Terrorism and Why it Doesn’t Appeal to Us
My friend sent me an SMS which goes somewhat like this:
Ek Cheeta Cigarette ka sutta lagane hi wala tha ki achanak ek chuha wahan aya aur bola, “Mere bhai chor do nasha, ao mere sath bhaago, dekho ye jungle kitna khubsurat hai, ao mere sath duniya dekho.”
Cheeta ne ek lamha socha phir choohe ke sath dorne laga.
Aage ek hathi cocaine pi raha tha, chooha phir bola, “Hathi mere bhai chor do nasha, ao mere sath bhago, dekho ye jungle kitna khubsurat hai, ao mere sath duniya dekho.”
Hathi bhi sath dorne laga.
Agey sher whiskey pine ki tyari kar raha tha, choohe ne usey bhi wohi kaha.
Sher ne glass side per rakha aur choohe ko 5-6 thappar mare.
Hathi bola, “Arre ye to tumhe zindagi ki taraf le ja raha hai, kyun mar rahe ho is bechare ko?”
Sher bole, “Is kamine ne pichli baar bhi afeen kha kar mujhe 3 ghante jungle me aise hi ghumaya tha…”
A little mouse suffering from a terrible bout of oppression, and now in an aggravated and disappointed state has the perfect makings of a terrorist. He goes about recruiting the innocent, ignorant cheetah and elephant to implement his malevolent plans, disguising them in the beautiful blue wrapper of a bright future.
I would say, you see someone making big speeches to you, you run. A clown may terrorize his audience with stupid jokes and impossible gymnastics, but he’s not a terrorist. A teacher in a class may terrorize the students with his huge reservoir of knowledge, but he’s not a terrorist. An angry boss may terrorize an employee when he is wrong, because the boss knows the right way, but he’s still not a terrorist.
If any of the above seem a terrorist to you, I will interrupt you and say, “No.” Now, if you find a meek salesman bowing down, not looking into your face, then he is a potential terrorist. He has a motive, and he is not very convinced that it is a good motive, but must follow it because of directives from higher authorities or due to being deluded by manipulative forces. But my examples may seem too far-fetched to you.
Have you ever seen a wounded tiger? Or at least that look in peoples’ faces? Well, what does it look like? Does it look dangerous? Does it look fearful? Does it look like the person is going to attack you? In all probabilities, the man’s back is against the wall and he is hard pressed to do desperate things just to survive.
Such men are vulnerable from inside, however hardened and desperate they may appear from outside. And, such men are the targets of scheming minds who think once they can break that outer shell of defiance, they can rule the soft heart inside.
In this wide world, there are so many different types of people that sociologist and psychologists still find employment today. There are weak people and strong people and there are weak people who try to be strong. All they end up with is full of greed and vanity and a phony sense of superiority.
The leaders of Al-Qaida or the LTTE are household names of terror. They wanted revenge for oppression, or their own nation because of injustice. Whatever the reason, they had some valid reasons, and some debatable ones. So they wanted to fight for their rights and take revenge for injustice done. But how?
If a thief steals from your house, will you take revenge by stealing something back from him? Does that even the equation, or does it solve the issue and teach the thief a lesson not to steal again? What do you think? What do you think those terrorist leaders think when they decide to kill innocent people?
Anyway, I think out of ten of you, ten of you will prefer to go to the police, get the thief and punish him appropriately. You will obviously agree with me when I say that when one party kills civilians (purposefully or by some mistake), then the affected party should not take revenge by killing civilians of its enemy. That is not justice, it is just petty revenge, and a sort of game of ‘Arms Race’, where the question is: How many can I kill for each one you have? So should each one keep killing till the whole of the human species is wiped off the earth? Should you prefer killing the whole of the human species because someone stole your expensive mobile phone? Or better still, will you steal expensive mobile phones from innocent people because yours was stolen by some ignoble loser? No. Instead, you might want to beat the ignoble loser to death, or appoint someone (i.e., the police/law) to do it for you.
That is why we are not terrorists. That is why we love something called peace. That is why however pathetic and futile anti-terrorist means may appear to be, we still have the need to have them, to make us feel protected and cared for.
So even if the mouse turns out to be a terrorist trying to recruit the innocent, ignorant cheetah and elephant to run amok in the jungle, there is always a lion amongst them who wishes to slap the wretched little devil hard, teach it a lesson on how to treat fellow beings, and pay for its callousness.
There are graver aspects of terrorism which all are well informed about from the local and international news media.
Terrorism is a grave issue, yet not grave enough to lose sleep over it. The less importance we give to the grotesque nature of terrorism, the better we can appreciate the need for anti-terrorist actions. For, we must remember that terrorism is the resort of the weak, and that we are strong and capable to oppose it without having to take resort to greed and vanity.
When I was first told that I was supposed to say something about terrorism, the first thought that came to my mind was, “Terrorists are weak people, afraid and hypnotized by cocaine addicts suffering from total delusions of grandeur. What do I care about them? Forget about losing a night’s sleep thinking of what to say about them.” Call me an extremist. I really can’t take a sympathetic view of terrorism.
