Tag Archives: paris terrorist attack
Ignorance Is Death
Once again, terrorists have struck in the heart of France leaving at least 120 people dead. Mainstream media is doing the usual to take advantage of the situation with “scorched earth” coverage visually, emotionally, and ideologically by giving voice to every so called expert analyst on psychology, sociology, and war. A different story is unfolding on social media however, where people are more open to express their personal opinions on the situation, which is closer to the truth that “ignorance is death”.
Social media has never been known for political correctness or social engineering like mainstream media. Instead, social media is like the “wild west” for bringing out the racists, bigots, and low-informed cynics. But on the positive side, social media gives voice to dissenting opinions about society and the forces that manipulate people. It is there that people who are conscious enough about Life can examine it to find meaning and express our views.
There is no denying that the terrorist attacks on France are a tragedy but in many places on social media Black people are showing little sympathy. Instead they are apt to point out the inequities in main-stream media coverage between terrorist events in Africa and Police brutality in America. They point out that France still holds as many as 14 African countries as well as Haiti in debt for loss of colonial profits due to decolonization. Psychologically, what we are witnessing is a hardening of hearts over the injustices of racism and oppression at the hands of an unethical colonialist nation.
The only problem is that when we operate by the same philosophy as our oppressors we see terrorism as pay-back in a warped “eye for an eye” religious ideology that they originally indoctrinated us with. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that life and liberty has to be fought for but when it’s wrapped in ideologies based on religion and unethical thinking it’s bound to fail because they will always be more evil and unethical than us. The history of slavery, colonization, two world wars, and countless other injustices reveals it.
We need to recognize that we are Life. We are born, pursue happiness, and then die without understanding why or gaining a glimpse of what Life truly intended it to be. We may gain some consciousness but never Awareness because awareness is to “know all things”. Ignorance is death so recognize that until we learn to respect Life over ideology there will be no change in the killings; Black, White, Arab, or otherwise.