A Curious Girl: Opinionated and scary

I am addicted to the Have Your Say section of the BBC website.

I think it's actually because some of the people who post there disagee with me - no great crime. Some of them, however, also appear to be ignorant and uninformed. And some of them, I'm sure, are crazy. There's also the fascinating way that there have actually been discussions on such things as whether Charles and Camilla should marry. It's actually none of our business, funnily enough. Granted, a lot of people also post sensible, informed comments.

And yet, I can't help but have a sick fascination in the views of some people, even if I can sympathise with them.

A recent topic was on Is global security threatened?.

I am surprised at people who think that there is a way to talk, understand, the people who caused these horrific acts, or that there exists any justification for carrying them out, the people who do these things here in Iraq, England, or any other place on earth are either doing it for money, or believe in a sick ideology that killing people will lead them to heaven, neither of the two are humans, they shouldn't be considered as so.
Sarab, Baghdad, Iraq

That's a very cosy way of putting it. We love to think that terrorists aren't human. Bad news for us - they are. So was Hitler, so was Stalin, so was Mussolini. So also Peter Sutcliffe, Jack the Ripper, Myra Hindley, Saddam Hussein. We like to think that they lack some essential human quality. We could never become like them, we are human, they are not. That's rubbish, to put it bluntly. They are human, and they are subject to human emotion.

"Hath not a terrorist eyes? Hath not a terrorist hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as you are? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, shall we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

True, a terrorist is immeasurably more evil than Shylock (who I usually end up siding with when the Merchant of Venice is discussed. I dislike Antonio). But Shylock is vilified and treated unjustly throughout the play, not because he is a villain (which he is) but because he is a Jew (and so, according to the Christians in the play, sub-human). Terrorists are evil, surely, but I can't help but think, as I read the words of those who perpetrated that awful bombing last Thursday, that there is something strangely similar to the attitude of an American I had an online row with. See the original entry here.

He said: Making sure that I live in peace and that my children and family live in peace is damn well worth more than Iraqi citizens.

I said: 'Please, have a little compassion. I can't believe that being in a much *safer* position than most Iraqi citizens, that you could consider your security something worth killing them for. Are their lives worth less than your security?'

He said: 'Hell yeah. If your country posed a threat against our security, we'd take you out too. So behave.'

Earlier on, someone else contributed, 'I fully consider my peace of mind and the knowledge that my family is safe, a thousand times more important that someone I've never met and never will.'

The attitude here is something like this: distant people don't count as much as my family and my countrymen. If they die to help our cause, then there's no problem. Essentially, terrorists ignore the humanity of the people they attack. So do paranoid warmongers. It's all very convenient to think of terrorists as not being human. Then we can do as we please with them. We can torture and humiliate them. We can kill them. But we'll never be as bad as they are, because we're human and they're not. This is nonsense. We can be as evil as they are. We are subject to the same emotions. If we consider them less than human, then we're falling prey to the same twisted ideology that they follow.

More from 'Have Your Say':

The war on terror is real and cannot be ignored. The UK (and London in particular) has long lived with the threat of terror attacks. The British people will never be defeated by such acts of cowardice and intimidation. Despite the terrible scenes yesterday and the tragic loss of life, the numbers involved were surprisingly low. Our security and law enforcement authorities are doing a fantastic job, however, it is almost impossible to prevent such attacks in a free country. It is beyond my comprehension however, when this country faces a real and undeniable threat, there are voices that still claim we should safeguard all civil liberties. At certain times liberties must be curtailed to ensure the safety of the majority - if this means detention without trial, suspension of asylum rights, deportations or even internment so be it.
Andy D, Oxford, UK

Andy from Oxford, you scare the hell out of me. I find terror attacks frightening - I saw the crowds in London on Sunday and wondered how they had to courage to visit London so soon - but I don't find them nearly as frightening as I find this attitude. He makes ID cards look like a liberal option.

I can't believe he'd seriously consider detention without trial to be a reasonable and effective safeguard against terrorism. Please tell me this man is a lone lunatic (alas, I suspect Tony Blair agrees with him, as the debate on detention without trial showed). If we let justice fail in favour of security, then we might as well arrest children as soon as they do something wrong. The government are already planning to monitor children for criminal behaviour.

Being scared of terrorists is one thing. Being scared of your own government is another. It appears that the innocent have a lot to fear.

Thankfully, most of the comments on this debate were actually sensible.

I'm quite proud that I wrote this entry without including the phrase "Then the terrorists have won." Except for in this sentence, of course.

Random word for today: ataraxic

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