There is a big red
button on your phone. If you don’t press it, nothing happens. That is how
buttons work generally. But if you do press it, it might tell somebody else to
kill someone. How often would you press the button?
So yet another attack has taken place by a hate-filled
extremist on people going about their daily business. This time around it took
place in New Zealand. A right-wing Australian with guns and hate massacred
unarmed unsuspecting people going about their regular business. A few days
later an attack on a tram in Utrecht appears to be people being shot by a
suspected Muslim terrorist with guns and hate. Just this week we hear that devices
have been placed on railway lines by Brexiters.
We can add these to the list of atrocities committed by many
different individuals. Manchester concert bombings, the Pittsburgh synagogue
attack, London Bridge, Finsbury Park. When you start to research these
atrocities often a motive is given for the attack – Anti-Semitism or Racism or
Right-wing Terror. I think it is a lot simpler than that.
Often when I write I compare events or opinions or arguments
and look at them side by side and explore the differences. Lots has been
written about the New Zealand attack – how it was out of the ordinary, how it
has driven an immediate response in New Zealand, profiles of the attacker
asking what went wrong to bring him here, how the attack was carried out.
What saddens me is how obviously similar it is to all of the
other attacks mentioned above. And that we will face many more of these. The script,
the background story always seems to be the same. Lone individual, possibly
some contact with hate groups, obtained weaponry and attacked at a time / in a
way designed to create maximum outrage and fear.
What brings these individuals or small groups to this point?
A point where they decide that the only way to make an impact to further their
views, to achieve success is to go out and kill people they have never met and
have no connection to, on the basis of whatever motivation they wish to give? Some
of these attackers have left their thoughts – either in the form of videos or
manifestos or even Facebook posts. So we can state their ideologies and way of
thinking with a bit of certainty.
Firstly, they all seem to believe in absolute groups. Us and
them. Whoever the “them” are doesn’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of
things. They could be Muslims, Immigrants, Jews, Non-Muslims. It is still very
fresh in the memory that Jo Cox was murdered by one of these attackers. Her
“them”? She was a remainer. Just imagine that. The line that separated people
who should live and have rights and people it was acceptable to kill was which
way they voted in a referendum.
These lines don’t exist. These separating lines that split
us into definite groups are not real. But we do it all the time. We align
ourselves to others of the same religion, the same political party, family,
country, football team and use that alignment to see Them as somehow different.
We have far more in common with other people, no matter how little we think we
do, than we have that is different.
Secondly, They have either done some unfairness or injustice
to us, or are going to and we should do something about it – because nobody
else is. This is the deep-rooted belief that the threat / unfairness is
obvious, that everybody sees it, but that the authorities are ignoring it OR
are powerless OR weak. This is either that immigrants are taking over our
country, that Jews are pulling the strings to control government, trying to
steal Brexit from us, invading our countries to steal our oil / power /
influence. Whatever It is that They have done or will do, It is obvious from
the messages / communications / inputs the attacker sees. They are all equally
guilty of It too, because they are one group solely defined by one
characteristic.
Again, we have to call bullshit on this thinking. And we see
it all the time. Not all Muslims are terrorists or paedophiles who trade young
girls. Not all Westerners supported various invasions. Not all immigrants are trying
to steal your culture and your land. What I find really scary is that often
when talking to otherwise sensible people they have been conned into looking at
one example and extrapolating that risk across the whole They, and unless you
can refute that single example that is proof They are all like that. We have to
be better than that.
Thirdly, that they are acting on behalf of the rest of the
Us. They are doing it in Our name or Their name. Depending on which side of
their invented line you sit. This might be the act that wakes Us up, shows Us
what to do, and scares Them into stopping / giving up. It will ignite / unite Us
in taking action – because we are all just waiting.
How do they get to this point? Where do these ideas come
from? That they have support for their actions, some sort of reward awaits
them? They’ll be seen as some sort of hero? Whilst their worldviews may be coloured by the mainstream
media, or religion, or groups, and this is where their “motivation” comes from,
this belief that they are supported and believed seems in almost all cases to
come from social media interactions. This seems to be the only place they could
possibly take the belief that there is a legion of support for what they are
about to do.
There is a big red
button on your phone. If you don’t press it, nothing happens. But if you do
press it, it might tell somebody else to kill someone. How often would you
press the button?
We know from the writings of Anders Brevik he took most of
his motivation and ideas from other people writing on forums and social media.
ISIS regularly use facebook, twitter and youtube to get their message across
because they know these lone wolf individuals take succour from it. During the
recent attack in New Zealand the perpetrator live streamed it on Facebook. Over
and over these vile individuals take their comfort, their support, their motivation
from posts of other people on social media.
It’s also important to remember – the people who do this –
they think differently from us. For the vast majority of us the idea of getting
so angry that we decide to attack, injure and kill people is abhorrent. More so
in cold blood. But none of them are picked up in advance. They suddenly follow
up on their decision making. Often family and friends are aware of their views –
but not that they are dangerous or genuinely considering this action. Until
somebody is dead. I am not a psychologist – I have no training to say who will
behave like this. Maybe we are all capable. But I don’t know which of my
friends, family, readers of this blog, and colleagues are capable of turning.
Neither do you.
There is a big red
button on your phone. If you don’t press it, nothing happens. But if you do
press it, it might tell somebody else to kill someone. How often would you
press the button?
We have to choose a side. Are we the person who presses this
button or not? This week as an example videos emerged of British Army soldiers
shooting as an image of Jeremy Corbyn. If you support this – can you be certain
that won’t be seen as a message to someone to take out his old service revolver
and do it? After all Darren Osborne (who attacked Finsbury Park) was looking
for a way to kill Jeremy Corbyn. That post decrying Tony Blair as a war
criminal who got away with it? Posting videos calling remain supporting MPs
traitors? Linking Leave supporting MPs to violent racism? Do you really know
the impact of the language of hate on people around you? Perhaps you do.
Strangely I reckon the families and friends of the people mentioned as carrying
out these attacks felt comfortable sharing hate, and bile, and anger. I wonder
if they do now.
There is a big red
button on your phone. If you don’t press it, nothing happens. But if you do
press it, it might tell somebody else to kill someone. How often would you
press the button?
