After the terror attack in Brussels the other day, I glimpsed an internet meme with the Belgian flag and the text ‘NOW will you close your borders?’
This is peculiar. I don’t think the Brussels perpetrators have been entirely identified yet, but in the vast majority of cases, they’re nationals. Home grown. The Paris attack (which is thought to be closely related) was comprised of mostly Belgian and some French nationals. Sure, close the borders and keep them all in, we’d be doing the world a favour. Belgium is the world’s biggest exporter of Daesh converts, male and female. It comes from dissatisfaction, economic issues and lack of control and direction – no-one has ever denied this, including the mayor of Molenbeeck.
But media insists on portraying them as ‘other’. They’re not. They’re ‘us’.
The tactic of isolation, vilification and distancing of members of a society – scapegoating - is as old as society itself, and spans from the playground to the furthest reaches of politics. ‘She doesn’t wear the right shoes so we won’t play with her’. Even, ‘I don’t wear the right shoes so I can’t play with them.’ ‘They’re immigrants so they must be up to no good.’ ‘They’re non-Daesh so we must blow them up.’ Why is it that Hitler comes up so many times as a comparison with what goes on in the news these days? Daesh kills far more Muslims than any other religion. The group just likes killing; in fact it’s an excuse for it. Surely someone’s noticed?
People fear, and people need to belong. So you create barriers. As artificial as you like. They become real because of the need for a focus for the fear, the unknown, the uncertainty, the lack of self-confidence, the lack of happiness. That part at least is the same for the bombers and the border-shutters.
I was in a discussion about ‘Othello’ the other day. The race question came up. Honestly, to my reading, it isn’t a question of race, it’s a question of ‘other’. Anything unknown is ‘the devil’. Anything uncertain is ‘the devil’. It’s a map, with borders saying ‘here be dragons’, with imaginative pictures. Othello himself, in his uncertainty and suffocated self-loathing, burns immediately at Iago’s prompts and needs no further ‘proof’ than a handkerchief before killing his brand-new wife – because he can’t believe she’d be faithful to him. It has nothing to do with reality. Why has nothing changed?
The world is very small. We grow Daesh supporters in Europe like kiwi fruit – under cover, in hothouses. We export arms to the terrorists, support one side against another, accuse, vilify, obfuscate, until no-one knows who’s fighting whom but everyone’s in a mighty great rage and ready to slam the door on everyone and everything. It’s like the pro-gun lady in the States who recently got shot in the back by her 4-year-old – and is still pro-gun. It’s all home grown. Not just home-grown to the West, mind. Most cultures tend to their own gardens of hate and violence. They can’t possibly be surprised when the pit-bull puppy turns into the beast it was trained to be and bites back.
One thing is certain. Closing borders to stop terrorists entering is about as sensible as ladling water from your bath onto the floor to stop it from overflowing. You need to turn the tap off.
This is peculiar. I don’t think the Brussels perpetrators have been entirely identified yet, but in the vast majority of cases, they’re nationals. Home grown. The Paris attack (which is thought to be closely related) was comprised of mostly Belgian and some French nationals. Sure, close the borders and keep them all in, we’d be doing the world a favour. Belgium is the world’s biggest exporter of Daesh converts, male and female. It comes from dissatisfaction, economic issues and lack of control and direction – no-one has ever denied this, including the mayor of Molenbeeck.
But media insists on portraying them as ‘other’. They’re not. They’re ‘us’.
The tactic of isolation, vilification and distancing of members of a society – scapegoating - is as old as society itself, and spans from the playground to the furthest reaches of politics. ‘She doesn’t wear the right shoes so we won’t play with her’. Even, ‘I don’t wear the right shoes so I can’t play with them.’ ‘They’re immigrants so they must be up to no good.’ ‘They’re non-Daesh so we must blow them up.’ Why is it that Hitler comes up so many times as a comparison with what goes on in the news these days? Daesh kills far more Muslims than any other religion. The group just likes killing; in fact it’s an excuse for it. Surely someone’s noticed?
People fear, and people need to belong. So you create barriers. As artificial as you like. They become real because of the need for a focus for the fear, the unknown, the uncertainty, the lack of self-confidence, the lack of happiness. That part at least is the same for the bombers and the border-shutters.
I was in a discussion about ‘Othello’ the other day. The race question came up. Honestly, to my reading, it isn’t a question of race, it’s a question of ‘other’. Anything unknown is ‘the devil’. Anything uncertain is ‘the devil’. It’s a map, with borders saying ‘here be dragons’, with imaginative pictures. Othello himself, in his uncertainty and suffocated self-loathing, burns immediately at Iago’s prompts and needs no further ‘proof’ than a handkerchief before killing his brand-new wife – because he can’t believe she’d be faithful to him. It has nothing to do with reality. Why has nothing changed?
The world is very small. We grow Daesh supporters in Europe like kiwi fruit – under cover, in hothouses. We export arms to the terrorists, support one side against another, accuse, vilify, obfuscate, until no-one knows who’s fighting whom but everyone’s in a mighty great rage and ready to slam the door on everyone and everything. It’s like the pro-gun lady in the States who recently got shot in the back by her 4-year-old – and is still pro-gun. It’s all home grown. Not just home-grown to the West, mind. Most cultures tend to their own gardens of hate and violence. They can’t possibly be surprised when the pit-bull puppy turns into the beast it was trained to be and bites back.
One thing is certain. Closing borders to stop terrorists entering is about as sensible as ladling water from your bath onto the floor to stop it from overflowing. You need to turn the tap off.