I am very sickened and extremely sad about the tremendous evil unleashed yesterday in Paris that killed 12 innocent human beings. This deadly intolerance of others, fueled by vile and evil hate is everywhere of epidemic proportions.
Any of us could be victims, of these heinous incarnations of evil, masking as human beings, who feel they have the right to extinguish lives according to their own fanatical interpretation of religious dogma or political philosophy.
These radical groups and individuals are hidden amongst us, in every country, ready to spring out and destroy, at any given time according to their own agenda of hate. These ice cold psychopaths are unable to value other human beings, but see them as contemptuous objets to obliterate in order to revenge or accomplish their goals.
The extremist religious terrorist, who feels fervently called to defend their God or prophet by murderous revenge is a blasphemer in the truest sense, rather than a defender of any faith. For they have placed themselves above their own God!
What greater blasphemy is this? Not satirical caricatures, nor others who choose another path up to God or a higher consciousness.
How can anyone take it upon themselves to premeditately kill in cold blood is utterly beyond my comprehension. Unfortunately, I have had the occasional opportunity to peer into the empty hearted psyches of some of these psychopaths as part of my work.
It was never in my own private practice, but when I worked as a part time therapist in a governmental hospital. The total lack of remorse, and zero empathy they displayed terrified me so much that I asked to be removed from the cases, to preserve my own sanctity and remove myself from the vile energy they exuded.
Psychopathic individuals rarely, if ever, respond to treatment, other than faking it, as they do in prison settings. For that very reason, recidivism is very high for those released.
France, in comparison to the United States justice and penal system, is extremely lax, giving very light sentences for murder or violent crimes. This has boomeranged into a festering problem in French society, where most criminal acts are committed by those, already well known to police officials, or have served short prison sentences, as in the most recent terrorist act.
Intolerance, either racial, religious or political, breeds intolerance as it is difficult to rise above a firmly entrenched prejudice from the start, that is handed down through generations. In other words, intolerance is a learned behaviour from our family. Certain societies and religious extremists also breed and foster intolerance too that can spread like wildfire.
Not all intolerant persons will go on the commit violence, if they lack psychopathic tendencies, but all psychopaths are intolerant. Recent research is even correlating psychopathic tendencies to genetics.
If that is the case, then we as parents and as members of society would do well to promote tolerance, non violence, empathy and compassion in our youth to offset if possible, those who have inherited psychopathic genes.
Tolerance of others religious or political views leads to non violence, and can only engender peace and harmony. I will leave you with some of the vows I like taken from Pax Christi, that are ecumenically applicable to all.
Strive for peace within yourself and seek to be a peacemaker in your daily life.
Accept suffering, rather than inflicting it.
Refuse to retaliate in the face of provocation.
Persevere in nonviolence of tongue and heart.
Most important:
Actively resist evil and work nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from your own heart and from the face of the earth.
Religious fananticism and intolerence is, and always has been one of the primary “evils” in the world. “Politicians”, including the leaders of terrorists organizations/movements, use religious ideology to derive their empowerment and to justify their actions to motivate the masses of “believers” to do their will. Ignorance, coupled with fanatical, irrational mental conditiooning, and a severe intolerance for those who do not conform results in the destruction of societies as a whole . . . . Iraq, Afghanistan, Libia, etc. Perverted, biased religious fanacism is the primary “tool” used to motivate and/or to intimidate the masses of people to the will of those in power or seeking to gain power. This is the “bad aspect” of religion throughout history. Unfortunately, the USA set off a lot of these problems by the unwarranted invasion and destruction of Iraq, which provided the opportunity for the radical fanatical terrorist to expnd their movement. The Muslim people in the Middle East are literally destroying their civilization under the guise of “religion”. None of it is rational, esp. when one compares current conditions with the relative prosperity of the past.
In regard to the issue of lax sentences for many criminals, the statistics for the U.S. was that a full 90% of crimes are committed by 10% of the criminals . . . . it follows that by incarerating that hard core 10% of the criminals should reduce crime by 90%. There are just too many “bleeding heart liberals” (and others) who simply do not understand or accept the fact that some people are simply psychopaths, mentally deranged or totally immoral, without a sense of conciousness for right and wrong. Imprisonment does not rehabilitate these types of people; if anything, it probably just hardens their criminality.
At my age and stage in life, it appears that world conditions are not not improving; if anything, they are worsening; and I do not foresee things improving during my life time because of the nature of people as is being demonstrated in the Middle East and throughout the world. “Education and enlightenment” are the only solutions; and that will take generations to occur at best. Heck, the U.S. implemented racial integration and “equality for everyone” over a half centuray ago; and those conflicts continue on. The religious conflicts between the various sects of Muslims have been ongoing for several thousand years; and now it is all worsening. It isn’t likely to mporove any time soon.
The absorbsion of so many millions of refugees from these troubled countries and societies into the melting pots of other established countries is a destabalizing factor in almost all countries now. Wouldn’t it have been better to have attempted to contain the problems within the troubled countries, and forced those people to resolve the problems within their own societies, as best could be achieved? Instead, the problems have been spread throughout the world.
Thank you David for your insightful and detailed observation of the inherent precipitating factors that has plagued this planet for ages. True, so much evil has been committed under the guise of religiosity. France bears the scars and horror of the Cathars being brutally slaughtered and burned alive in the name of religious cleansing by leaders of the Catholic church around 1243, because they were considered heretical.
Human nature remains the same since the beginning of time, only the geographical settings and circumstances have changed. Author Thomas Cahill in his excellent book, The Everlasting Hills, The World Before and After Jesus, argues that since Jesus’s tremendous transformative impact on society, there has been less violence in general, but that is certainly up for debate. How sad that Jesus, beautiful teachings of tolerance and love have been so misinterpreted to fit into human decreed religious dogma that they can be construed exclusionary and unjust.
Dear Cherry,
I do agree completely with your opinion. Press freedom is a fundamental part of our society and we can see every day in several countries what happens when this principle is not respected any more. Further we must be vigilant and not fall into easy confusions as “Islam is islamism” or such crazy spreads like “Jews are all stingy” , German are all nazis”, “coloured people have all lower IQ” or other idiocies… Everytime I hear or read about crimes as serial or amok killings I cannot think that these people are sane; they must be sick, a part of their thinking organ must have had any dysfunction. Prison is never a solution but I guess that we have no other. I said to my wife a few minutes ago that in the future, humanity will consider our response to these problems as we consider the therapy of psychos in the Middle Ages… I just hope that this future will not be too far…
Poverty and wars in Africa and the Midle East are one of the basic reasons for terrorism and one of these days we should really take efficient measures against injustice in the whole world before this injustice swallows us…
Georges, first of all let me commend you on your excellent writing in English, like a native speaker! Thank you for your reply and reminding us all about being vigilant about not putting Muslims in the amalgam of extremists bent on violence.
Psychopathic behaviour is considered a pervasive pathological personality disorder, but not insanity or delusional, as their cognitive and perceptive ability is intact.
There is no known treatment to change a pathological personality. Society needs to protect the populace from these violent ones who kill and maim by using prisons.
I certainly agree that poverty , injustice and wars can be breeding grounds of these dangerous persons. Perhaps future generations can some day eradicate these seeds of terrorism that can warp the minds of many.