Writer James Dawes, on CNN OPINION, gave his answers after viewing the virile YouTube posting of the Syrian horror. The points are well taken. Mostly, make someone powerless and have no self-image; give them radical religion which promises rewards in Heaven; put them into a lifetime of death via war and earthly catastrophes. Shake it up, good.
I would add ingredients to the mix: poverty. Poverty where death through starvation, degradation, mutilation and disease are constants. Poverty that is unrelenting; grinding from birth--if there is any life after birth.
I would also add: unceasing depression. Soul-sucking depression where one doesn't even have the chance to experience connection to another life-form. Depression that flings one into a pit of abysmal pain. Hell on Earth with no respite. None.
Hopelessness. Hopelessness from first consciousness. Hopelessness that has been genetically implanted: from the ancestors who also were without hope--to the parental units--if they are even known. All poor. All born into the Abyss. Ever deprived. Ever at war. Ever hungry.
Lack of education. Lack of human rights. Lack of shelter and clothing and protection from all the evils this world contains. Lack of contact. Lack of Light. Lack of Spiritual identity--Spiritual identity that has been replaced by Political tyranny or genocide.
A quenching of what makes a human being "be" beyond basic instincts; beyond simple urges and appetites; beyond lusts and hungers; beyond blood-thirst and hate and ultimate revenge. Beyond morality; beyond judgment; beyond mental health.
We know serial killers. We try to understand cannibalism via tribal studies and cultures where strength is gained from absorbing the flesh (or earthly remains)of enemies and elders. We are beginning to crack the puzzle of mental illnesses. However, the depravity of desecration of another human's body and the filming for posterity of this shocking act--this goes to another level.
It is not the Syrian people we hold responsible. It is not their make-up nor their training nor even their beliefs. It is something Evil created in unending war that has always walked among us. Stalking humans --the most vulnerable and wounded humans--since the beginning.
When we see this posting smeared across the Web, we must realize: however terrifying: we are witnessing a part of ourselves.
I would add ingredients to the mix: poverty. Poverty where death through starvation, degradation, mutilation and disease are constants. Poverty that is unrelenting; grinding from birth--if there is any life after birth.
I would also add: unceasing depression. Soul-sucking depression where one doesn't even have the chance to experience connection to another life-form. Depression that flings one into a pit of abysmal pain. Hell on Earth with no respite. None.
Hopelessness. Hopelessness from first consciousness. Hopelessness that has been genetically implanted: from the ancestors who also were without hope--to the parental units--if they are even known. All poor. All born into the Abyss. Ever deprived. Ever at war. Ever hungry.
Lack of education. Lack of human rights. Lack of shelter and clothing and protection from all the evils this world contains. Lack of contact. Lack of Light. Lack of Spiritual identity--Spiritual identity that has been replaced by Political tyranny or genocide.
A quenching of what makes a human being "be" beyond basic instincts; beyond simple urges and appetites; beyond lusts and hungers; beyond blood-thirst and hate and ultimate revenge. Beyond morality; beyond judgment; beyond mental health.
We know serial killers. We try to understand cannibalism via tribal studies and cultures where strength is gained from absorbing the flesh (or earthly remains)of enemies and elders. We are beginning to crack the puzzle of mental illnesses. However, the depravity of desecration of another human's body and the filming for posterity of this shocking act--this goes to another level.
It is not the Syrian people we hold responsible. It is not their make-up nor their training nor even their beliefs. It is something Evil created in unending war that has always walked among us. Stalking humans --the most vulnerable and wounded humans--since the beginning.
When we see this posting smeared across the Web, we must realize: however terrifying: we are witnessing a part of ourselves.
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