labelled like this is a human being with a story and with their own reasons for doing what they do. Every one of those stories is different.
If what has happened to them is in any way our fault
Among the displaced millions now shuffling precariously round the world there is an unknown number who just seek safety, or the next meal, or a place of peace and quiet. An unknown number of them are looking for a better life, or hope, or survival for themselves or their children. We don’t know what sort of life they had or what they ultimately want. Some of them probably are only looking for a sort of earthly paradise where they can live off the fat of the land without contributing anything in return. In this way they are just like us, doing what we would do if our homeland or way of life disintegrated.
And there are, inevitably, mixed up with them, an unknown number who are bent on destruction, for reasons of revenge, or anger, or misplaced loyalty to creeds or beliefs, or just sheer criminality. I think it’s about time we stopped labelling them and telling them to keep moving on or to go home, and started asking those questions that will not only explain what is happening and why, but give us opportunities to help, and to avoid future disasters like this, and maybe make amends, if what has happened to them is in any way our fault.
If you have been, thank you for reading this.
Image: scottlynchnyc under CC BY 2.0
Image: Northern Ireland Office under CC BY 2.0
Image: public domain
Image: public domain
Image: glasgows under CC BY 2.0
Image: ssoosay under CC BY 2.0
Image: John Hood Mliu92 under CC BY 2.0
Image: Migmoug under CC BY 2.0
