Public burnings and hung, drawn and quarterings of human beings were quite commonplace in Europe up until at least the seventeenth century. Evil has always been with us. 'Islamic State' is just the most recent manifestation of a wicked form of regime that will stop at almost nothing it seems to terrify its opponents and to maintain 'discipline' within its captured territory.
Public burnings and hung, drawn and quarterings of human beings were quite commonplace in Europe up until at least the seventeenth century. Evil has always been with us. 'Islamic State' is just the most recent manifestation of a wicked form of regime that will stop at almost nothing it seems to terrify its opponents and to maintain 'discipline' within its captured territory.
But we are the same smiley happy 21st century family Lincs?
Public burnings and hung, drawn and quarterings of human beings were quite commonplace in Europe up until at least the seventeenth century. Evil has always been with us. 'Islamic State' is just the most recent manifestation of a wicked form of regime that will stop at almost nothing it seems to terrify its opponents and to maintain 'discipline' within its captured territory.
So the question is as a race are we going backwards?
Do people forget World War 2? The Nazi acts were Evil.
Do people forget the Iran-Iraq wars of the 80s and the gulf war of the 90s. All those deaths?
Evil is there, murders continue to occur, wars continue to rage on.
It's part of what humans are, we are a kill or be killed race. We don't suffer with extreme over population, because of Evil, However we see less of Evil because there are more Good people while others just hide the evil.
"The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed. The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress"
How do we deal with ISIS? Not having a middle eastern foreign policy that hails back from post ww1. Maybe give young people in this country a feeling of worth and belonging rather than a shit tonne of debt and misery to look forward to. Then they might stop leaving for romantic notions of freedom fighting and fighting with "their brothers and sisters".
Looking around and observing human behaviour, I really think that we have peaked in our behaviour, morals and intelligence and are on the slippery slope back to Neanderthal times.
The pilot was burned alive a month ago and IS have a track record of killing enemy combatants they capture - because he was a pilot he was a lot more high profile than the rank and file Iraqi soldiers they kill regularly. The woman they asked the Jordanians to release was not actually that important in terms of the operatives that are in prison there. IS knew the likely response from the Jordanian authorities once what they had done became known, which may be why they focused on someone they weren't really that bothered about. They are playing a very cynical long game, trying to weaken Jordan's role in the coalition so that eventually only western countries are left fighting them and they can turn to potential supporters and say "see, we told you it was a western conspiracy". Short term Jordanians will be angry, but longer term they may ask themselves why they are fighting IS. The West are not serious about it, because being serious about it means ground troops not air strikes and there is no appetite for that in the US, UK or indeed anywhere else.
"The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed. The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress"
How do we deal with ISIS? Not having a middle eastern foreign policy that hails back from post ww1. Maybe give young people in this country a feeling of worth and belonging rather than a shit tonne of debt and misery to look forward to. Then they might stop leaving for romantic notions of freedom fighting and fighting with "their brothers and sisters".
Does that come in a bottle?
But what about all this "inclusion" speak we get rammed down our throats morning noon and night. Surely it is up to these "young people" to grow up and take the responsibility that comes with living in a modern democratic society, ie; incurring bills, paying bills. Everyone has to do it, why not this certain section of society?
"The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed. The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress"
How do we deal with ISIS? Not having a middle eastern foreign policy that hails back from post ww1. Maybe give young people in this country a feeling of worth and belonging rather than a shit tonne of debt and misery to look forward to. Then they might stop leaving for romantic notions of freedom fighting and fighting with "their brothers and sisters".
Yep, we have got to stop Oliver, Henry, Elizabeth et al committing these atrocities as they only have debt and misery to look forward to.
Sorry Wayne, I get now your saying IS as in Islamic State rather than is evil getting worse... I did wonder about the grammar and choice of words in the title.
Their acts are in no way acceptable.
But then neither is the evil use of acronyms in today's world.
When humans finally realise all religion is idiotic mumbo-jumbo. Maybe we will be capable of living alongside each other.
Sadly, I wouldn't bet on it. Look at things like the Holocaust (which was just as much racial as religious), the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Unit 731... Humans as a species have truly incredible potential, but for evil as much as for good. No religion wouldn't mean no more killing, it would just mean a brand new set of excuses.
