This week has been irregular, but last Friday I did manage to join the Free Fall writing group and met with Don at Kingsland. He presented me with a fine copy of “The Quimby Manuscripts” by H. Dresser, 1921. We had a good discussion, though Don felt depressed about the economy, which is not too surprising, but thanks for the book Don.
On Saturday I visited John and Annie who are now basement dwellers, while the kitchen is being renovated. I also showed off my new smart phone and took a selfie of the four of us, four since Annie quickly grabbed Angel her cat to supplement the scene. I have discovered that it takes a certain skill to take a pleasing selfie. This one worked.
All week I dwelled on my ‘Threshold’ talk and the news item regarding the ISIS attacks of which the Paris one is the most disturbing for us Westerners. I read the Globe and Mail almost daily on this and also my six web news sites. And then, there was the CBC National as well that I followed.
It - ISIS - is quite a sophisticated operation, which I have now named ‘The Global Network of the Vengefully Disaffected’.
In reflection now, it is the complexity of these events that makes me take in these various sources, so as to frame some understanding of this ‘ISIS’ phenomenon. It is quite a sophisticated operation, which I have now named ‘The Global Network of the Vengefully Disaffected’. Its members hail from all layers of the international society.
Their aim is to draw attention to society’s dissonant value systems by violent means, since no one is taking notice without such actions. Sociologists note about fight and violence that this is still evidence of one party caring about the other. Ignoring each other comes next, when even this kind of involvement stops and no one cares.
So maybe ISIS is saying to the ‘West’ that it should care more about that part of humanity, a communication started with Al Kaida actions in the 1990-ties. This ignoring was then demonstrated by the ‘West’, when it walked away from the conflict in Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew.