"I am a professional terrorist!"
I have been reading recently a historical book called "Russian Switzerland" which describes the life, travels and campaigns of well-known Russians in Switzerland, focusing on the different kind of "revolutionaries" (or "terrorists") from the middle of 19th-century 'til 1917. Then, yesterday, I happened to read an article about the history of 9/11 with Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, Ramzi Yousef etc. It was like a déjà vu. Several analogies were striking between the two stories:
- the pride of being a PROFESSIONAL terrorist/revolutionary, "professional" in the sense of not occasional/situational, but rather as doing it as a profession, as a way to earn a living, as a LIFESTYLE
- the disregard of these terrorists/revolutionaries in their personal lifes towards the values they claim to fight for (and people who represent them)
But terrorism needs water to grow. This water, in the form of financial capital and ideological background is provided by a group of people whom I would call "father-murders".
The "father-murders" are spoiled children from rich families who have a guiltyness complex because they have been born into a privileged environment. Marx or Bin Laden are two examples. They cannot stand psychologically to be more privileged than other children, and hate their fathers for the fact that they always have to morally justify their financial privileges - and maybe also that it was their fathers who made the fortune and not they themselves.
These "father-murders" become either philosophers who provide the ideology that defines the polarisation between the "Good ones" and the "Bad ones". They themselves of course support the good ones and their fathers are part of the bad ones. Alternatively they try to buy a good conscience by supporting the terrorists with (father's) money.
The "fathers" are very often the pure opposite. They have been born into poor families and because of that, materialism is very important for them. They can handle money well and are very economical. But they don't have a sense for the immaterial values. Whereas their children, being blessed with materialism, disregard it, live a luxurious life, cannot handle money, and tend to solely focus on spiritual or ideological questions.
The moral of the story: to avoid your children becoming terrorists it's probably all about a balanced view - to respect both the materialism and immaterialism without taking both of it too seriously. Then there is no danger that your children will try to do the extreme opposite putting the whole world on fire.
- the pride of being a PROFESSIONAL terrorist/revolutionary, "professional" in the sense of not occasional/situational, but rather as doing it as a profession, as a way to earn a living, as a LIFESTYLE
- the disregard of these terrorists/revolutionaries in their personal lifes towards the values they claim to fight for (and people who represent them)
But terrorism needs water to grow. This water, in the form of financial capital and ideological background is provided by a group of people whom I would call "father-murders".
The "father-murders" are spoiled children from rich families who have a guiltyness complex because they have been born into a privileged environment. Marx or Bin Laden are two examples. They cannot stand psychologically to be more privileged than other children, and hate their fathers for the fact that they always have to morally justify their financial privileges - and maybe also that it was their fathers who made the fortune and not they themselves.
These "father-murders" become either philosophers who provide the ideology that defines the polarisation between the "Good ones" and the "Bad ones". They themselves of course support the good ones and their fathers are part of the bad ones. Alternatively they try to buy a good conscience by supporting the terrorists with (father's) money.
The "fathers" are very often the pure opposite. They have been born into poor families and because of that, materialism is very important for them. They can handle money well and are very economical. But they don't have a sense for the immaterial values. Whereas their children, being blessed with materialism, disregard it, live a luxurious life, cannot handle money, and tend to solely focus on spiritual or ideological questions.
The moral of the story: to avoid your children becoming terrorists it's probably all about a balanced view - to respect both the materialism and immaterialism without taking both of it too seriously. Then there is no danger that your children will try to do the extreme opposite putting the whole world on fire.