Terrorism, we are informed, is the last resort of the powerless. But it’s not really about power I have become convinced: It’s about envy. If everyone were equally powerless, terrorism would gain no foothold. There would be no sense of differentiation. No wounded pride. No sense of aggrieved entitlement. No class warfare.
This is why whatever terrorist group it is that will eventually lay claim to the attacks in Jakarta, Indonesia today attacked luxury hotels there:
Bomb blasts ripped through the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta’s business district on Friday, killing nine people and wounding dozens in attacks that could dent investor confidence in Indonesia.
These kinds of places don’t get attacked just because luxury hotels are where you find the evil kuffar. They are attacked because the kuffar is so objectionably successful. Because he flaunts his successes. Because, lacking the wherewithal to create such opulence, the jihad vision is to tear it down.
We’re so lucky we live in a democracy, where people can merely vote themselves the fruits of other peoples’ labor, rather than compete with them for it.
It’s so much tidier, this way.
It’s tidy up to a point. Then there’s nothing more to take.
Who is John Galt?
Lex,
You are a master of the written English language and your sarcastic point about those who steal from others by electing officials who do the dirty work for them resonates with this commenter. Bullshit rises to an art form when performed with a teleprompter. Mass theft even more so.
Best,
Dust
These jihadis would make good Democrats. Different methods, same goals.
Lex and friends … I entirely agree with Lex that these terrorist attacks are fueled by Envy, not powerlessness. In the course of my life, I have found that Jealousy, a powerful emotion in itself, has a darker sicker cousin, and that’s Envy. Jealousy, from which most of us can suffer at times in our lives, says “I want what you have,” and tries to get it away from you, whether it’s love or money or power. But Envy, dark sick Envy, says “I want what you have and I want you to have nothing — nothing at all. No love, no friends, no money, nothing that will give you joy.” That’s the powerful emotion that fuels terrorism, the drive to take away from others literally everything that matters to them. And the willingness to lose one’s own life to insure that you have nothing of value.
Marianne
If the Islamo-fascists were merely targeting success, and were fueled by materiel envy, then I’d expect an attack at the Seef Mall. Hell, you can drive there from the Kingdom.
But it is certainly more. It is a desire to punish — and therein lies the tie to the regime in charge here at home. Roger Kimball had a column this week that harkened back to an article in the Carter era, that has reemerged. The central focus is the idea of “Punitive Liberalism”. It was coined by James Piereson, who said:
You can see it in the policies of the administration, and on the hill. “The wealthy” have benefited under Bush, so now they need to be punished (completely disregarding the fact that any group’s make-up is fungible, and certainly doesn’t include the same members as even last year — not to mention the failure to differentiate between “wealth” and “income” – subject of another rant, for another day). Bush certainly did something bad, so no rest until he is punished. Rove? Same deal. And if you have arranged your life to provide health care for your family, through the choices each of us are free to make, then you need to be punished for your success. Bet you never thought you’d be the subject of the same irrational hate as Dick Cheney, huh?
Recently, I have been engaged on another site with a rather lively discussion about Islam with a fellow that claims he is a retired diplomat from the Netherlands and also a Muslim. He seems to insist that we westerners are ill informed about the benign effects of Islam on a general population. That is that only a tiny number of mal contents persue violent means to drive non believers from their lands and generally cause havoc in non Islamic lands.
These bombings so remind me of the tsunami efforts that we employed. I do believe that the Bonhomme Richard was the first American vessel to the scene and I remember distinctly the photos of sailors and marines working a grueling rat line to bring potable water to the victims. (Just as an aside, my son had served on the Bonhomme Richard just prior to this deployment so I took a particular interest in its movements.)The reason I remember this is because our sailors and marines were not allowed to stay on their soil to sleep! This was Ache provence and all American personnell were required to evacuate the territory each night, back to the ship, lest they do something impure during their sleep hours…
If the people of Indonesia as a whole did not want to come under this irrational rule by suicidal maniacs in the name of religion, they would change it. They would have risen up way back then and told the powers that be that their survival was much more important than the insane religious/political powers that were doing everything they could to keep the population in destitude. That didn’t happen.
So once again, the Islamists are “attacking the west” with bombings of western hotels. But, are they really? I think no. It is much the same as limiting the life saving efforts of our sailors and marines. They wish to cripple industry and advancement in Indonesia in order to gain greater control. They don’t care how many indigenous people they bring to the slaughter. What better way than to drive off business from the non-muslim world?
Babs/
There was a conservative Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who blogged under the name of “New Sisyphus” (who now no longer does as he has left the service and now intermittently blogs under the heading of “Deep into the Blue” out of Portland, Ore.) who did a GREAT job of exposing the extent to which various NGOs usually hostile to all things military, who, while taking advantage of the Navy’s good graces in providing living quarters and staging areas aboard navel vessels for their civilian personnel during that period, at the same time perfidiously tried to take credit for much of what the Navy, Marines and Air Force did in a quite dishonest and cynical PR campaign–aided and abetted of course, by their friends and allies in the MSM.
Babs, you go to OTHER sites?
My perception of an Islamic society is that it can be relatively benign as long as you conform.
VX – Yes, I used to follow NS but I think the bulk of the reporting on the tsunami was coming from Diplomad…
I certainly miss him.
babs/
Yes, Diplomad was another one of the Good guys. Your right, my memory probably faulted me, he probably did do more reporting than NS. “Kinshasa on the Potomac” is still active, though, so we still have him.
Babs,
Those rats running the British Indian Ocean Territory back in the mid ’80′s wouldn’t let us spend the night ashore either. Bas$ards! We were there for a month but it’s not like there was anyplace to sleep ashore except in somebody else’s quarters, probably female, most definitely off limits so; all things considered, for the best.
Islam is fundamentally incompatible with modern civilization using the ruleset that the has been adopted by the radicals who seem, at heart, to be Wahib trained and indoctrinated. The Turks did OK with modernization but they are being destroyed by the generosity of Saudis export of their doctrine of intolerance and hate. Same thing happened throughout Egypt, northern Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The other Stans are more open and most definitely NOT arab. I view the Chechyns as more nationalist than islamist but I think by now they’ve also been allowed to share the fruits of Saudi’s exported hate and death cult.