….I am NOT in support of any kind of political or religious terrorists. I fear and loathe them like everyone else. Who doesn’t fear the zealot and the fanatic? Or the really, really, truly, stupid?
The difference is that I do not see them in every shadow, every nook and every cranny of every day life. They are NOT everywhere. It was NOT a terrorist who recently went berserk at the parliament buildings. Or in New Brunswick. Or even at any of the myriad ‘nut-shoots-co-workers-wife-and-self’ scenes that we seem to read about every day. Those people are just plain nuts and it sometimes turns out violently for them and those around them. But they are motivated by something other than religion or politics.
I suppose there are a few real crazies who also latch on to something, like religion or misogyny or political fervor but nuttiness came first. Nuttiness came second and third, too.
In Sidney, Australia, the black ISIL flag was likely more of a symbol, not a cause.
Concept: There is a difference between a causal relationship and a co-relationship. Stealing shopping carts is not the cause of homelessness. One causes something to happen and the other is just along for the ride.
The cause of such horrible scenes as Ottawa, Sidney and Boston (just to name a few) 99.99999% of the time is isolation, marginalization, rejection and your basic brain chemical imbalances. The flag or the name of Allah is just along for the ride. Put another way: if a murderer has ‘Mom’ or ‘Harley Davidson’ tattooed on his arm, was his mom or his motorcycle the motivating cause for the murder?
The actual ISIL members are a different kettle of stinky, rotten fish. I admit that. They are clearly motivated by something quite primal – probably the aforementioned fanatical interpretation of right and wrong generated by their society combined with ambition, brainwashing, misogyny, testosterone, money and politics as well as a healthy dollop of overall nuttiness but the poor, dirty, lonely dickhead living at a Toronto shelter and mumbling to himself is in a different league of madness altogether.
And some of those sad, crazy people live in Sidney, Australia.
Let us not confuse the two. More importantly: let not our government and media purposefully and manipulatively confuse us!
Our Off the Grid Home 
Not sure why you need to clarify anything. Way back when Gaddafi was first identified by the USA as a terrorist the USA launched an air strike
On Gaddafi’s compound and killed one of Gaddafi’s children this child’s death was not an act of terrorism, say the Americans. Thus is the world of pirates and emperors. The imperious Americans have the propagandists on their side. They write their truth and state their facts and spread fear among their own people as the Canadian governments does hand in glove with our media.
LikeLike
I am sensitive to trends in the news and in coffee shops. Maybe not accurately so but I feel ’em anyway. And I am feeling that ISIL and terrorism and security are being propagandized as inseparable more and more successfully by the manipulators every step of the way. I was pleased that the Australian PM didn’t seem to climb on the same lying bandwagon but still, there was a tendency by others to associate random madness with a threat to all of us freedom-lovers.
LikeLike
It is deeply held by some folks but they have little to fear. If one must fear then fear for the decline in our freedoms as governments claws them away.
LikeLike
I am one of those who think they have little to fear…I was raised in the world of Disney, after all. But reality is reality and, if you look out the window, there are some obvious things to fear. More people die from car accidents than any other way – but we don’t think that way unless we take the time to look. You are 100 times more likely to be killed by a policeman than by a Hell’s Angel, terrorist or random sniper so is it silly to fear the boys in blue? Of course, if you are white, male, over 50 and under 80, if you have a steady income and look kempt, have ID and generally look like you might vote conventionally, then you are likely pretty safe from everyone. Hells Angels mostly kill other bikers as do terrorists. Statistically, you are most likely to be killed by someone in your own family! Ergo, I live remote and with Sal (and I watch her like a hawk!). And I get nervous around visitors.
LikeLike
White (check), over 50 (check), steady income(check), clean cut(check), ID(check)
vote conventionally(Damn!).
Oh well, everyone has their flaws……..in this day and age mine are the first 5
LikeLike
Hey, hey hey! I just ‘LOOK’ like I vote conventionally. In fact, I vote GREEN all the time as a constructive protest vote. How conventional is that? But I look like a Lib/Con/NDP so I move under the radar.
LikeLike
Just a clarification. The events of the last few days I find to be challenging. The uproar around events at times seems pointless. The west seems stumbling from one uproar to the next. The USA takes some steps to end aspects of Cuba’s isolation and the howling begins. Cuba is communist but so is Vietnam, China and Russia. Lucy what is the big deal?
LikeLike
My take is a simple one: that story (ies) (Cuba, Sony) is 99% media driven. There are millions of people who think ‘normalizing’ relations with Cuba is a good thing but that is not the story. Normal is dog-bites-man. The media finds the reverse (man-bites-dog) and reports it. The INTERVIEW would have been released and faded into obscurity but the media publicized every little thing. NOW it is big enough that SONY doesn’t want to take chances. These stories are NOT about truth. They are about story-telling. T’is the season.
The ruble is news. Oil is news. But we won’t get much on either because the media doesn’t do the slogging and digging anymore. They do polished news releases instead.
Are falling oil prices an act of ‘slap-your-face’ the west has done to Russia? Why would the Saudis cut their income in half? Is the ruble falling and rebounding really just a maxi-drama between nation-states? Why is Denmark making claims on the arctic? How has cheap oil been ‘felt’ by China? Oh, Hell….let us just listen to celebrity gossip instead….so much easier.
LikeLike
I used to be heartened by some events reported but now it just seems contrived. Your must have heard the story reported recently about a black lab that was getting prosthetic hind legs. Currently that dog walks on his front legs impressively well. Soon the dog will be walking around on his prosthetics. Some how this sweet story about human generosity towards a wounded animal pushed the story about one and
one half billion dollars clawed out of the budget of
veteran affairs and out of the news cycle. Dog story trumps veteran’s concerns.
LikeLike
The CBC Evening Lies and Celebrity Gossip.
The media has the same kind of attraction as a car-wreck. There is something purposefully built-in to get our attention and keep it for 15 second bursts of focus. They are definitely infotainment. But 99.99% of it ain’t true, accurate, relevant or even pertinent to much of anything. Maybe the weather. It’s just mind-candy for the most part.
LikeLike