Ive seen the video, why i watched it i don't fucking know. Its probably the most brutal thing i've ever seen.
They are animals.
All too often seen those words posted these days... I choose to continue to live in ignorance. I won't look for them I did that as a teenager when that first big beheading video was released and it messed me up for weeks with flashbacks.
I couldn't sleep, felt sick and couldn't eat for days.
Watched the whole of this and it made me quite angry. Made some interesting points and I agree with most of what he says. But, he is guilty of incredible intellectual cowardice (I would even say typical American intellectual cowardice in this arena) when he fails to acknowledge how the decline in the influence of organised religion has contributed to the reduction in violence in the the modern world and how one religion, Islam, and it's followers, is actively trying to reverse this trend.
I refuse to watch such acts as it gives them what the want,
Unfortunately and not long away there will be problems for all Muslims due to the acts of these scum
City after city world wide the every day normal folk will take so much before they react back
in an age where you can purchase arms as easy as it is today in the end if people feel threatened and not listened to they will deal with the problem themselves
In paris in witnessed the shanty houses along the motor way being battered and destroyed by groups of men young and old this was days after the shootings
It's indiscriminate and not thought through but people fear what they don't understand and right now Islam is feared by many
I refuse to watch such acts as it gives them what the want,
Unfortunately and not long away there will be problems for all Muslims due to the acts of these scum
City after city world wide the every day normal folk will take so much before they react back
in an age where you can purchase arms as easy as it is today in the end if people feel threatened and not listened to they will deal with the problem themselves
In paris in witnessed the shanty houses along the motor way being battered and destroyed by groups of men young and old this was days after the shootings
It's indiscriminate and not thought through but people fear what they don't understand and right now Islam is feared by many
and with perfect timing the front of the Greenwich newsshopper is a full page ad for islam.
Watched the whole of this and it made me quite angry. Made some interesting points and I agree with most of what he says. But, he is guilty of incredible intellectual cowardice (I would even say typical American intellectual cowardice in this arena) when he fails to acknowledge how the decline in the influence of organised religion has contributed to the reduction in violence in the the modern world and how one religion, Islam, and it's followers, is actively trying to reverse this trend.
I haven't watched the video but Pinker definitely doesn't ignore the problem of Islam in his book on the subject.
Watched the whole of this and it made me quite angry. Made some interesting points and I agree with most of what he says. But, he is guilty of incredible intellectual cowardice (I would even say typical American intellectual cowardice in this arena) when he fails to acknowledge how the decline in the influence of organised religion has contributed to the reduction in violence in the the modern world and how one religion, Islam, and it's followers, is actively trying to reverse this trend.
To be fair you can draw that conclusion by the piece on circles of empathy covering family, tribe, nation etc. You can put any group you want in the circle, Christian, Hindu, Muslim etc. You could get angry if he tried to dis-apply it to religion, he didn't, he probably was avoiding alienating anyone in his audience.
The suggestion was that whoever is outside your circle of empathy we have the capacity to regard as sub-human if the interests of those within the circle are so served.
Will Jordan draw a circle around Islam or the State of Jordan to define where its empathy sits. That is what people in Jordan will sub consciously be agonising over. Will the atrocity change the circle to overlap with the circle we draw in the West. Unless IS finds itself outside the wider Islamic circle and its own circle diminishes in numbers so as to be unsustainable, it will not go away.
Ridiculed on QT, Starkey made the point that the real battle is not between Islam and the West, but within Islam. I think he is nearer the truth.
"The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed. The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress"
How do we deal with ISIS? Not having a middle eastern foreign policy that hails back from post ww1. Maybe give young people in this country a feeling of worth and belonging rather than a shit tonne of debt and misery to look forward to. Then they might stop leaving for romantic notions of freedom fighting and fighting with "their brothers and sisters".
As a teenager I felt frustration with the country, debt and misery. Never did I feel like wanting to murder people who didn't share my beliefs.
Don't put the blame on our country for these absolutely brainwashed scumbags.
