“We have yet to understand: that if I am starving, you are in danger.”
James Baldwin
(1) I present a common sense fact of warfare ever since humanity devolved, many thousands of years back, into tribalistic intra-species competition for resources: The terrorism of the oppressor state will always be met by the far more unequal terrorism of the community being oppressed. There is no exception to this fact. Of course history is written by the oppressor, which is why only the oppressed are called terrorists in popular nomenclature, despite the fact that terrorist states cause far greater death and destruction.
(2) There is a breaking point for every individual in a distinctly oppressed geopolitical community where the rationale of martyrdom outweighs the rationale of survival, especially if the oppression doesn’t reduce at least a little. This results in generational flashpoints as said oppression continues over multiple lifetimes. Palestinians residing under Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank happen to probably be the most well-known of such communities. However, there are several such communities all across the globe right now and this rationale applies to every human being on earth.
(3) Now, obviously radicalized members of the oppressed community don’t have the hardware to fight back and inflict terror against their oppressor state. So what do they do? They go towards state patrons who might be near-peer adversaries of said oppressor – essentially another oppressor state. Iran is a near-peer adversary of Israel and – like most countries around the world today – a terrorist state with a large, modern military much like Israel, albeit less powerful. Palestinian militants are going to get funding from wherever they can. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and so on. You don’t need to be a genius to figure this out.
(4) I say this as someone who has faced pretty much zero oppression my entire life. Indeed, it’s a useful rationale to understand if we’re truly oppressed. Are you willing to actually commit to a life path of (brutal) martyrdom to get release from the conditions you exist in? Whether that be through suicide, terrorism, or a combination of both. I can categorically say that, for all the traumas and stresses I have faced in my life, it is nothing compared to what actually oppressed communities go through. I have never once felt like killing or being killed in order to release myself from my socioeconomic conditions. Why? Because I had so much to lose. On the contrary, I live in constant fear of losing all the amazing life gifts that I have rather than in a constant state of humiliation and dehumanization. My rationale for existence would be very different had I been born in Gaza. For a dehumanized people who don’t have anything to lose, militancy makes a lot of sense in order to feel a sense of self.
(4) It is this rationale of the oppressed that Western policy-makers – who probably lead some of the softest, most privileged lives anywhere on the face of the planet – need to take into account. The multi-decade hypocrisy and outright racism of Western foreign policy makers was always going to result in blowback. The terrorism of the oppressed will not stop until the oppressor is cut to size.
(5) Western foreign policy makers have to curtail their egomania and step down from their traditional hubris. Else, the only stalemate winner in the Western world from this ongoing global conflagration, (that too out of just the dumb luck of geography) is going to be America. Not Europe. Europe seems too busy cannibalizing itself while wallowing in entitlement and superiority. So personally, I don’t see this internal growth happening any time soon. Though one can always hope for saner sensibilities to prevail.
(6) The West needs to understand that it can’t just care about the deaths of white people. I don’t say this out of a belief in the goodness of any human’s heart, leave alone Western policy makers. I say this from the standpoint of a purely utilitarian rationale. The elites of the world would be wise to heed the haunting words of James Baldwin I started this article with. I repeat it for good measure (with emphasis):
“We have yet to understand: that if I’m starving, you are in danger.”
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Broken Shackles Media | Citizen Journalism | Oct 18 2023
love liberation struggle 