ISIS' goal isn't nihilistic. They're not trying to simply burn it all to the ground. Their eye is firmly on the prize: of establishing a caliphate to actually govern people. So then why the extreme brutality?
Strength and determination are essential for revolutionary movements. But this level of brutality is another thing entirely; it breeds dread and hatred - counterproductive if you want to earn the loyalty of eventual subjects. These guys aren't like Al Qaeda (or, at a vastly different pitch, Fidel's partisans) - in it for the conflict, with nuts/bolts governance a mere afterthought. No one denies that ISIS plans for mature governance. But their barbaric hyper-brutality seems anything but mature or responsible. It seems like an odd choice, considering their overall plan.
I've been writing about the sharp trend away from violence - a trend not readily apparent to us because the same enlightened sensitivity which makes us shun violence also heightens our shock at the violence which remains. We are thus prevented from registering - much less enjoying - the shift, with less and less violence shocking us more and more. But there's another view of that viral shift, from areas not yet infected by that virus.
Pacifism has, for time immemorial, been equated with weakness. Even forty years ago, mainstream America equated the term with hippy or Quaker weirdos, and smelled cowardice behind the high-minded philosophizing. If pacifism in the 1970s struck mainstream America as cowardly, one can only imagine how our foundational turn away from violence appears to parties in other parts of the world where sensibilities lag by centuries rather than by decades.
If you also factor in America's pitiful track record in fighting guerrilla movements, plus its dismal recent experience in the Middle East, it's clear that ISIS gains a tactical advantage from their image of extreme brutality. They've calculated, likely correctly, that we simply don't have the stomach for it, so it's in their interest to turn our stomachs as frequently and as extremely as possible. In so doing, they hope to stave off our direct intervention. It's their version of North Korea's strategy of feigned craziness (as with all long-sustained feints, burn-in's a big risk).
However, there's something to remember about American history. We dawdled over our entrance to WWII, out of isolationism rather than pacifism (a different motivator yielding a similar outcome). Germany and Japan both interpreted this as weakness. The Germans duly profited from our hesitation, slaughtering our allies and interfering with our maritime trade but always remaining beneath the point of full provocation. But, with Pearl Harbor, the Japanese stupidly woke "the sleeping dragon" (actually, burn-in - of bellicose over-confidence - was more to blame than plain old stupidity).
Can we rise to the aggressive occasion again if necessary, or will non-violence permanently repress our capacity? If our boiling point has not risen above practical reality, will ISIS ring our bell and awaken the dragon, or will they remain disciplined enough to present sufficient menace to repel us without out-and-out goading us?
I don't like the sound of my own questions. Am I turning into a hawk (as I once wrote, extremism - even of good things like non-violence - makes unwilling semi-extremists out of moderates like me)? Am I suggesting that non-violent societies will inevitably be usurped by more aggressive ones? Is it really possible that we're not becoming noble, it's simply that we're turning soft?
I don't know. And I don't know if we should send ground troops to fight ISIS. These are all complicated questions. But this much is certain: almost everything's zero-sum in human affairs, so perhaps we ought to dry our misty eyes at the magical ascendancy of non-violence and really think it all through. Because the more pacifistic you are, the smarter you've also got to be. This poster, for example, never really did much for me:
There is a history of such brutality with some religions, and the history with Islam is long. It's how much of North Africa became Muslim. They are following the same proven path. ISIS is no different than what is happening in otherr parts of the world and no different than what history shows us. You talk of it as something unique or surprising. They are simply following in thefootsteps of others.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.historyofjihad.org/africa.html
This isn't something Muslims do. This isn't something religious people do. This is something humans do, and have always done. After millennia of this sort of activity, it's perplexing that we haven't yet registered that this isn't group behavior, it's human behavior. Germans, Japanese, Serbians, Bosnians, Brits, Belgians, Mexicans, Koreans, Russians, Americans, Muslims, etc., aren't uniquely brutal. It's not the team jersey, it's the genome.
ReplyDeletehttp://jimleff.blogspot.com/2009/07/giving-misanthropy-its-due.html
Every religion has had atrocities committed in its name. Every religion has been pushed by brutal idiots. The way it works is that you stigmatize and dehumanize a group of people. Like you're doing. That's step 1.
Ah, but there is a religious component (this is not limited to Islamic fundamentalists) of what ISIS is doing that makes it different from many others. With the religious component, it is to wipe out in order to wipe out. In North Africa, the Mulsims kiiled berbers who already destroyed their own villages in hopes of being spared.
ReplyDeleteIf you imagine there's anything the least bit religious behind ISIS (or Al Quaeda, or the rest), then you don't know a thing about religion OR about human violence. The Nazis draped themselves in religious (and quasi-religious) trappings, as well. Is that what they were about?
ReplyDeleteHistory teaches us not to look at the credos and the trappings, which change, but at the underlying dynamics, which are always the same. The credo, the trappings, the dogma, and the flag are just organizing structures and symbols under which human beings follow their nature....for better or for worse.
Oh, I know something about religion. Your quip is meaningless.
ReplyDeleteIf this comes down to a comparison of ISIS to the Nazis, I see many major differences well beyond 'that's just how humans work.' There is a growing worldwide movement of Islamic Fundamentalism. When that movement turns violent, it is a brutal enemy that is in it for a billion years or not at all. It has turned violent before and will again even if we can quell this disturbance. They are not going away.
The Nazis were opportunists.