The Heart of Terror
The world looks like it is in the throes of a new and horrific trend. Death randomly strikes leaving in its wake innocent victims who are doing the normal things we do. Police swoop in and reporters with their microphones and the cameras pointed at them begin reporting and as they talk the drone becomes a hum and captures our attention till we grow bored and move on to something else. The lives directly affected fall into grief.
Days later we see the culprits in this 21st century tragedy. Young men and now a woman become interesting subjects for a moment and then fade into annals of human folly. Who are these kids who wantonly throw away their lives? Their stories begin to unfold. Most striking is the young woman who became the first of her gender to detonate her vest and scatter her earthly remains into thousands of pieces.
Who is she? Why? Then bits and pieces of her story bubble up. As an orphan, she was placed in one home after another. The fundamental link to integration into society is the family. It is the mother’s love that is most important. Worth and identity comes from the bonding from womb to the arms. The earliest formation of human consciousness, of human love is conveyed through the mother’s arms. Looking at the primates, our cousins in evolution, tells us much about bonding. What happens if it is absence. A study by Spitz revealed how essential the early development is dependent upon on maternal attention and love. What we have in this world, are legions of children who through no fault of their own are raised in an environment not conducive to the care and love they need.
This one bomber was one of the many. Reports indicate she bounced between families. There was no surprise that she was a rebel. When the rules of society haven’t been learned, the rules don’t apply. In fact, in some twisted way negative acts may produce attention. She was also rumored to have drank which of course is the ultimate statement of rebellion especially youth. One might say the disenfranchised aren’t really rebelling for they are merely expressing themselves. What is most significant is the building up of anger.
This world that has evolved is one based quite a bit of invidious comparison. One need only look at the automobile, one of the more conspicuous statement on class and economic prowess. The electronic media bombards everyone in the modern world with constant images of what is “good” and “beautiful.” Empty headed non celebrities mouthed inane positions and philosophies so inarticulate that they can’t be only classified as balderdash. Yet they possess all the modern world can offer, cars, houses, vacations, and of course the spotlight.
For the disenfranchised existing in a world that doesn’t give a damn about them, and even worse, may resent them or even hate them for no other reason than the fact they are different, it is a place beyond their reckoning. Prejudice permeates every facet of their lives. They cannot escape it. Their offenses are more severely punished. They are disproportionately brought to “justice.” They are incarcerated and penalize and stigmatized to the point they can’t even get menial jobs to sustain an existence. The booze that once set them free now haunts their existence. It no longer works. Depression sets in and is exacerbated by the booze. What once was freedom now becomes but another chain linking them to the offal of a world that is beyond them,and world where they are not included, a world that shuns them.
Then, someone gives them a ray of hope. They are a soldier in a fight to conquer the devil who created this poisonous world of hate and greed. The enemy is defined and it is hard not to see them through the lens of hate. These infidels have bombed and pillaged the lands and people. You can see the results of their actions. They bomb. They kill. They steal. They are responsible for this god forsaken world that reeks of their greed and hate. When one has no attachment to the world, these claims are real. From the perspective of disenfranchised, evidence abounds of all the nastiness of this class of people. Hate is then channeled.
The lost find their way through the labyrinth of hate and religion. Answers are simple and easily understood. More importantly, one who once had no place in the world now is the most important person in the world. The infidels, masses, live in reckless god defying abandon. The hate fostered through the years of disenfranchisement now has a focus. There is no connection for the bomber because there was never a connection with society. The preservation of this world order will only perpetuate the crime of inhumanity felt in the marrow of the bomber’s being. The moment of truth, the explosion, is made possible because the merchants of greed and wantonness are too willing to provide all that a zealot needs to rain calamity on society. One can be sure that these merchants of death are well away from the turmoil and are ensconced in their cloistered halls of excess where they gather and make deals. The lonely bomber now armed can face the hated world of convention and strike out in all the anger that has welled up over the years.
The bomber detonates the fuse and in that act finds a purpose in this world that never needed or wanted her.
