Some thoughts regarding the recent communal tragedies.

There exists a group of troubled individuals among us, usually men, who are in a constant state of unwarranted anger, hostility, and in a readiness to express aggression while in search of “A Cause.” These individuals are usually categorized as belonging to one form of borderline disorders and/or paranoiac personalities. Their troubled state is sustained by unemployment, alcohol or drugs, (usually amphetamine), as well possibly excess testosterone. The presence of ideological tension in the community whether religious, racial, or others, as well the presence of economical stress -as it is existing at present worldwide – catalyzes their readiness into actual aggressive acts as these individuals now choose “A Cause” – any cause !- whether a perceived insult to their religion or even as a protest towards their own kind. A poignant example was the killing of 100 young people in the recent past by a Norwegian mass murderer. All of the young victims were people of his own society/tribe. He did it just to protest against “the contamination of his society” he lived in by the influx of immigrants! The availability of guns and the current fascination with them especially in our society, completes the chain. The worldwide instant dissemination of the events by the news media increases social/racial/ethnic tensions and anxiety worldwide, creating more fertile ground for the occurrence of the next tragedy. The authorities take the opportunity to tighten control in the name of the “war on terror.” We are now, in our community, in danger of losing perspective and a cool-headedness in assessing the events. No, the world is not going to pieces. At least not yet. These events tragic as they are, are also rare, but our perception is distorted by the instantaneous reporting of them. In fact, presently, it is in the form of an hourly bombardment as they occur worldwide. The planet of ours has now turned into “a gathering of adjoining neighborhoods.” The News Media are acting as the Crier of the village of old! Let’s remember there are a lot more of our citizens being killed in traffic accidents or other simple causes such as falling in their bathtubs. The irrational violence, belatedly mobilizes now communal concerns and cohesiveness, empathy, and imparts rationality in our attitude towards our fellow humans of different ethnicity, color, faith, dress, or expressing affections. This is a small solace for the rest of us in our grief. The hope is that these tragedies together with other pressuring factors will help a little more to realize that there are no “these people” or “those people” but only one kind of us worldwide. Just us, ourselves! Homo Sapiens. All of us have the same yearnings, thoughts, desires and dreams! The sooner we do that, the better. in fact we should hurry up. The matter is becoming urgent. We can then collectively, all of us together in this planet, address problems which are now piling up, and whose solutions is now overdue. All of these problems are of our own making. If unaddressed and not dealt with soon, these problems are threatening to us with catastrophies. Problems such as climate change, massive destruction of biodiversity, and economic disparity (which is the cause of much agitation and numerous tribal strifes worldwide.) These strifes and conflicts at present are augmented by religious and ethnic antagonisms as well being promoted by “The Leaders”- who are now fast becoming mere competing local chieftains in the face of global realities. The conflicts are also aided and promoted by vested interest for power and profit. Many of these conflicts in fact are proxies for antagonisms between “The big powers.” These conflicts are facilitated by readily available weapons with their ever increasing lethality. Their occurrences are also sustained by territorial/homicidal as well suicidal/ideological aggressive drives masked as valor or heroism still encoded in us from the time past; the later grossly incongruous in the face of current reality. That’s just to mention a few. The time has come to get together and soon and find ways to shed or modify tribal instincts and practices we still carry from our evolutionary past from the time of Savannah. These tribal codes are still with us – many of these are now not only ludicrous as the whole lot of us are becoming utterly interdependent, but are also lethal. In fact they are in a collision course with modern realities.

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