View From The Couch - 18/Jul/2016

Ain't So Nice Deeds Going On In Nice

This business of the Nice Terror Truck thing this last Bastille Day is turning into one of those media circuses. From the best we can glean from the media, the perpetrators seems to have been some lone nut - exactly the kind that goes and assassinates a Kennedy. The media have been trying to pin the Islamist terrorist thing on this guy, but it seems like as far as muslims go, he wasn't even very good at being a good muslim. The more likely explanation is that he was so angry about his small, lowly station in his life, he decided to go for a spree killing; and instead of doing it with an MR-15 like you do in America, he opted for the more Terminator-inspired truck-stunt of running over innocent people. Turns out it's more effective than shooting up a room full of gay people in disco if you time your attack on a big parade day.

The rest of this is baffling too. He was carrying ammunition including grenades but he didn't get time to set them off because he was gunned down before he could use them. So it is clear he really only had one purpose, which is to kill as many people as possible before going out in a blaze of glory. Just when it looks like it was a spree-killing, the French authorities arrest 5 other people in connection to the killer, and ISIL claim responsibility. I mean, really? Thus it turns out that the spree-killing was indeed to do with the Islamic State.

You have to get a little incredulous when you try to form a picture of just what has happened and what it could possibly mean. For one, I can say it would suck to be a muslim having to defend their religion ever more vigorously in the west. The line going around is that you can't take what Westboro Baptist Church thinks is christian faith as being christian, and so equally, one cannot go around thinking what Islam extremists thinks is islam. Let's not forget that there's also evidence to believe that the Islamist extremists aren't all that well read up on aspects of their religious texts, but that is another discussion.

There are globally, 1.16 billion muslims. If 0.1% went batshit crazy and violent, you're talking about 1.16 million people on the planet. Judging from the numbers flocking to ISIL and carrying out these acts, 0.1% might actually be over-estimating just how big the portion of batshit crazy and violent makes up the population. It is however worrying that any old spree-killing asshole can tie-up their spree kill with religious extremism.

Turkey Coup Attempt

Talk about a wet firecracker. The coup attempt in Turkey has fizzled, and now they are reporting 6000 arrests. The old wisdom being paraded around was that Turkey tends to experience coups when the government gets a little too religious. It may have been the case in the past but it seems distinctly that with a failed coup and the rounding up of these officers, it is looking like that historical mission has failed. Not to mention of course the democratic voices in support of a democratically elected government in Turkey and you get a growing feeling that this coup was not only mis-executed, it also misjudged of the mood of the country. This is clearly not the Turkey of your parents and grandparents.

That being said, the coup is likely to play into the hands of Erdogan and his power block who are in private helping ISIL sell their crude oil, as well as bombing the crap out of Kurdish separatists. Some of these relations and hostilities go back to the conquest of Turkey by the Turks so you don't really know if modern political discourses going to be able to rein in the Erdogan government. It's a fun sight as it was in Egypt to see a religious government rely on arguments for Western Democracy to take power in elections, then set about dismantling secular western institutions.

It illustrates how uneasily western values like democracy and separation of powers sits with islam. If the islamic countries want to benefit from western style living standards, they need to adopt some of the posturing of the west. But with the posturing comes capitalism which has the effect of eroding traditional values, and this creates a desire in people to go back to time before capital, but of course this is nigh impossible. So instead the people adopt a regressive sentimental position on the past and embrace older ideas as if they will withstand the eroding power of capitalism, especially global capitalism. There is going to be a lot of gnashing of teeth where ancient settlements are undone and ancient entitlements are rescinded.

No wonder people are angry.
James Baldwin allegedly said that people hang on to their anger in order not to confront their own pain. When you look at Nice in light of estranged, alienated, disenfranchised, mentally unstable angry people involved the attacks; and then you look at Turkey in terms of how much it embraces the west and then recoils in horror from the west, you get a clearer understanding of how the anger and pain manifest itself as these social ructions. It's enough to make you wonder about muslims who come to the west looking for a better life and just how much they are willing to give upon their identity to get it. It may not be so invalid to at least be sceptical of these things.