[Reader-list] Try hating yourself... for once!

[kaiwan mehta]

Well, to call terrorists 'Crackpots' is to begin with an irresponsible
judgement of the situation!

And no one in their sane minds would defend terrorists - but it would be a)
myopic b) mis-judegement to blame these 10 individuals squarely for what
happen... or  to blame all those human individuals involved in similiar such
incidents in our past and history of 'terrorism'.

It is very important to realise that the men we see as terrorists, at the
event and site of a terror attack are the final motifs of a
political-cultural and economic structure that all of us belong to, and
indulge in, and involve ourselves in. Why is the word 'terrorism' used only
in the case of apparent political conflicts/demands, often coloured in
religion? Why is it not terrorism, when the state brutally evacuates
slum-dwellers? Why is not terrorism when SEZs are manipulated for clear
economic and political calculations? Why is the middle-class not a terrorist
when it is symbolically supporting economic (and
religio-cultural) segregation, slum demolition, etc. in a city while
shopping away at malls and lounging at multiplexes? Why is it not terrorism
when a complete social class claims to be 'politically away', or wishes so,
while they economically enjoy being pampered? Why is it not terrorism when
an entire state machinery destroys a 'religion-identified' culture, its
people, and then pacifies with 'development and result - oriented' economic
model? Why is it not terrorism when careers and academic spaces are
destroyed in the name of region and religion, or worse 'hurting sentiments'?

To find a 'terrorist' in our classic 'other' is a very simple game! But it
is an act of cowardice! Do we have the courage to point at ourselves and
figure out how many times we have contributed to violence and corruption, by
turning a blind eye to it, just because we did not wish to disturb our
comfort zones? To be 'angry' at terrorists, is such a comfortable
situation... try being angry with yourself!

I have a feeling that we as a global political culture are getting very
settled with the idea of 'terrorists', since we always have someone to
identify as the 'bad guy'! It is very nice to have a readymade bad guy, so
that all the bad I do is small and inconsequential to all that the
bad 'other' does. And obviously I am 'holier than thou' while the corrupt
world is 'out there'... I am clean, as long as I can identify 'another' as
the vile object of corruption.