”Using
verbiage dripping in Religious Right doctrine (the Christian face of
fundamentalism), George W. stepped into another word nightmare...” |
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Language
That Empowers Terrorism
Posted January 20, 2004 thepeoplesvoice.org
By: John
D. Goldhammer jgoldhammer@mindspring.com
As
soon as the Bush administration declared a “War on Terror,” something
disturbing happened: Dropping this verbal atomic bomb in response to the
horror of September 11th, the United States, a world superpower,
elevated a cult leader, mass murderer, and ideological fanatic—Osama bin
Laden and his band of fundamentalist clones—to the status of a nation
state. We gave an already infamous terrorist renewed credibility among his
followers, a tremendous PR coup and continuing recruitment bonanza for Al
Qaeda, dramatically increasing the threat and spread of terrorism. A highly
contagious, barbaric cluster of ideas (the Islamic face of religious
Fundamentalism) was given new life, empowered to infect additional millions,
with its pathological agenda of hate and murder.
Like
the perpetual “War on Drugs,” labeling our efforts to find a group of
psychopaths a “War on Terror” was a plunge into a linguistic, bottomless
pit, another potentially endless pursuit of an impossible goal. Moreover,
these three, notorious words, similar to some corporate logo, appear
everywhere, attached to every imaginable circumstance, creating all manner
of serious, long-term consequences including justification for trampling on
fundamental civil liberties, waging preemptive wars, fomenting a continuous
state of public apprehension, alienating our long-term allies, and
significantly increasing hatred, distrust and fear of the US. We had the
civilized world on our side right after 9-11 but we blew it big time!
Using
verbiage dripping in Religious Right doctrine (the Christian face of
fundamentalism), George W. stepped into another word nightmare when he
labeled certain countries as belonging to a designated “Axis of Evil,”
and Pentagon officials
threatened to “…drain the Middle East swamp,” “self-righteous”
crusades that our God will help us accomplish. Never mind if
thousands of innocent civilians are terrorized and murdered in the
process. And, you and I need to remember that “we,”—the United
States—according to “George W. Bush,” are “called to bring God’s
gift of liberty to every human being in the world.”[1]
Again, classic cult language: “we” are the superior “chosen
people,” outsiders are not. We now have a new mission that should keep us
busy for the foreseeable future as well as insuring continued growth and
expansion for the military-industrial complex—good news and full
employment for the Pentagon, Halliburton, weapons manufacturers and, of
course, all manner of terrorists.
These
verbal blunders and misdirected reactions also let loose some lethal group
dynamics: an ideological firestorm that could easily reach epic
proportions. Because of our “war rhetoric” response we set ourselves up
to be an even more irresistible target for terrorists. There is nothing more
satisfying or exciting to a cult like Al Qaeda than an actual confrontation
with the “Great Satan,” their designated enemy, a most useful
tool for keeping a movement alive. Such
groups cannot see their own faults; everything bad and evil is projected
“out there” on an external foe; the cult is but a victim of oppression,
not responsible for their circumstances or their self-destructive ideas and
social policies. Because of
this volatile group dynamic, how we react to evil becomes a determining
factor in either escalating terrorism and hatred or reducing the threat of
terrorism.[2]
It is
a group-think trap to rationalize and justify any form of terrorism
with real or imagined grievances. To do so is to reward acts of terrorism,
transforming savages and murderers into diplomats and heroes. We then become
defacto supporters of this regressive, primitive, immoral logic which, if
accepted, can, without a twinge of conscience or humanity, rationalize the
most unspeakable evil to further the cult’s agenda.
From
a fundamentalist, cult mind-set, a suicide bomber yearns for death
and martyrdom as a passport into heaven or paradise. Thus death becomes an
ultimate goal to be attained. Suicide and murder for a twisted and perverted
ideological organism become virtues; barbaric, spiritually ignorant
individuals misunderstand and misinterpret allegorical stories and
metaphors, whether in the Koran, Bible, Torah, or any other text. In a
fundamentalist group, religious scriptures are taken as historical fact and
acted upon accordingly. Such groups are, as author, Robert J. Lifton
observed, “always on the edge of violence because it (the fundamentalist
group) ever mobilizes for an absolute confrontation with designated evil,
thereby justifying any actions taken to eliminate that evil.”[3]
Meanwhile,
the “leaders” of such groups never do what they encourage their
followers to do. After all they, the Bin Ladens of the world, and other
like-minded, criminal, cult leaders of terrorist groups, have discovered the
cruelest, cheapest weapon of all: an endless supply of thoroughly
brainwashed individuals who are expendable fodder for what is in reality a
political cult masquerading as a “religious” group. The cult uses
youthful idealism and naiveté for its own ends. The serial murder of
innocents in the dark factories of terrorism begins with young suicide
bombers. For them, the cult and its bloodthirsty mission are more important
than individual existence.
When
we attacked Iraq, we again walked right into this same deadly group dynamic:
by starting a war, essentially on our own, we fulfilled our role as the
“Great Satan” in the minds of Islamic radicals, empowering and
reinforcing their already blood-soaked mission to destroy western
civilization and replace it with a Moslem theocracy. A prominent Iranian
ayatollah, a religious fundamentalist, made this mission quite clear:
“Moslems have no alternative . . . to an armed holy war against profane
governments. . . . . It will . . . be the duty of every able-bodied adult
male to volunteer for this war of conquest, the final aim of which is to put
Koranic law in power from one end of the earth to the other.”[4]
Radical Islamic fundamentalism
is a rapidly spreading mental virus, an ideological cancer, and one
of the oldest and most dangerous group dynamics; it is fast corrupting
traditional Islamic values of compassion and mercy. The
barbarians are not only at the gates of the civilized world, they are inside.
And
by the way, now that Iraq has settled into an ongoing quagmire, maybe we can
muster enough real “intelligence” to catch Bin Laden and all his
accomplices. You remember him; the guy with the AK-47, that cave-dwelling
columnist for Al-Jazira—the murderer actually responsible for the
September 11th massacre.
Bin Laden ought to be treated by the U.S. and the international
community as the criminal and mass murderer that he is, nothing more and
nothing less. A more sensible U.S. response following September 11th (then and now) would have been to organize a powerful and effective international
alliance, a coordinated police action to track down each individual
involved in the 9-11 tragedy.
When
it comes to “group dynamics,” we are dangerously illiterate and naive.
It may well be that we are condemned to repeat past horrors—until we come
to grips with the crucial necessity to educate ourselves and most urgently, children
everywhere, about the often fatal effects of destructive groups and
destructive ideologies. It is too often true that “we are raised to
honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers—thieves planting flags,
murderers carrying crosses.”[5]
Notes:
[1]
George W. Bush, “Bush and God,” Newsweek, March 10, 2003, pp. 24,
28.
[2]
For additional explanation of language and group dynamics, see: Under
the Influence: The Destructive Effects of Group Dynamics (New York:
Prometheus Books).
[3]
Robert J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1989).
[4]
Khomeini, Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini, 4.
[5]
Peter S. Beagle, from the Introduction: The Return of the King,
by J. R. R. Tolkien.