People die. Because terrorists kill them. That is horrible, dreadful. Beyond what one can describe. But what is the reaction to it in our society? The path that has been emerging worldwide since the attacks in the USA will certainly be driven further by the attacks in Spain.
Terrorists kill people for their goals - they exercise terror, which is why they are called that. Regardless of how one views their goals, there is a motivation behind the terrorists' actions, something they aim to achieve, something they want to change. We may not like the changes, we certainly don't like the methods. But nonetheless, that is what distinguishes the terrorist from the rampager: the terrorist has some goal in mind - however absurd it may be - with which to justify their actions. But instead of engaging with these problems, politics relies on repression and the dismantling of democracy and the rule of law. Does it really help if entire population groups are suspected preemptively? If anyone who doesn't conform to the norm is immediately viewed as evil or bad? Put under surveillance, wiretapped, recorded, catalogued and numbered? Sure, now come the sayings from the eternal followers who have nothing to hide. Which means that anyone who opposes it obviously has something to hide. And is immediately suspect. Or a sympathizer. Or both. What will come of this? The terrorists will not win. They cannot win - their behavior is not even designed to win, it is only designed to destroy. The original goals that once existed are buried under a mountain of violence. Even if they actually gained more power, their behavior alone would generate so much rejection that reactions would only become more intense. A spiral without end, or rather one with an end that nobody wants to experience.
Does society win? No. Someone who doesn't dare go out on the street for fear of being run over cannot win. He has already lost without ever having fought. And that is how our society behaves: panic takes over, the foundations of our lives are dismantled. Willingly dismantled! Does this make us safer? No. This is only the illusion of security. Every system has its terrorists. If a system becomes repressive enough, the terrorists end up sitting in the government instead...
Do the politicians win? Certainly in the short term. They will certainly gain votes in the first elections if they beat the security drum hard enough. But at what price?
Those who will be pleased are the reactionaries, those who cry out for the strong arm. Those who feign security to gain their own piece of power. Those who volunteer for every position that gives them any influence, because then they are something better. The block wardens. The camp commandants. The small fascists who are just waiting for an opportunity to show others what they can do - because they think they can order the world. All nice and orderly. In rows and columns. Without thinking. And without being even remotely different.
And that is what is truly terrible: all the victims of terrorism, the dead, the wounded. All for nothing. Neither to the benefit of society nor to the benefit of the terrorists. Simply dead.
Already the first vultures are crying out for more controls, more power for the state, fewer rights for citizens. Of course all in the name of security. None of these loudmouths even think once about the people who died - only the number counts, the persons and fates are unimportant. Much more important is to push through their own interests. Now is the time. The dead in Madrid are just as unimportant to these people as those in New York - they are merely arguments.
It's a good time to kill democracy.
The original article can be found at J-O-S-H DOT NET here.