"The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed. The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress"
How do we deal with ISIS? Not having a middle eastern foreign policy that hails back from post ww1. Maybe give young people in this country a feeling of worth and belonging rather than a shit tonne of debt and misery to look forward to. Then they might stop leaving for romantic notions of freedom fighting and fighting with "their brothers and sisters".
whilst killing in the clothing and after living in the housing that the horrific evil that is the west provided , allowing their education and birth for free ,
the argument is weak, you get what you put in in life no one gets nothing for free , work hard live by a pride driven to do better or become a servant for others led by blind hate and fury
Islam isn't specifically the problem. Imagine if someone went back in time and brought back European crusaders and armed them with modern military tech. They'd start doing exactly the same thing. The West may have entered the 21st century but a significant portion of the Middle East is still stuck in medieval times, and those who intend to keep it there have been given or have taken the weapons necessary to ensure it is kept there. Much like the dictators, tyrants and warlords of the Middle Ages, the only way they will be defeated is if they are overthrown and killed, preferably by their own people. We got to where we are today through centuries of bloodshed and struggle and only recently are the West beginning to value a human life above other things. It is impossible to impose our values on these people. The best we can manage is to contain the violence, cut them off from the rest of the world and even the playing field by ensuring those who need to defend themselves have the weapons and support necessary to fight back against the tyrants. IS, Boko Haram and the rest were not born from a vacuum but from a cultural void created when Western modernisation conflicted with Eastern traditionalism. Even if we kill every last member of IS, there will still be violent resistance to the West that will manifest itself in some other form. The only way this cycle of madness will end is when the people of these countries go through the same cultural upheaval the West experienced between 1800-2000. Hopefully it won't take them them 200 years to do so.
How do you deal with IS? I like Jordan's response, but how will IS retaliate?
The thing is they will respond -- and now Jordan has hung that attempted female suicide bomber ....I hate to think that the next hostage will be female.....they want to cause as much heart ache as possible ....
Comments
Evil has always been with us. 'Islamic State' is just the most recent manifestation of a wicked form of regime that will stop at almost nothing it seems to terrify its opponents and to maintain 'discipline' within its captured territory.
Do people forget World War 2? The Nazi acts were Evil.
Do people forget the Iran-Iraq wars of the 80s and the gulf war of the 90s. All those deaths?
Evil is there, murders continue to occur, wars continue to rage on.
It's part of what humans are, we are a kill or be killed race. We don't suffer with extreme over population, because of Evil, However we see less of Evil because there are more Good people while others just hide the evil.
How do we deal with ISIS? Not having a middle eastern foreign policy that hails back from post ww1. Maybe give young people in this country a feeling of worth and belonging rather than a shit tonne of debt and misery to look forward to. Then they might stop leaving for romantic notions of freedom fighting and fighting with "their brothers and sisters".
But what about all this "inclusion" speak we get rammed down our throats morning noon and night. Surely it is up to these "young people" to grow up and take the responsibility that comes with living in a modern democratic society, ie; incurring bills, paying bills. Everyone has to do it, why not this certain section of society?
As surely evil can only be more widespread, you can't have a scale of how evil someone is, they are or they aren't.
Their acts are in no way acceptable.
But then neither is the evil use of acronyms in today's world.
They are animals.
I couldn't sleep, felt sick and couldn't eat for days.
Unfortunately and not long away there will be problems for all Muslims due to the acts of these scum
City after city world wide the every day normal folk will take so much before they react back
in an age where you can purchase arms as easy as it is today in the end if people feel threatened and not listened to they will deal with the problem themselves
In paris in witnessed the shanty houses along the motor way being battered and destroyed by groups of men young and old this was days after the shootings
It's indiscriminate and not thought through but people fear what they don't understand and right now Islam is feared by many
The suggestion was that whoever is outside your circle of empathy we have the capacity to regard as sub-human if the interests of those within the circle are so served.
Will Jordan draw a circle around Islam or the State of Jordan to define where its empathy sits. That is what people in Jordan will sub consciously be agonising over. Will the atrocity change the circle to overlap with the circle we draw in the West. Unless IS finds itself outside the wider Islamic circle and its own circle diminishes in numbers so as to be unsustainable, it will not go away.
Ridiculed on QT, Starkey made the point that the real battle is not between Islam and the West, but within Islam. I think he is nearer the truth.
Don't put the blame on our country for these absolutely brainwashed scumbags.
whilst killing in the clothing and after living in the housing that the horrific evil that is the west provided , allowing their education and birth for free ,
the argument is weak, you get what you put in in life no one gets nothing for free , work hard live by a pride driven to do better or become a servant for others led by blind hate and fury