Optimism To Abate Terrorism

I think that Active Philosophy needs optimism.

The world needs optimism.

We need to believe in decency.

At the very least, we ought discount any notions of superiority.

I’d like to assume that the majority of people in a stable environment will be happy and peaceful.

When groups of Muslims are attacking Westerners and their interests, doesn’t it make sense to ask – why would they do this?

The inferred answer is: Islam is evil.

But we mistake the hardcore right wingers and totalitarians that find their justification in a religion for the religious themselves.  What environment would engender a hardcore religious theocracy?

The policies of the world (dominated by finance) induce extremism.  Both in the developed world and non-.

After years and years of devastating colonialism, a power vacuum is created, or encouraged.  The barbaric rise up.

All warlords, all generals, are the same, but their banners carry different hues.  Their followers are the same, the little men, the patriots, the rah-rah-rahers, except speaking different languages or perhaps thumping a different holy book against their chest.

Appeals to a divine cause are necessary.  Otherwise exploitation and murder would be discouraged if we based our decisions on our own observations stemming from this world.

We all know Earth’s history is bloody.  However that is no justification for decisions today, merely a shroud for cowardice.

Who is Al-Qaeda?  Does this group exist?  A group with no leaders, or voice?  Could it conceivably be a Western fancy that has now been adopted with great success for myriad causes?

The perpetual war on terror has no intention of ending terror – it is a cynical political ploy, manifesting perpetual war, empowering the warlords on all corners of the globe.  The worst is that it draws less from any primitive vicious human nature than outright laziness and fear.

A true war on terrorism would be a war on poverty, xenophobia, and entitlement.  It would demand self-reflection and change.

The divine is not transcendent, it is everyday.  If we pay attention to what’s going on and make an honest attempt to understand our condition, if we actively combat propaganda and encourage free thought, nobody will want to kill each other anymore. 

It is the science of our everyday lives.

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