Cult of Death
- Информация о материале
- Автор: David Brooks
New York Times, published: September 7, 2004
We've been forced to witness the massacre of innocents. In New York,
Madrid, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Baghdad and Bali, we have seen thousands of people
destroyed while going about the daily activities of life.
We've been forced to endure the massacre of children. Whether it's
teenagers outside an Israeli disco or students in Beslan, Russia, we've
seen kids singled out as special targets.
We should by now have become used to the death cult that is thriving
at the fringes of the Muslim world. This is the cult of people who are
proud to declare, "You love life, but we love death." This is the cult
that sent waves of defenseless children to be mowed down on the battlefields
of the Iran-Iraq war, that trains kindergartners to become bombs, that
fetishizes death, that sends people off joyfully to commit mass murder.
This cult attaches itself to a political cause but parasitically strangles
it. The death cult has strangled the dream of a Palestinian state. The
suicide bombers have not brought peace to Palestine; they've brought reprisals.
The car bombers are not pushing the U.S. out of Iraq; they're forcing us
to stay longer. The death cult is now strangling the Chechen cause, and
will bring not independence but blood.
But that's the idea. Because the death cult is not really about the
cause it purports to serve. It's about the sheer pleasure of killing and
dying.
It's about massacring people while in a state of spiritual loftiness.
It's about experiencing the total freedom of barbarism - freedom even from
human nature, which says, Love children, and Love life. It's about the
joy of sadism and suicide.
We should be used to this pathological mass movement by now. We should
be able to talk about such things. Yet when you look at the Western reaction
to the Beslan massacres, you see people quick to divert their attention
away from the core horror of this act, as if to say: We don't want to stare
into this abyss. We don't want to acknowledge those parts of human nature
that were on display in Beslan. Something here, if thought about too deeply,
undermines the categories we use to live our lives, undermines our faith
in the essential goodness of human beings.
Three years after Sept. 11, too many people have become experts at
averting their eyes. If you look at the editorials and public pronouncements
made in response to Beslan, you see that they glide over the perpetrators
of this act and search for more conventional, more easily comprehensible
targets for their rage.
The Boston Globe editorial, which was typical of the American journalistic
response, made two quick references to the barbarity of the terrorists,
but then quickly veered off with long passages condemning Putin and various
Russian policy errors.
The Dutch foreign minister, Bernard Bot, speaking on behalf of the
European Union, declared: "All countries in the world need to work together
to prevent tragedies like this. But we also would like to know from the
Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened."
It wasn't a tragedy. It was a carefully planned mass murder operation.
And it wasn't Russian authorities who stuffed basketball nets with explosives
and shot children in the back as they tried to run away.
Whatever horrors the Russians have perpetrated upon the Chechens, whatever
their ineptitude in responding to the attack, the essential nature of this
act was in the act itself. It was the fact that a team of human beings
could go into a school, live with hundreds of children for a few days,
look them in the eyes and hear their cries, and then blow them up.
Dissertations will be written about the euphemisms the media used to
describe these murderers. They were called "separatists" and "hostage-takers."
Three years after Sept. 11, many are still apparently unable to talk about
this evil. They still try to rationalize terror. What drives the terrorists
to do this? What are they trying to achieve?
They're still victims of the delusion that Paul Berman diagnosed after
Sept. 11: "It was the belief that, in the modern world, even the enemies
of reason cannot be the enemies of reason. Even the unreasonable must be,
in some fashion, reasonable."
This death cult has no reason and is beyond negotiation. This is what
makes it so frightening. This is what causes so many to engage in a sort
of mental diversion. They don't want to confront this horror. So they rush
off in search of more comprehensible things to hate.
Russian version
An introduction to MAOF
Haim Goldman
Haim Goldman
Dear Friends,
Would you believe that the undersigned has anything in common with
-- Professor Victor Davis Hanson (Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University),
-- Dr Charles Krauthammer, (Washington Post, Time, The Weekly Standard),
-- Caroline Glick (Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post),
-- Jonathan Tobin (Executive Editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent).
Amazingly, the editors of the MAOF website decided that the missives of the undersigned are worthy of translation and posting along the articles written by these distinguished authors.
The first letter was published without the consent of the undersigned.
However, after thorough examination of the laudable attitude of MAOF and of the excellent contents of the website, the undersigned had most graciously granted his permission for publication of his missives in both English and Russian.
“Analytical Group MAOF” [1] is an organisation founded about ten years ago by Russian-speaking Jewish intellectuals. The attitude of MAOF is definitely pro-Zionist -- unambiguously and unapologetically.
One of MAOF’s primary purposes is providing information and analysis about Middle-Eastern and world affairs as well as about Israel’s history, values and dilemmas. In addition to extensive publication activity in various media, MAOF also organises excursions and seminars. While the vast majority of the contents of the MAOF website is in Russian, texts originally written in English are provided in the original [2] as well as in Russian.
There are arguably about 250 millions of Russian-speakers worldwide and many of them do not read English. The indisputable motivation for the author’s permission was to grant those millions of disadvantaged people the grand benefit of reading the author’s ruminations. If the author is ever maliciously accused that his tacit motivation for authorising the publication was his craving to be listed along with the above-mentioned distinguished writers, his plea will definitely be “nolo contendere”.
The editors of MAOF expressed their gratitude by granting the undersigned a privilege that no other author got – the opportunity to review and correct the Russian translation before publication. The original letters of the undersigned are at [3] and their Russian version is at [4]. At of today, only two letters are posted but several other letters are pending translation.
You are kindly ENCOURAGED TO RECOMMEND the MAOF website to your friends and colleagues worldwide, particularly those who speak Russian. Those who do not enjoy the benefit of proficiency in the exquisite Russian language can find many thought-provoking and inspiring articles about Middle-Eastern and world affairs in the English section [2].
Sincerely,
Haim Goldman
28.10.2006
REFERENCES:
[1] http://maof.rjews.net
[2] section.php3? sid=37&num=25
[3] authorg.php3? id=2107&type=a
[4] authorg.php3? id=2166&type=a