Ek Cheeta Cigarette ka sutta lagane hi wala tha ki achanak ek chuha wahan aya aur bola, “Mere bhai chor do nasha, ao mere sath bhaago, dekho ye jungle kitna khubsurat hai, ao mere sath duniya dekho.”
Cheeta ne ek lamha socha phir choohe ke sath dorne laga.
Aage ek hathi cocaine pi raha tha, chooha phir bola, “Hathi mere bhai chor do nasha, ao mere sath bhago, dekho ye jungle kitna khubsurat hai, ao mere sath duniya dekho.”
Hathi bhi sath dorne laga.
Agey sher whiskey pine ki tyari kar raha tha, choohe ne usey bhi wohi kaha.
Sher ne glass side per rakha aur choohe ko 5-6 thappar mare.
Hathi bola, “Arre ye to tumhe zindagi ki taraf le ja raha hai, kyun mar rahe ho is bechare ko?”
Sher bole, “Is kamine ne pichli baar bhi afeen kha kar mujhe 3 ghante jungle me aise hi ghumaya tha…”
A little mouse suffering from a terrible bout of oppression, and now in an aggravated and disappointed state has the perfect makings of a terrorist. He goes about recruiting the innocent, ignorant cheetah and elephant to implement his malevolent plans, disguising them in the beautiful blue wrapper of a bright future.
I would say, you see someone making big speeches to you, you run. A clown may terrorize his audience with stupid jokes and impossible gymnastics, but he’s not a terrorist. A teacher in a class may terrorize the students with his huge reservoir of knowledge, but he’s not a terrorist. An angry boss may terrorize an employee when he is wrong, because the boss knows the right way, but he’s still not a terrorist.
If any of the above seem a terrorist to you, I will interrupt you and say, “No.” Now, if you find a meek salesman bowing down, not looking into your face, then he is a potential terrorist. He has a motive, and he is not very convinced that it is a good motive, but must follow it because of directives from higher authorities or due to being deluded by manipulative forces. But my examples may seem too far-fetched to you.
Have you ever seen a wounded tiger? Or at least that look in peoples’ faces? Well, what does it look like? Does it look dangerous? Does it look fearful? Does it look like the person is going to attack you? In all probabilities, the man’s back is against the wall and he is hard pressed to do desperate things just to survive.
Such men are vulnerable from inside, however hardened and desperate they may appear from outside. And, such men are the targets of scheming minds who think once they can break that outer shell of defiance, they can rule the soft heart inside.
In this wide world, there are so many different types of people that sociologist and psychologists still find employment today. There are weak people and strong people and there are weak people who try to be strong. All they end up with is full of greed and vanity and a phony sense of superiority.
The leaders of Al-Qaida or the LTTE are household names of terror. They wanted revenge for oppression, or their own nation because of injustice. Whatever the reason, they had some valid reasons, and some debatable ones. So they wanted to fight for their rights and take revenge for injustice done. But how?
If a thief steals from your house, will you take revenge by stealing something back from him? Does that even the equation, or does it solve the issue and teach the thief a lesson not to steal again? What do you think? What do you think those terrorist leaders think when they decide to kill innocent people?
Anyway, I think out of ten of you, ten of you will prefer to go to the police, get the thief and punish him appropriately. You will obviously agree with me when I say that when one party kills civilians (purposefully or by some mistake), then the affected party should not take revenge by killing civilians of its enemy. That is not justice, it is just petty revenge, and a sort of game of ‘Arms Race’, where the question is: How many can I kill for each one you have? So should each one keep killing till the whole of the human species is wiped off the earth? Should you prefer killing the whole of the human species because someone stole your expensive mobile phone? Or better still, will you steal expensive mobile phones from innocent people because yours was stolen by some ignoble loser? No. Instead, you might want to beat the ignoble loser to death, or appoint someone (i.e., the police/law) to do it for you.
That is why we are not terrorists. That is why we love something called peace. That is why however pathetic and futile anti-terrorist means may appear to be, we still have the need to have them, to make us feel protected and cared for.
So even if the mouse turns out to be a terrorist trying to recruit the innocent, ignorant cheetah and elephant to run amok in the jungle, there is always a lion amongst them who wishes to slap the wretched little devil hard, teach it a lesson on how to treat fellow beings, and pay for its callousness.
There are graver aspects of terrorism which all are well informed about from the local and international news media.
Terrorism is a grave issue, yet not grave enough to lose sleep over it. The less importance we give to the grotesque nature of terrorism, the better we can appreciate the need for anti-terrorist actions. For, we must remember that terrorism is the resort of the weak, and that we are strong and capable to oppose it without having to take resort to greed and vanity.
When I was first told that I was supposed to say something about terrorism, the first thought that came to my mind was, “Terrorists are weak people, afraid and hypnotized by cocaine addicts suffering from total delusions of grandeur. What do I care about them? Forget about losing a night’s sleep thinking of what to say about them.” Call me an extremist. I really can’t take a sympathetic view of terrorism.
Dwaipayan Adhya
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