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The banality of evil menIt sometimes seems that civilization is not so much at war against toxic ideologies as it is the stupidity of those who believe in them. To view the video of VT mass-murderer Cho Seung-hui is to look into the eye of a maundering, self-referential, perpetually frustrated narcissist. To read the plays he wrote for a college-level English course is to recognize how appallingly stupid he was. It is not just that his writing is dark, or ominous: It is, quite simply, awful. Mass murderers in Islamic countries have apparently been led to believe – have allowed themselves to be led to believe – that an all-powerful and all-seeing deity whom they label “just and compassionate” somehow needs their corporeal assistance in the murder of some random dozens of his own innocent children. That these fools are led into such moronities by evil men who are ever-so-careful with their own lives, and the lives of their own children, seems no kind of deterrent. The stupid will always be with us. Or at least, they don’t seem to be in any danger of running out at the current usage rates. There seems to be a strange nexus in the intersection of stupidity and sexual frustration. In Britain, a number of small-time hoodlums whose energies had heretofore been dedicated to low-level credit card scams dreamt themselves up visions of grandeur to go with the 600 kilos of ammonium nitrate they’d stashed for furthering other dreams: This particular set of over-achievers had visions of blown-up “slags” – party girls at a local dance club – dancing under their beetled brows. How do we know this? We’ll, they’d been bugged by security services for the better part of 15 months. Among other things we are treated to this bit of scintillating dialogue:
I bet the bruvvahs feel differently about “them” now. My opinion of their stupidity however is unchanged by today’s latest revelation: You have by now heard that six men have been charged with planning and preparing to assault a stateside post of the US Army, at Fort Dix, New Jersey. When I heard the news first thing this morning, the terrorists had been labeled as “Yugoslavs.” “Huh,” thought I: It’s not like the Yugoslavs to hold a grudge against anyone who was never their next-door neighbor, and anyway they seem on a whole rather too industrious and, well: Intelligent for that sort of thing. Even in politically-correct Hollywood movies about terrorism, suicidal Yugoslavs don’t go around assaulting Army bases with small arms – there’s no future in it. The afternoon news cleared all that up of course. Our latest batch of simpletons were ethnic Albanians, a Turk and a Jordanian.
How were they caught?
Shorter version: They were caught because they were stupid, bruv. Terror is a tactic, they say: You can’t make war on a tactic. Perhaps then we should get down to brass tacks and re-label this the global war on pusillanimous stupidity – GWOPS. Apart from a beneficial moral clarity it also has advantages in information operations. I mean, who wants to go to war on the side of stupid? 26 comments to The banality of evil men |
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I hope this scotches the rumor that Cho was autistic. As kind of a half-aspie (semi-autie?) who keeps up with the community a bit, I can say we’re generally smarter than that.
Pusillanimous?!?!? Where do you come up with these words?
Mark, he’s just trying to be propaedeutic!
Shipmates,
Yes, his elucidation is indomintably greater than that of more perspicacious gentlemen. Especially those of a webfoot genus.
But I digress…
These “Fort Dix Six” are simply further proof of the essentially astute observations of Professor Darwin, and it is to be hoped that further exploitation of their inability to comprehend the most rudimentary of security measures will further the image of how utterly incompetant the majority of these simple creatures are.
And, hopefully, indicative of the onset of genetic extermination of the species “terrorist simplicicus”.
Respects,
GWOPS — how positively droll.
The lack of sophistication in the Middle East in many aspects and their surplus of adequacies in others makes them an easy target for labeling these acts as stoopid — getting a video copied to DVD at a local business definitely lacks mental gymnastics.
I think that’s the only thing that gives me hope — their utter lack of higher thinking skills. However, it is also what scares me spitless at times, how they can cause such devastation with so little actual, you know, thought.
ALCON,
They ain’t all that stupid. They learn and adapt, even if it is by someone else’s stupidity. Like AW1 Tim said, the process of natural selection is at work but as Lex said, they don’t seem to be running out of fodder. And the next bunch is paying attention to how this group screwed up.
At some point, they WILL get thru the wire. Again.
GEO6
Shipmates,
And that’s the big problem. T-rex was an interesting carnivour, but it had drawbacks. What eveolved, however, were the raptors…. and those were scary, hunting in packs, attacking from ambush in different directions, evolving into the patient birds of prey we see today.
You can bet that, although there are many lesser lights in their ranks, that the top leadership is taking notes. They are well content to sit and watch what p[lays out, how we react to differing threats, how it’s reported, what lessons were learned.
It may well be that the really stupid people were the idiots who let the word out about HOW these fellows were discovered. You can bet your bottom dollar that the next group won’t make similar mistakes.
They watch. They take notes. They learn from mistakes. they evolve.
What we need is a way to destroy the root of the genus so that they cannot spread, a way to sterilize the species, as it were. Otherwise, they are like a human virus, mutating, spreading, becoming resistant to the known forms of attack.
Think of them as a cancer, which, basically, is what they are upon the body politic.
Respects,
Gee. Even da pizza man can turn out to be a terrorist! Crazy Albanians, Whoda thunk it? All I can say is:
Thank God for the second amendment!
Expect a backup at the gate…again. Sonsabitches.
b2
We can’t really go around saying “The Global war on the Stupid” That would never wash with the left and our European friends… I doubt anyone could even pronounce pusillanimous, although I would like to see Tom Brokaw try.
