Our "Elite" Enable Terrorism

The Boston bombing is frustrating on many levels. For one thing, it’s obviously frustrating that people were hurt or killed and that lives have been disrupted. Yes, people die every day, but it’s frustrating that this was done intentionally. What’s really frustrating, however, is that so many of our chattering/political class seem intent on giving these terrorists exactly what they need.

Terrorism is an act of impotence. Essentially, there are two types of people who commit terror. The first group is the impotent loner. This is someone who is so pathetic and insignificant that they decide the only way to make themselves into a complete person is to commit some act of heinous violence so the world finally pays attention to them. These weirdos are usually shooters.

The other type is the radical. This is someone without the brains or muscle to sway the public to their cause and without the courage to stand up publicly for a cause they think is right. In effect, they are impotent to create the change they want and they think that if they can kill enough people, then the world will take them seriously and will bend to their will.

What both groups have in common is a screaming NEED for recognition. They NEED the public to take an interest in them. The impotent loner gets off on the attention. To him, this is the moment that he enters the history books, the moment where he becomes something special instead of a nobody. These losers revel in the attention – good or bad, because it gives them what they need. . . it gives their lives significance. The other group needs the public’s attention too. They need the public to hear about their pathetic cause, be it some idiotic black-helicopter cult that thinks it stands for freedom or some gutter-religion that somehow thinks their flying spaghetti monster told them to kill non-believers. They need the public to acknowledge them and to fear them.

This is what they have in common. Without attention, they are nothing.

So what does this tell us? It tells us that the only way to fight terrorism is to deny terrorists the one thing that makes it worthwhile: attention. Indeed, it is a law of human nature that people don’t do things they don’t think will give them what they want. So to stop conduct, you take away the benefit. This works with kids, it works with dogs, it works with everyone.

Unfortunately, this is where things go wrong. In our modern media world, the chattering class loves to exploit terrorism for their own gain. Within minutes of the bombing, journalists are salivating at the opportunity to throw out crocodile tears to earn ratings. “Good God! There could be a Pulitzer if I find the right words!!!” They can’t get enough. The papers, the radio, the television all go into uber-coverage mode. Every detail must be revealed, analyzed and speculated over a million times. “Oh... what does this all mean?!!!”

Then the political savages get started. The conspiracy nuts spread their poison to make themselves feel important too. Meanwhile, the Chris Mathewses of the world try to use the event to smear groups they don’t like. “Must be the Tea Party!!!” The Democrats actually called a press conference to blame the Boston bombing on sequester. At least none of them tried to wear a bloody shirt this time. The conservative chatterers are no better. They start pointing fingers at Islamic terrorism within seconds. Soon the left and the right are hacking away at each other, with both giving all the terrorists of the world. . . exactly. . . what. . . they. . . want: attention and significance. Suddenly, the impotent terrorist isn’t really so impotent because the whole world seems to be dancing to their tune.

These enablers even do stories pointing fingers at other people for encouraging terrorism.

Then comes the next wave. This is when everyone cancels events and holds vigils and does entire shows dedicated to talking about the horror of these events and how the world has changed. This is when bloggers and talk radio hosts and whatnot demonstrate how impotent they are against the terrorists by struggling to find ways to express how helpless they feel. Sure, they talk about being resolute, but their words ring “helpless.” This is the moment the impotent terrorists realize their power as they see the helplessness of their victims.

Finally, we get a break in the case. We find out who did it! Woo hoo! It’s time to really exploit this sucker! Journalist after journalist will dive right in. They will splash the name of the impotent fools all over the news. They will analyze everything they did and why they did it. They will repeat manifestos and lists of demands and will carefully explain why we should all care about this weirdo’s cause -- often with a fake disclaimer that they don’t endorse the manifesto they are publicizing. This completes the cycle. This immortalizes the impotent-loner or the forgotten-causer. For a brief moment, their pathetic, impotent little cause is the most important story on Earth, and their names now sit next to Jesus, Caesar, Hitler, and Reagan in the history books. And the only reason that happened is because our media and our political class are so determined to play right into the terrorists’ hands.

This is the problem.

If you want to stop terrorism, you deny them the benefit of being terrorists. You don’t spend time dwelling on what happened. You never explain why they did what they did. You never tell the world their names. You make it impossible for these impotent little pricks to find satisfaction through terror and you let them die unknown. That deprives them of everything they were after.

Unfortunately, our entire chattering class is determined to do its damnedest to help these people succeed. They are to blame here.