Ebony's Pearls

Yanno, I keep hearing one version or another of "We must track down and stop terrorists" and I have to ask: Why?

I grant that we must stop terrorism, but treating every single being as if they were a terrorist and subjecting them to all sorts of subhuman treatment isn't the way to do it.

When we treat everyone as if they were guilty, the anger and resentment of such treatment will build until someone who can't endure one more unreasonable delay, one more strip search, one more home invasion by the government from an anonymous tip explodes and becomes the very thing we theoretically are attempting to prevent.

Instead of "tracking down" terrorists, we are creating them so we have more reasons to track them down. Any thinking that begins with "must track down and stop" automatically will involve techniques and tools that will set up a vicious, escalating cycle of creating the very thing being hunted out and eradicated, and the increase in finding even the most tenuously related action/event/person will increase the hunt and the "crackdown".

It's a cycle that can't sustain itself for too long before it falls apart. And the fall-out will not be pretty if it isn't stopped before it reaches that point.

It won't be easy to stop it - our government has spent too much power, money, and thought into creating a mindset that is forced into paths of suspicion and fear throughout the country. Changing that mindset may have simple steps, but each step will be painful and will regress many times before it finally strides forward.

One big (and simple and hard) change is respect. We need to restore our belief in the goodness of humanity. We need to remember that most people are not and never will be terrorists - and probably don't know anyone who is or will be. We need to treat terrorists the way we do serial killers - as rarities that need to be rooted out and stomped on without falsely accusing and punishing everyone in the vicinity. We need to trust that the average person is nice, is willing to help, is friendly. If we operate on the assumption that most people are good and treat them as if they were good and trustworthy, why, naturally, that's how they will behave.

Another such change is knowledge - again, big, simple, and hard to enact. We are so vested in keeping secrets and hiding knowledge from one another, especially on upper management and governmental levels, that those who actually do the work feel disenfranchised and that their work is valueless and unimportant, so they don't do it right or well, which leads to shoddiness all around. If we had full disclosure, more people would understand the reasons for things being done and would actively and happily participate. Right now, information is withheld form the average person for a variety of reasons. "National security" is often cited for enacting all manner of restrictions and the removal of all manner of rights, freedoms, and privileges when those freedoms, rights, privileges, and responsibilities have nothing at all to do with "national security". That's a catch-all phrase used to frighten people into compliance in much the same way parents once frightened their children into going to bed too early with tales of the boogeyman. I can cite instances, but that would make a short post far too long.

Another change is trust. We need to trust one another. With respect and knowledge, we should be able to trust that others will do the right thing, or at least refrain from hindering others in the act of doing the right thing. Most people, given a choice, will do the right thing if they aren't warped by fear, anxiety, anger, and incomplete or even totally false information. If we respect others, give them as much information as we have, and trust them, they will do the right thing. And they won't be terrorists.

Terrorism is a tool of last resort for some people. They are frightened, angry, frustrated, and feel they have been shoved into a corner from which the only response is extreme violence. They may be mentally ill and unable to comprehend there are other alternatives, or they may truly be forced into that corner. The mentally ill often show signs of their tendency long before they burst - but most people ignore the signs, so we simply have to deal with the fallout when it happens. Those who are forced into the corners and have determined they have no other choice but extreme violence are the ones we can prevent.

Note I said "prevent", not "track down and stop".

The best way to prevent terrorism is to allow people the freedom to express themselves - and to give them the courtesy of listening to them and rationally considering their stance. It doesn't necessarily mean complying with their wishes or needs, because sometimes what they want is just not possible without stomping on the rights of others. By letting them speak up and listening to them, (not just pretending to listen and then dismissing them out of hand, but genuine active listening), we've reduced the frustration and anger levels, often to well below the point of violence. And who knows? Maybe they have a valid point, one we should heed. If we prevent them from talking, if we disrespect them and treat them as wayward, stupid children and block their efforts to be heard because "we know better", we've just created a situation that escalates the frustration and the potential for violence.

When we take away respect, knowledge, and trust; when we prevent others from having control of their own lives; we set up the potential for acts of violence as people react to that treatment.

Think of the rebellious teen who's still treated like a pre-teen, with parents randomly conducting drug tests, searching through their drawers, lockers, pockets, purses, backpacks, and diaries, with restrictions and control of their contact with others. How do they act? And then consider how an adult would feel if subjected to these same things - unreasonable random drug tests, searches of their personal belongings and their own bodies (strip searches and X-rays and wave readers at airports), home invasions by police. Would we not be angry, frustrated that we aren't trusted or respected?

Come on, someone has to see this as clearly as I do. Surely someone with the popularity and potential power to help bring about these changes sees that the path we're on now is a destructive one that engenders only more violence and is willing to hack a new path that isn't composed of repression, restriction, and denial.