What kind of person beheads another man like Daniel Pearl or Nick Berg?
What kind of person blows himself up killing countless innocent strangers as well?
What kind of person kills fellow students before turning the gun on themselves?
Surely they must come from so cold a world where such actions and reactions are nothing out of the ordinary and viewed as cathartic justifiable in light of their own “victimization.” This eye for an eye, cut throat universe of karmic boomerangs as violence begets bloodbath and cycles of vengeance whirs endlessly towards more of the same.
As for suicide bombers we must conclude that life had become so meaningless so devoid of love and purpose and genuine joy that the only out they can see is to do what they do. It always strikes me as so overwhelmingly a simple issue as having to ask yourself, why would somebody kill themselves and be willing to in the process kill untold innocent others, but one who hates not only their own life, but the lives of others, many whom they envy. They basically do not experience love. They are without love and therefore without hope.
The problem in the Middle East is religious, for nobody can be happy that is hostile towards own his own human nature, for as they read their scriptures, they believe the normal and natural longings of their physical bodies will lead them to destruction, and even further away from love Thus, they are in conflict with themselves and the extremely oppressive posture they take towards their own sexuality creates an ongoing tension with the inevitable violence and aggression we know so well. Other conditions in the Middle East only serve to aggravate this already “joyless” state.
Ask yourself the next time you’re upset, or feel like snapping at someone, or think to yourself that someone is an asshole for some innocuous offense such as driving a tad too slow in front of you. “Doesn’t that asshole know I am in a hurry?!” Think about how preposterous that sounds!
Back to my point, if you take a deep breath the next time you find yourself upset, ask yourself: are you tired? Is it the end of a really long day? Did you get enough sleep last night? Are you hungry? Do you need to go the bathroom? Is it hot and muggy and the A/C is broken? Are you trying to juggle many demanding situations such as work, kids and personal chores? All of these activities will increase your stress level.
It’s also part of being alive. Hunger, pain, tension, fear, and anger, worry: all these emotions and physical events are unpleasant but necessary in life. If we didn’t get hungry we wouldn’t know when to eat, or to eat at all. If we didn’t feel pain we wouldn’t know to take our hand of the fire, or deal with the symptoms of an illness. They are messages.
Problem then in places like the Middle East, where the ongoing and prevalent antipathy towards the physical needs of the body, such as for sex, is aggravated by a scarcity in the country’s ability to meet basic needs. Imagine being a twenty-something in Iraq, your family’s been killed, it’s hot, good meals are few and rare. There is not much reason to have much hope. Basically, your miserable and your life feels worthless as though you’d been forsaken.
There really is not much difference in the mindset of the Virginia Tech student who killed scores before turning the gun on himself and the Muslim militant who blows himself up taking countless people of his own kind with him. Sure, there may be political motives on the part of the Jihadist, a concept of martyrdom for the sake of some future Islamic state tilting the scales in favor of such drastic measures, whereas with Virginia Tech, no clear political agenda being promoted, but rather the lone savage and desperate act of a miscreant bent on self-destruction. The personal and immediate goal in both cases is the end of their own suffering and the infliction of suffering upon those whom they bear ill will, whom they perceive as being happy and enjoying things they themselves seem fated to be denied.
The VA Tech shooter is an interesting case. When I found out he was probably autistic it made sense. Imagine having the same normal needs as anybody, but crippled emotionally with fear, insecurities, and an inability to communicate effectively to meet your needs. Imagine the cycle of self-hatred, and self-loathing you would subject yourself too, the utter alienation and desperation that would be your world, as you find yourself lonely in a world of seemingly happy people, and completely unskilled socially and so destined to be marooned forever lonely in a world full of happy people.
This is not to justify the horrible things that occurred but perhaps to try and get inside the head so we can understand why these kinds of things happen and why circumstances and psychological bearings can push people with little to nothing to lose to the breaking point, from which there is no return.
