I was thinking about it, you know, like I do about stuff, and the thing is… and this is a pretty important thing, if you happen to be a terrorist… but terrorism is not only cruel and evil, it is also completely ineffective. Don’t take my word for it. You can Google it yourself. There is not one instance in all of history where a group achieved substantial long-term goals through the use of terror.
If women had tried to get the vote and achieve equality by hijacking aircraft, they would still be barefoot, pregnant and making a sandwich for some man in a kitchen somewhere. If African-Americans in America had tried to get better treatment by planting bombs in markets, there would still be white-only drinking fountains in the South. Gay people didn’t resort to going on shooting rampages or strapping explosive vests to themselves, and now they can get married.
No, you know what did work? Social change brought about by changing people’s minds. You peacefully demonstrate. You get your message out with catchy phrases and public relations campaigns. You use the media to explain why your goal is a good one.
The really sad and ironic part of all this is that some of the original terrorist groups had perfectly valid points they were trying to make. The Palestinian people did need a homeland. They did need a voice in the politics of Israel. They were being marginalized. People would have realized that eventually. But then the PLO got frustrated and decided to try to speed up the process with horrid acts of violence.
And now, these acts of terror have become the standard method of demanding the attention of the world. And it does work for that. You do get noticed when you perform acts of terror… but not in a way that makes people want to see your point of view.
Now you are all engaged in a competition to see who can outdo the other terrorist groups in the pure scale of the terror. Sooner or later, the rest of the people on the planet are going to get sick and tired of this nonsense and come to the conclusion that the only way to end this vicious cycle is to hunt you all down in your nests and exterminate you, no matter what the cost.
So why not break the cycle? Try something new. Spread your message with flowers… maybe try staging the biggest peaceful demonstration in history. Instead of setting off bombs, try setting up giant floral arrangements. Instead of initiating a massacre, try to see if you can paint the world’s biggest mural on the side of a mountain. Instead of shooting school girl’s in the head, why not try setting up more schools for them, or soup kitchens, or what-the-hell-ever.
What do you have to lose?
Oh, and one last thing. I am fully aware of the fact that you prefer to be called ‘freedom fighters’ rather than ‘terrorists’… but I can’t help noticing that the first thing you always do when you take over any territory at all is to establish a bunch of new rules for everybody else to follow, and you kill them if they don’t… so let’s be honest, you aren’t really interested in freedom for anybody but yourselves.
Pouring My Art Out 
By the way, I’m in flippin Latvia. Latvia!
That is so awesome… I am officially jealous… now about that book… ha… oh man… I am shameless… and relentless…
Yah right… three hours sleep a night, inordinate amounts of booze, five flights in five days, driving all over the place in weird countries… the only thing you can count on me for is trying to do it right. Brain tried and harried is not a good time to produce quality editing… fortunately, I’m home tomorrow and am taking some days of, soooooo….
You can’t blame a guy for trying… just wanted to make sure we were both still on the same page… ha… double bonus score for editing joke!
That is a hard one, Art. You have the U.K. female suffrage movement. The militant wing of the cause, the WPSU, lit the fire (in more ways than one) under the movement, helped the moderate group, the NUWSS, focus their organization to bring voting a reality through an alliance with the Labour Party, and kept the issue in the public eye. However, they may have hurt the cause in the long run by showing women as irrational and violent.
Sometimes, history can’t even decide.
But those few small acts didn’t, in the long or short term, force any actual changes. It was a long, slow slog against the old mindset.
It was far more than a few small acts, Art. It was a build up of frustration after trying the conventional routes for so long. I am not trying to justify it. I am just stating what happened.
http://www.johndclare.net/Women1_SuffragetteActions_Rosen.htm
I am surprised that I didn’t know more about this already. I could still make the argument that this was more counterproductive that productive, but I’m not really sure.
Yes, you can make the argument. And historians are making the argument on both sides. I think it did hurt the suffragettes in the long-term, but it is easy for me to say because I wasn’t there and I didn’t feel the frustration and anger of the being demeaned in such a fundamental way for so many years. Would I have been a moderate or a militant? I would like to think I would have been a moderate, but who knows?
even militancy can be expressed in creative, nonviolent ways.
I disagree with you. I think terrorism does work – it may not work perfectly (but nothing ever does) and doesn’t usually work quickly. But 9/11 did get the US dragged into 2 Middle East wars, and cost thousands more American lives and over a trillion in expenses.
And in Gaza, Hamas’ rocket attacks and other actions are very successful in getting Israel to retaliate, kill civilians, make Israel the villain, and create the international pressure on them.
P.S. a fun fact: PLO was created in 1964 and was therefore frustrated with Israeli occupation of Gaza and West Bank years before Israel actually occupied these territories.
I suppose, if the objective of terrorists really is just terrorism, then it works splendidly. And I think the PLO was concerned about all of Palestine… even though it was a newly made up map division.
Sigh, I have to agree. It’s amazing how terrorist organizations evolve into mainstream political parties by inspiring terror. I actually think this technique works just fine, and the fact that it’s repeated establishes that it’s effective. Fear is a wonderful motivator. Doesn’t make it right, of course, but it is what it is.
It works if your only goal is terrifying people.
What a marvelous idea. I’m going to start spreading my message with flowers, murals and the like. Now to figure out what my message is… That might take a few blog posts.
I am still trying to take over the world with my blog, and I haven’t had to kill anybody yet…
I know that, because Dick Cheney is still alive.
but is he… is he really?
Are you saying he’s a zombie now?
Something like that
Best of luck with that Art. They are not looking for a victory here – they are convinced that killing us will get them eternal grace.
Well that doesn’t seem like a very likely outcome either, so my point is still valid.
They see it as a challenge of faith – the less indication there is that it will happen, the more they see it as a test of faith. It isn’t possible to win with the approach we take.
Then the pure pointlessness of it all still doesn’t invalidate my point.
From an academic perspective you are exactly right – my Mum used to be an academic and they regularly solved the problems of the world with just such logic – and were surprised when they got out of bed the next day and found all unchanged. Ha!
yeah… that part does suck… but maybe when I really do rule this crazy planet, I can actually fix stuff.
We’re rootin’ for ya!
wheeeeeeeeeee