Echoing Geo6 and AW1 Tim,
Underestimating ones’ enemies is a precursor to disaster. The popular belief in the early days of WW-II (even among military pilots) was that Japanese fighter pilots were nothing to be taken seriously, since they were all “..buck-toothed and wore thick eyeglasses.” It wasn’t until the United States produced better airplanes than the “Zero,” and was able to attrit their experienced airmen, that the tide began to turn.
Always consider your enemies to be better than they are, and maybe almost as good as you; that’s how you plan, that’s how you train; anything less is stupid.
When it comes to armed conflict at sea, beneath the waves, on the ground or in the air – the enemy gets a vote.
Good Lord, he wants a civil war!
First a war on a tactic, now a war on an unending supply!
Grim, over at Blackfive, has a commentary on Haller’s new book, which discusses among other things the benefits of ridicule as a battle tactic when dealing with a shame-sensitive enemy, which the Muslims certainly are. Ridicule can be a very powerful weapon, as I saw during the Second World War [yes, my friends, I'm an old lady now, but still deeply involved in the welfare of my country and its defenders]. Ridicule is something that even us senior citizens can do, and we do it when we get a chance.
Marianne Matthews
Oooh, I LIKE ridicule and I’m particularly good at it, too!
Hey, now I can really do my part in the GWOPS!
Those yokels in NJ reminded me of my son when he was nobbut a 2nd grader. He found some pages from Hustler or Penthouse at the local make-out point in Small Town, Idaho, and took said pictures to school. I got a call from a near-hysterical teacher to come to the school as soon as possible. I got there and she showed me the pages, and I said, “What? They’re obviously weathered and are NOT from our home.” She had way overreacted and skipped the first 4 steps of discipline and gone straight to the 5th step. Son was definitely in hot water and he knew he had done something wrong, but not quite sure what. Told him since he was grounded at school, he was also grounded at home.
Then I told him it was all his fault and not to complain. I asked him how he had been caught. Were they all in a group snickering and acting like 2nd graders? He glumly replied that yes, they were. I said, SEE — must be sneakier if want to bring something like that to school and not get into trouble!
Gosh it was hard not to laugh at the little brat. Life lesson, though. Can sometimes get away with more if brazen it out instead of sneaking.
Never got a call to go hurrying to school again, either, so he must have learned something.
I do rather enjoy the articulation in both the post and the comments. Finally.. some brain food.
Pat Dollard shines the spotlight on America’s Number one enemy. He makes the Jihadists look like kindergarders.
And he has more money.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
Why not tell it like it is and the hell with PC.
We are in a Global War against Islamic Terrorists.
P-3:
Frankly, I prefer my daughter to be a poor liar, and don’t think either she or I would benefit from my teaching her better ways to get away with things. To each his own, though.
Ridicule – I like that one. These fanatics certainly do seem to be hyper-sensitive about things, don’t they…a good dose of sarcasm and who knows.
And what ArmyGirl said really does scare me – underestimate them and soldiers die. You could also add innocent civilians to that, hence my fear. Certainly the British incident Lex cited above is the perfect illustration of the downfall of underestimating your enemy – no matter what side of the fence you are on.
We simply can’t let our guard down.
At some point we’ll combine all of these TTP into a comprehensive rollup strategy: ridicule, sarcasm, and closely-directed name calling claiming that one group of Islamic fanatics is “purer” than the rest and declares that the others are all apostates. Amp up the untracable trash-talking with some targeted assasinations. Then watch the jackals turn on each other.
They ARE that paranoid.
P-3, in my book, you’re a damned good woman.
On a related note, Casca II had a brush with a suicide bomber this week. Evidently an angel pissed in the flintlock of the bad guy’s musket, or he wasn’t familiar with the six P’s. No injuries to those on the morning report.
Web Reconnaissance for 05/09/2007…
A short recon of what?ǂ
Holy smokes, Casca. Glad to hear your man got through cleanly.
[...] Neptunus Lex covers a range of stories regarding narcissists who are duped into believing that harming others is justified, including the latest batch of terrorists. He thinks we should rename the war on terror to the “global war on pusillanimous stupidity.” [...]
Oh, and.
I learned about that word “hirabi” once, too late to do anything about it.
Several years later I’m talking to a friend of mine in a room with a nice window in the Pentagon. He says he tried very early on (9/12-ish) to get the upper leadership to use “war on takfirism” in characterizing this thing, and they chose “war on terror” instead.
I think my friend had a better choice. I *know* he’s smarter than me about this stuff. But I’ve learned that once you name something the name doesn’t change until a new person or situation comes along…sort of my exception-that-proves-the-rule corollary to Chap’s “nobody got a NAM for doing the same thing with the same name; that must be why they have to change it” philosophy.
But war against stupid? Is that why I see all these silly people calling *others* stupid?
Good grief. Now I need a Roget’s as well as a membership card for the library at Oxford. Ah, Lex. If only it were as simple as ridding ourselves of the stupid, but for some reason they breed at an alarming rate. I think I shall skip the Roget’s and head for the Pol Roget, instead.
Casca- Glad your prodgeny made it thru unscathed. Can’t ever discount them Guardian Angels. God bless.