The concept of collective responsibility
Tonight, on the heels of at least two days of demonstrations at US facilities in various parts of the world, a clear pattern emerges. Four US diplomatic personnel have died as a result of this pattern. It's worth noting I think. In the minds of the people protesting (though perhaps not in the minds of those using them as cover) there is a direct link between government and any act that takes place within the realm of that government. As an example, a group of people make a movie which is insulting to someone in a country with a powerful government. The government does nothing to squelch the movie and is therefore culpable and perhaps complicit in the making of the movie. Libyan Victims return home
The creation of the sad, mean-spirited and poorly executed trailer about the prophet Mohammed falls into this category. The truth may be that there is no movie at all, only the sleazy trailer. Regardless of how awful it is, it still has the power to create chaos in many places around the world---chaos aimed against US institutions broadly. A KFC was attacked today--not because of its lack of heart healthy cuisine but because it is American. In the eyes of uneducated, religiously fervent people around the globe, government always is in control of messages like the sleazy trailer. They don't have any real life experience of a political landscape in which government power is tempered by individual rights. So if there is such a movie, the whole national structure is culpable for allowing it.
If the descriptions from the front lines of these protests are correct, the majority of those expressing outrage are uneducated people with no ability to go online and fact check nor with any inclination to question those who use the Quran as a tool to control peoples' behavior. Because those are the leaders they trust. This is not much different than medieval pogroms by European religious groups because someone spoke from the pulpit and condemned someone else.
In between the ordinary people who are simply offended, though, the evidence suggests that there are more cynical actors, people who know the Quran well enough to use it as a flog and whose earthly ambitions are about political power and disorder, not salvation.
The people who make movies guaranteed to inflame violence are matched by the people who make such movies and similar media the fuel for crusades to crush the infidel. Both groups use ordinary people whose honest beliefs are susceptible to being manipulated. I blame both kinds of manipulators for deaths this past week, deaths marching back through millenia. In our response, we need to look for those who want to use circumstance to create chaos. We must not be confused by the images in the headlines.
The creation of the sad, mean-spirited and poorly executed trailer about the prophet Mohammed falls into this category. The truth may be that there is no movie at all, only the sleazy trailer. Regardless of how awful it is, it still has the power to create chaos in many places around the world---chaos aimed against US institutions broadly. A KFC was attacked today--not because of its lack of heart healthy cuisine but because it is American. In the eyes of uneducated, religiously fervent people around the globe, government always is in control of messages like the sleazy trailer. They don't have any real life experience of a political landscape in which government power is tempered by individual rights. So if there is such a movie, the whole national structure is culpable for allowing it.
If the descriptions from the front lines of these protests are correct, the majority of those expressing outrage are uneducated people with no ability to go online and fact check nor with any inclination to question those who use the Quran as a tool to control peoples' behavior. Because those are the leaders they trust. This is not much different than medieval pogroms by European religious groups because someone spoke from the pulpit and condemned someone else.
In between the ordinary people who are simply offended, though, the evidence suggests that there are more cynical actors, people who know the Quran well enough to use it as a flog and whose earthly ambitions are about political power and disorder, not salvation.
The people who make movies guaranteed to inflame violence are matched by the people who make such movies and similar media the fuel for crusades to crush the infidel. Both groups use ordinary people whose honest beliefs are susceptible to being manipulated. I blame both kinds of manipulators for deaths this past week, deaths marching back through millenia. In our response, we need to look for those who want to use circumstance to create chaos. We must not be confused by the images in the headlines.
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