Do I have sympathy for Isis supporters? Of course I do: they are humanity’s saddest failures

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/27/do-i-have-sympathy-for-isis-supporters-of-course?CMP=fb_gu

Leiris told Isis: “You will not have my hatred.” I’m with him. I can think of nothing more pitiful, abject or pathetic than my last sight of this world being a roomful of music lovers that I had just indiscriminately killed. Do I feel sorry for people ugly enough to revel in that? Of course I do. They are humanity’s saddest failures.

Do I have sympathy for Isis supporters? Of course I do: they are humanity’s saddest failures by Deborah Orr

An interesting perspective, thanks for sharing.

It's easy to be so clouded by our revulsion for what a person has done, that we forget to examine why a person did it. For the many evil acts committed in this world, I believe there are few genuinely evil people. I think back to when these people were children, babies. What happened to that baby that it ended up committing such horrible acts as an adult? Think about your own life; what made you do the worst thing you ever did? Nothing good, I'll bet.

Everyone has some greed, some resentment, and crucially some ego. Something inside which presses us to treat others as less important than ourselves. It's easy to demonise, to distance ourselves. It's easy to dismiss terrorists as less than human; it's important to remember they started, exactly as we did, as babies. They were like us, then something happened, and then they did what they did. And for whatever happened that made them do that, I have sympathy. For their lack of empathy, I have sympathy. For the loss of the lives of promise their parents would have wished for them as babies, I have sympathy.

And, of course, for their victims I have sympathy.

in many instances it is true thatthose who perpetuate evil were victims of evil themselves

to hate and to despise are as hard on the system as to worry or rage - psysiologically i belive they are quite close to one another and there is ample research to demonstrate the tolls that these moods have on the body

contemptuousness of others "outside"of ones group, as a habbitual psychological pattern, has the effect of increasing ones hostility and contempt towards others within ones group aswell - simplyput, we use most those aspects of ourselves which we exercise most

and the results here are that we isolate and hurt the ones who are close to us, without even meaning to or wanting to in some ccases

i do feel sympathy for any human who is in such a state of psychological rancour that their every relationship is eventually undermined by recurring themes of condemnation and adversarial hostility

it is a lonely place to be, and i know because i have been there

i would not advocate any solution or response to any sort of terrorism that does not include genuine effort to address the psychological roots of aggression and which does not allow for an escape by those who would wish to escape

but this in no way means that i sympathize with the shooters over the shot or that i would hesitate to put an end to the organization with violence - i think there is a nucleus of actors who will not be detered by anything less than death or permanent incarceration

Now, I feel it's necessary to express first that I don't agree with what they do. I don't know what the average ISIS member thinks their goal is. But if they have an inkling of righteousness, then by technical definition, they are heroes. They do what they do not for themselves, but for something bigger.

Now, I also definitely believe they are misled. However, as Campbell said, judgement does not remove heroism.

NO!

Akkarin wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/27/do-i-have-sympathy-for-isis-supporters-of-course?CMP=fb_gu

Leiris told Isis: “You will not have my hatred.” I’m with him. I can think of nothing more pitiful, abject or pathetic than my last sight of this world being a roomful of music lovers that I had just indiscriminately killed. Do I feel sorry for people ugly enough to revel in that? Of course I do. They are humanity’s saddest failures.

Do I have sympathy for Isis supporters? Of course I do: they are humanity’s saddest failures by Deborah Orr

Thank you for this post, Akkarin. Given the news of the era, I find myself ever more frequently experiencing a state where tears do not come to my eyes, yet my heart weeps, either from sadness, admiration, or gratitude. The thoughts behind the text you've shared inspires the latter two.

We all begin this life on the same path - a quest for survival, pleasure, and love. Somehow, many of us take a detour of one sort or another, inspired by trauma, a lack of direction, or - possibly - some biological trait of our brains. When this happens, our human nature commonly leads the rest of us into fear or hatred, and we begin to make decisions about who deserves a good life and who does not.

At the root of things is that we all do. We just have not yet found a way yet to insure that happens. I think the writer of these words gets it, and I am pleased to be reminded.

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isis are like the ultimate dark side
the world is uniting against them as the ultimate light side
that is a good thing
isis have basically founded the creation of the jedi rebellion

nice

Kyle K wrote: isis are like the ultimate dark side
the world is uniting against them as the ultimate light side
that is a good thing
isis have basically founded the creation of the jedi rebellion

nice

I don't think it's nice... The fact that a group needs to unite against another group is a problem, not a solution IMHO.

imo a better line of inquiry is "why do people support daesh?"

without answer to this question it is impossible to answer "do i feel sorry them?"

----

EDIT

actually the whole thing with the girls looks like propoganda operation on both sides

which is not to say that it is

but regardless of these two, daesh recruitment is very effective and the response should not be some generic emotional appeal to pity or forgive, any more than it should be to ridicule and condemn

the response should be first and foremost to understand

certainly i feel sorry for people who get manipulated into a situation that devours them, yes

but a better piece would be one that could really expose the most common reasons that various demographics join or one that could make a strong case that joining is a decision which is regretted more often than not, and the case needs to be made to the groups most susceptible to the recruitment efforts - this article doesnt really do either

magmon wrote: They do what they do not for themselves, but for something bigger.

In part perhaps, but the caliphate dream is probably incidental to the promise of a better afterlife... which if true would mean they are indeed doing it for selfish reasons primarily.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jannah