Chappie Says, Religion Smeligion: We Are ALL Delusional...

We are delusional if we think that ISLAM is the base reason for the San Bernardino attack. But believing so and obsessing about "radicalization" as if it were a homicidal version of the mumps fits our national blindness well. The base cause for the SB attack is PAKISTAN. The wife, Malik, was a Pakistani ex-pat as was her hubby, born here of ex-pat parents. Why would two Pakistan-identified people living in America be motivated to murder a large number of innocent Americans? Sadly SIMPLE: they perceive (correctly or incorrectly) that American drones (and other forces) are and have been consistently killing hundreds if not thousands of Pakistani nationals for nearly 15 years, some of them innocent non-combatant women and children. This cannot be in dispute. Any honest American need only ask how he or she would react if Americans were being killed from the sky ceaselessly and without effective reply? Would it matter WHY we were being killed? Would it matter that we had our military in 150 foreign countries involved in the internal wars and insurrections of those usually highly unequal and unjust societies?  Are any foreign military forces in OUR country?

Don't argue necessity: do we NEED to have our military power in everyone else's backyard and in some cases, killing their nationals? Even IF this version of reality is true, do you really think the nationals or national identified people of those countries should be expected NOT to hate the sight and sound of our arrogance and dream of revenge against us? Get real, people.

                                                                                                                                                       2015 Millennium Films

As a footnote to this argument, I just screened an utterly derivative and mediocre "stop the terrorists" action movie that came out this year and which concerns the plot of several  European men who have lost loved ones through the misapplication of American arrogance and power (as conceived in Hollywood) and who plan to immolate everyone in Times Square when the big ball, packed with noxious gases, falls at the knell of midnight. Pierce Brosnan, a wonderful actor, plays the utterly unstoppable master assassin dripping sang froid. The point is: the world has all manner of people who hate us and WITH REASON. Reason(s) even we could grasp if we would open our minds a little. Why, you might ask, am I interested in the opinion of a middling Hollywood vessel? Precisely because it reveals that the existence of a revenge motive contra the USA exists worldwide and doesn't nearly require "radicalization" as the experts opine.

Islam, however, as a religious tradition, does give aggrieved people "permission" (and resolve) to seek what they conceive to be justice. This would be "jihad." For your information, Americans don't have a corner on deciding what is just or unjust in this world. One would have to be truly dishonest to deny the obvious fact that these American deaths in America  mirror Pakistani deaths in Pakistan. How is that? If it looks like justice and smells like justice and tastes...you get my point, and it is a BITTER taste I offer. Prefer the message of Trump or Cruz or Clinton or Obama? They are ALL full of it on this point. None dares say that we are paying the price of our behavior in the world and have been doing so for many years. IT IS OBVIOUS. Obama and Clinton are implicated and Trump and Rubio and the other war mongering clowns (Rand Paul gets some slack) on the stage are just idiots. But it's true: we are hated for reasons we must agree with. Read St. Matthew. There's that an eye for an eye part so many of us love. It's a gift that keeps on giving....

Americans are as obsessed with religion as we are with guns and other people's choices in sex and marriage partners and contraceptive methods. Most of us foolishly believe that "our" ancestors" came to these shores in search of religious freedom. This notion is true only as long as one accepts that this early American notion of religious freedom included the power to limit the religious freedom of OTHER PEOPLE, as was commonplace in nearly all the 13 original colonies (Rhode island would be the sole exception.)  Catholics were effectively banned from this country until after the Constitution was ratified. Less than 1% of Americans were Catholic at the founding of the republic. "We" liked Catholics then about as much as we like Muslims now. Funny how things turn out. Catholics today are 27% of the population.

It is natural for us to look for the same nasty elements in others (Muslims in this case) that we have had and still have in ourselves. The Book of Matthew 7:3's account of the Sermon on the Mount has it correct:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,

but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

These words of the acclaimed Lord and Savior of all Christians are also just simple psychology or common sense. Although all of us are naturally hypocrites, none of us is particularly happy about it. Of all Jesus's sayings, this one with all the wood bits is the one which establishes His genius (in Chappie's humble view.) These words also indicate the presence of another psychological phenomenon which is virtually always present when we are thinking about OTHER PEOPLE and what they do or have done to us or might do: projection.  "A theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unpleasant impulses by denying their existence while attributing them to others." Sound familiar? If you learn about only one psychological concept (and empirical truth) in you long life, make it "projection."

If one is confused by this horrible but relatively insignificant tragedy, the San Bernardino Attacks, one needs to think broadly and stop listening to the myriad voices of morons and imbeciles barking and quacking in the land. You know who I mean. The most realistic and credible person I have heard speak so far is Saira Khan, sister of the dead gunman, Syed Farook, in her interview with MSNBC's Chris Jansing. She has no answers, but she is speaking with honesty and intelligence.

And, oh yes, gun availability is substantial part of the problem, but nothing trumps a strong motivation. Hate not religion kills people. It seems clear that there was a personal animus between Seyed, the killer, and the "Messianic Jew" Thalasinos. It also seems likely that Seyed Farook was influenced by his spooky wife, whose appreciation for Daesh has been established. All of these important details are secondary to the fact that we are hated, with cause by tens of millions of people who would never pick up a weapon and attack one of us. Knowing that the explanation is such a simple one should help us all sleep better at night, just like we used to do. Losses such as those in SB are a small price to pay for the privilege of waging unending war against "terrorism" anywhere we perceive it to be. I'm sure we can all agree about that. Sleep tight...