The world was shattered when sleepy pastoral tranquil New Zealand, where the murder of one individual is front page news, was struck by the wholesale methodical slaughter of 50 innocent Muslim worshippers. The obscene massacre was broadcast live on the internet by the sociopathic assailant who simultaneously published a 74 page manifesto on the world wide web, which was a racist diatribe against the "foreign invaders". The potent mixture of evil, unlimited access to weapons and the new means of instant communication, the internet, has changed the world forever. The time has come for to initiate a comprehensive ambitious agenda to combat this violence which is casting a dark shadow over the planet.
In order to battle this evil there are four variables that need to be addressed. First and foremost, the internet, which is the means of propagandizing, communication and thereby empowerment of this malicious minority, has to be regulated. It is bizarre and outrageous that the control of this global mayhem is left to the tender mercies of the likes of 34 year old Mark Zuckerberg rather than being controlled legislatively.
The terrorist organizations who identify themselves by their ideology, which is for the most part either religious fundamentalism or right wing white nationalist extremism, has to be monitored and attempts made to somehow ameliorate their evil. The laissez affair attitude to the availability of guns of all sorts has too to be addressed and controls put in place.
Finally, there has to be an attempt to identify those who act on their own and perpetrate this evil. The latter objective is the most difficult to achieve and would have been almost impossible in the New Zealand tragedy as, for the most part, the thug flew under the radar until he made his grotesque move into prime time. For the moment the only way to put the brake on these perpetrators is to stop them obtaining weapons of death.
THE REVOLUTIONARY IMPACT OF THE NEW MEANS OF COMMUNICATION - THE INTERNET
The advent of the internet has been the largest ally of those who wish to terrorize. Much as the invention of the printing press heralded hundreds of years of religious wars in Europe, culminating in the Thirty Years War, ending in 1648, which saw the death of a third of the population in Germany, the internet has facilitated an era of fear and slaughter. The epidemic of random homicidal acts on innocent bystanders has paralyzed the world and as the New Zealand horror has illustrated there is no place to hide.
The evil minority have become a new powerful interconnected force, that like international corporations, know no national boundaries, They have become Terror Incorporated. The introduction of the internet and social streaming have allowed isolated monstrous events to take on global revolutionary significance. Tiny groups of extremists are able to connect and propagandize within seconds. Otherwise lone perpetrators have become members of a world wide army of unadulteratedly evil participants who feed and nourish one another. Factions such as ISIS have a visual forum where they can advertise their surrealistic evil which they use as a recruiting tool.
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE EVIL OF TERRORISM
There have always been evil butchers.Terrorist evil has existed since time immemorial but up until the twentieth century it was confined and uniquely directed against political targets. For example, there were the anarchist attacks against the Tzar and most notoriously the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand triggering off the First World War. The post second war period saw the beginnings of terror against indiscriminate civilian targets being utilized as political propaganda. Notably the Irish Republican Army took their centuries old struggle to the British mainland and Yasser Arafat launched the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s fighting arm Fatah into international terror.
Arafat and related groups elevated the violation of everyday life to a new level with international plane hijackings and the Black September murder of eleven Israeli athletes in Munich Germany. The PLO leader announced in 1984 that he had abandoned assaulting the innocent but the war to this day against Israel is being lead by internationally declared terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Much of the random religious and right wing slaughter in the world to this day is directed against Jews or against the existence of the State of Israel.
The twentieth century saw the emergence and prominence on the international stage of fundamentalist Islamist El Queda and subsequently ISIS. Simultaneously, the prevalence of murderous incidents perpetrated by individuals or small groups increased exponentially. These were in the main either religiously motivated, the behavior of right wing white nationalist extremists and in some instances the mentally unhinged who had no agenda other than hatred and evil. Overall seventy percent of the attacks were motivated by Islamist religious extremism whereas in the United States of America the bulk of the transgressors were on the right wing white racist fringe of society.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
The current administration under Trump seems paralyzed into doing anything lest it annoy its backers - the National Rifle Association and the right wing crazies. Trump, whose public position is that the right wing white nationalists are not a real threat, “They are just a few”, did ban bump stocks that turn semi automatic weapons into automatic pieces. The latter was a sequel to the carnage in Las Vegas where 59 lay dead while attending a music festival.
There is currently a permanent emergency on school campuses who are fortunate enough just to be participating in regular lock down drills rather than being subjected to real terror.
Trump has suggested that schools and places of worship beef up security. A further Trumpian contribution to the crisis is that teachers should carry weapons. In a similar vein he believed that the Pittsburgh Synagogue bloodbath was evidence of a security deficit. For the moment he cannot be counted upon to assist in corrective action which involves a process that might take decades to show results. However with or without the help of the current American administration expansive objectives need to be defined and strived for.
