Excellent start for understanding these guys. Your point about not depersonalizing them is right on. With both sides tarring the other with one-dimensional projections, I wish your perspective was more common. Nice one.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" > <curtisdeltablues@> wrote: > > > > > I don't think you are giving the hopelessness and impotence > > > the 'credit' it deserves when spawning terrorism. It is not the > > > hopelessness and powerlessness borne of individual > circumstances, or > > > a run of bad luck, such as most of us in the wealthy and > powerful US > > > might imagine. > > > > > > Hey Jim, > > > > But I thought that the 9-11 guys were anything but hopeless. They > > were educated guys. They could have followed many others who have > > gone to other countries and supported the tech boom. I worked at a > > company with a bunch of Syrian programmers. Things were tough at > home > > so they came here and made great money, which they often sent home > to > > help their families. One of the scariest problems with suicidal > > terrorists is that we can't just chalk it up to lack of > opportunity. > > > > Hi Curtis, > > Kind of a special case with the 9-11 guys, since they were from > Saudi Arabia and educated. I don't want to get into their heads that > much, but I think the sense of being powerless played into their > decision, in addition to the ringleader being basically a hateful > person. > > My point in talking about this is that we tend to ascribe fantastic > motives to our enemies, sort of a refinement to calling them names; > gooks, nips, krauts, and ragheads to name a few. This helps further > the conflict because we are no longer fighting human being like us. > Instead they are 'extremists' wanting to 'destroy us because of our > freedom'. > > I am not saying they are rational beings that just need a good hug > to straighten them out. Far from it, though it doesn't make them > monsters or some sort of incomprehensible violence freaks either. > > People are all, whether we like it or not, basically the same. All > hard wired to respond the same way to the same stuff. A little bit > of reflection and it is easy enough to see how this current > terrorist phenomenon came about. > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> See what's inside the new Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/2pRQfA/bOaOAA/yQLSAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
