--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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. > > It is a culture of generations of no hope, no power and no change. A > culture that has grown to mistrust any authority or have any > possibility for personal redemption, socially, culturally or > economically. > > This situation is fertile ground for religious extremists, seeking > power, who then trade the offer of meaning in the form of zealotry > to these hopeless people in return for their lives. Hence terrorists > are born.
Well said, Jim. This is something that people who live in our time and were raised in the affluent West really don't understand. I've often thought that the best thing that could ever happen to America and Americans is to have some kind of "compassion draft," in which every citizen is required to travel in third world countries for a year before they are allowed to vote and become citizens. Most of them have never seen the conditions they speak so glibly about. And this hopelessness is neither new nor limited to religions like Islam. Do you know what the "recruiting spiel" was to get people to volunteer to participate in the Crusades? It's pretty fascinating. Life was tough in the Middle Ages, and hopelessness was rampant then, too. So the potential crusaders were promised three things: 1. They were *guaranteed* heaven. All of their worldly sins up to that point were forgiven, and they were promised that nothing they ever did for the rest of their lives would 'count against them.' Pretty persuasive argument on its own for a people who believed what their priests told them. 2. They could keep everything they could 'liberate' while on crusade. This included property, jewels, women, anything. 3. Interestingly, the clincher was the third 'guar- antee.' While any member of a family was on crusade, none of their debts could be collected. This was rather important to many of the noble families, because they were in hock up to their eyeballs. So it isn't just those 'other' religions who play on the hopelessness of a hard life. The Catholic Church almost invented the concept. 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/
