Is Terrorism So New?

I have always called a spade a spade. It’s clear. It’s accurate. There is no confusion. Some words our society has favoured over the past 25 years have been less than clear. Our thinking has become muddled in the process. Derogatory words like wimp, wet and wally to describe anyone with a hint of sensitivity about them had an impact. Some of us adopted the stance of being ‘hard’ and society began to take on a new shape. Comedians and entertainers lacking the natural ability and experience of their peers sold a more vicious version of their skills. The phrase ‘cutting edge’ crept in. Suddenly Art wasn’t Art if it didn’t disturb or have ‘attitude.’ So we pretended to be disturbed. It was all nonsense of course but we managed to endure it. But there were more serious trends with nastier consequences. As we grew up we heard other ‘buzz’ words. Words like mugger. The word suggested that the assailant was a rank above ‘the mug.’

Why invent a kinder word for a thief? Call him a thief. If he terrorizes his victim, which he most certainly does, call him a terrorist. For that is what he is for he kills indiscriminately without a conscience. A stabbing by a street thief is no less terrifying or painful than being on an airliner in the company of other cut-throat villains. They’re all villains. A knife at the throat is a knife at the throat. It’s nothing personal. It’s random. The rest is just geography and a few belief systems bent out of shape. For we can be sure they all believe they are justified. One culture believes in nihilism, the other in an after life. Both are deluded and mentally retarded when they kill. They are the cutting edge of society. And it does shock. Flying planes into twin towers was one hell of an idea, and it did have impact, so by the muddled thinking of today’s Art critics it would probably qualify as Art. But they were villains.

Another popular euphemism for stealing is ‘nicking,’ as if it’s some kind of a noble prank. It’s the Artful Dodger init? The fashionable like that word. It gives them street-cred. There’s money to be made by being cool. ‘Nicking’ is stealing. There’s nothing cool about it, as we have learned to our cost. It just makes everything you buy more expensive as they build in the ‘nicking’ factor to the price.

Yes I’m ‘moralising’. Because there is a ‘moral’ to the tale. It’s not holy Moses, it’s common sense (though Moses may still have the copyright). We take a word like moral and distort its beauty for our own purposes when it was only ever there to assist our understanding of life. Instead of understanding, we create more policemen, more lawyers, more judges, more prisons, higher insurance premiums, more cameras, more intrusion, more oppression, and it’s all due to a little harmless ‘nicking.’

Drug dealers regularly terrorize their victims. But be cool. Let’s invent an adjective to suit the new language of the permanently dense. Let’s call them ‘recreational drugs’. Every time a celebrity mentions drugs in the popular press and the glossy magazines it’s another free advertisement for the dealers. Taking drugs is almost a pre-requisite to get coverage in music magazines. What a great business to be in. Not bad for the arms dealers either. This democracy is cool. I’m beginning to get it now. Why can’t the Muslims see how enlightened we all are?

In lovely old Great Britain we now have criminal gangs armed with Kalashnikov roaming our streets controlling whole neighbourhoods up and down the country but so far no one has called them terrorists and no one has bombed them. Why not? They are terrorists aren’t they? Or has that sort of criminal somehow been promoted to ‘not so bad’ since 9/11? Is this the democracy we are trying to sell to the Middle East?

The world of the highly organised and vicious drug dealers is as terrifying as any politically activated terrorist organization, yet it flourishes.
Our befuddled society attempts a few half baked ideas. Throw in some counselling; it sounds good. Give them a job working for the local council; they’re all crazy there. Invite them to No 10 Downing Street; it’s a vote catcher. Politicians, like other image-conscious people have agendas too. Political Terrorists interrupt those agendas. When politicians were upstaged by 9/11, they took us all to war over it. They spend our hard earned money on fighting their version of terrorism. So we get mugged twice, once by our criminals and once by our country. If politicians truly cared for its citizens we could have had safer streets by now, and we’d all be richer for it. We might even have earned some respect from Muslims.

The violence in Britain and America is appalling and it has infected us all. We are all suspected terrorists now. Want to buy a house? ‘Bring in your passport and a utility bill or face arrest’. Want to fly anywhere? ‘Queue for 2 hours and we might let you.’

The Law is clear. Thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not kill. In an ideal world it would also apply to governments. Then they might be fit to rule which they clearly are not. People do tend to need something to believe in and with such a poor array of uninspired leaders they may turn to religion. The popular belief is that wars are caused by religion but I have my doubts. I see human beings stealing, killing and abusing each other through greed . This has consequences. It creates anger and resentment which created a lunatic like Bin Laden. We may attach different names to describe their behaviour to suit our various agendas but it’s fuzzy thinking. We all have an innate violent streak in us . We also have self-control.

Nations are violent, threatening and worst of all, they are uninspired. They set a bad example that criminals follow. They are all still playing Cowboys and Indians. Drug dealers run empires that prosper. Pimps in our cities run torture chambers for vulnerable Eastern Europeans girls seeking the great freedom of the West.
We live in a beautiful country being ruined by a bunch of low life buffoons who have chosen to oppress us all with idiotic laws created under the banner of ‘the fight against terrorism’ . Our government has become our enemy . They have abused our goodwill. A woman who has been raped , robbed and knifed by a vicious crack-head doesn’t die any easier than the victim of a terrorist bomb yet all our attention is on the terrorist threat.

Until the West cleans up the mess in its own backyard no terrorist will ever respect it. We have been men behaving badly for too long and we can teach very little to anyone. We should be ashamed but that is a word rarely mentioned in today’s ’cool, street-cred’ society.
A terrorist is like a wounded tiger . You won’t ever get near enough to tame him. He’ll tear you apart. He’s angry , he’s proud and he will fight to the death.
Ask an old American Indian how he feels.

The thieves, murderers, pimps and drug dealers on our streets are an everyday menace and cause immeasurable damage and misery to thousands . And they are dug in. They are here and they have been tolerated for far too long. They are terrorists. If the government wants to win back the ‘hearts and minds’ of its own people it had better move fast.