The Social Media Platform of Terrorism has to be removed.
The number one item on the agenda is to remove the platform for these individuals, groups and organizations. This cannot be left to the amateur efforts of the social media companies. (Only recently did YouTube and FaceBook shut down Alex Jones who has inter alia claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary School butchery, where 20 First Graders and 6 adults were slain, was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by “gun grabbers”).
It wIll require a concerted international effort to put an end to material that seeks to allow this type of terrorism to flourish. The United Nations should put together a group with the ultimate aim of obtaining consensus for legislation that nation states will enact.
Gun Control
There is no argument that there is any societal need for weapons that can wipe out scores of individuals in seconds. The New Zealand Premier is moving to have these banned immediately. In fact every weapon in society needs to be licensed and registered. Anyone who owns one needs to have background checks, regular training on their usage and to provide evidence as to how to safely store them. There are 30,000 deaths from suicides and unintentional shootings a year in America seriously putting into doubt that there is the remotest attempt to check the mental state of gun owners.
Terrorist Organizations
With regard to the two major groups that affect carnage in the name of ideology or religion very little is done to damp down on the white right wing groups who dominate the American terrorist scene. With regard to the random murder for religious reasons, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks coined the term, “altruistic evil” in his award winning book, “Not in God’s name: Confronting Religious Violence”. Sack’s definition of the phenomenon was that it was violence that was perpetrated in a sacred cause in the name of high ideals. He labelled it as the biggest threat of “our time”. The solution involves leadership of each of the Abrahamic religions working together, seeing the good and the commonality of their value systems and to respect their differences. Sacks recognizes that he is not going to convert any terrorists and this is a long term process. What needs to be emphasized is that the process of inculcating hate begins in childhood where the ground is laid to obtain recruits in the mission of altruistic evil.
The sponsoring countries of terrorism have a responsibility to fight and provide resources to eradicate the monster they have created. Specifically the Saudis financed Madrases throughout the world that were the progenitors of Wahabi - Salafist fundamentalist terrorism.
Individuals who become terrorists and/or are recruited to terrorism
There is little doubt that the ruthless sociopathic killers, even those who claim to have a cause, have no empathy with their victims. The percentage of amoral sociopaths in society is estimated to be four percent. They have no conscience nor do they learn from the tragedies they perpetrate. So little is known and written about the sociopath personality. Scott Peck’s book - “The People of the Lie” goes through case studies of individuals who manifest the traits of the sociopath. Often these are only uncovered because of the repetition of their destructive behavior, resulting finally in their exposure. Mercifully those that are unintelligent are constantly in legal trouble and are locked up. But the real danger are the highly intelligent sociopaths who are superficially charming and often charismatic individuals. They gravitate to leadership positions in many disciplines, being particularly dangerous if they reach high political or leadership positions, such as Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler. They are at a distinct advantage in decision making as their actions are not hampered by the niceties of what is right or wrong. There is little doubt that the New Zealand incendiary was a sociopath.
Simon Baron - Cohen in his work, “The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty” is a lot more helpful as he isolates the key personality characteristic that these people are missing - empathy. He claims that the etiology of this condition involves biological, social and environmental factors such as parental neglect, abuse and the experience of profound distrust.
While it is fair to say that this area of research has a long way to go and runs the risk of crackpot theories and solutions, there is little doubt that lack of empathy is common to the genre of terrorists. Carl Rogers, the founder of Person Centered Therapy, defined it as the ability to put oneself into another’s shoes and see the world as they do. In addition what was central to his theory of communication and understanding had to be unconditional regard for the other and their world view. Implicit in such behavior is a conscience and knowing right from wrong. Rogers was a firm believer that displaying these attitudes would help defuse conflict and would be most useful in solving political divisions. Consciously or unconsciously a great exponent of these behaviors was Nelson Mandela. Why not expand them to all individuals in society?
The thought Jay H. Ell has, is why aren’t these values not a crucial and an ongoing subject of school education? The objective is to make scholars aware of valuing “the other” and understanding each other’s world. This is a vast undertaking and idealistic suggestion but not beyond the imagination. Why shouldn’t education focus on values and attitudes in addition to knowledge and problem solving.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Combating the modern day evil of terrorism is a top priority and there are several components to the problem. The invention of the printing press resulted in liberalization of communication, the printing press, facilitating centuries years of war. The latest means of sharing knowledge and objectives, the internet, has the potential to destroy the sanctity of day to day life as it is currently experienced. Solutions will require societal and political resolve and even if agreed upon, have a long time line associated for their enactment. However there is an urgency to attack this scourge as, illustrated by the New Zealand tragedy, no community or society is exempt. All it takes is one agent to wreak havoc and change the status quo forever.
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