Barcelona

[buzzardwhiskey]

War gives meaning to our lives.

[blue]

Originally Posted by buzzardwhiskey

War gives meaning to our lives.

Dang. And I've been foolishly focusing on Family...

[Silurian]

As Individuals the best response is to carry on living our lives as normal as possible.

I've got a holiday booked in Cambrils (the place of the second attack) for next summer. These events certainly won't be putting me off.

[HHP]

They continue because there are a lot of people, who never get blood on themselves, who support these actions either emotionally or financially. You can tell who they are as they are the ones who condemn these actions and always add a "but" to their statements. You can ignore everything before the "but".

Emotional, intellectual, or financial support to these groups makes them an accomplice in my mind and they should be treated as such.

[Jim Owen]

Originally Posted by Larry Pattis

Condolences to everyone directly and adversely affected in Charlottesville and Barcelona, and also to the fate of this thread.

I'm with Larry on this. Condolences.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

Why? Because we are what we are. Man has been killing man since the proverbial Cain and Able.

There is nothing new under the sun. We cannot "fix" this.

True, and belief systems, cultures, ethnicities all give us reasons/excuses for conflict - it's genetic/tribal etc.

I'm frustrated because I gave a more thorough response to this but it hasn't appeared - I guess I must have forgotten to "submit" it.

Essentially this goes back to the crusades (1069) but more recently the UK and France carved up the middle east in 1916 (Sykes-Picot) with little/zero thought about the people, the Balfour declaration (giving a part of Palestine to Jewish settlements, (1917), the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1924, and all the manipulation and removal of leaderships in the various countries, invasions destroying infrastructures and creating anarchic conditions ripe for warring parties, and, of course, the appalling destruction and loss of life.

[BrunoBlack]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

.......

I'm frustrated because I gave a more thorough response to this but it hasn't appeared - I guess I must have forgotten to "submit" it.
.....

I believe that one was removed. Good post, however.

[blue]

To all those blaming actions of the West, there is a fundamental aspect being ignored.

EVERYBODY wants what their historical geographic "limits" were. Plain and simple. Whether countries like China and Russia, or ideologies like Islam. If it was yours, it will always stick in your craw if you lost it.

Taking the most recent attack as an example, they held Spain for about 100 years. It literally was theirs.

So don't bother making excuses. Russia wants what it had. China wants what it had. Mexico wants what it had. Everybody wants what they had.

As someone said earlier. "Because humans are flawed"

[Kerbie]

Last warning, guys... we cannot settle the issues of international terrorism. Politics and religion cannot be discussed here.

[Basalt Beach]

Very sad for those who know loved ones who lost their lives or who have been injured. Prayers and thoughts to all those who suffer from the violence and hate of others. I also glad to read of the rally in Barcelona in essence celebrating life and not allowing the darkness of evil to instill fear.

[Rondoraymundo]

Why?

Because there are maybe 4500 known defects in human dna. I look at it like a bell curve with defectives on the left side of the curve. We tend to think that those who do evil must be on the far left of the curve many standard deviations from normal, and some are. But even folks a little bit defective, when powered by bad ideas, can do evil things.

That's the answer I keep getting, defective people powered by bad ideas.

Mankind is not really equipped with a rational, logical thinking brain and delusions are the diet of despair. So, none of this is going to change until we handle defectives and eliminate bad ideas. Meanwhile, despair marches on in a world with a short supply of empathy.

[blue]

Originally Posted by Rondoraymundo

Mankind is not really equipped with a rational, logical thinking brain and delusions are the diet of despair. So, none of this is going to change until we handle defectives and eliminate bad ideas. Meanwhile, despair marches on in a world with a short supply of empathy.

Scariest thing I've read in this thread...

[dbintegrity]

Well, I don't know if anybody else is with me on this, but at the age of 50, I've seen the world do such an about face that my head is spinning... what was once right, is now wrong, what was once taboo is now the "in" thing to do, what was wrong is now right and the hatred among people is beyond my understanding.... I'm flabbergasted ....
My condolences to all the victims..

[KevWind]

Unfortunately the reasons are varied and usually complex and often situationally and or geographically specific. And simplistic generalized answers fall woefully short actual relevance or understanding or solution. And many of them cannot be discussed in this forum.

Also it should be noted that contrary to the notion that "things are getting worse" fermented by a world of instant communication and a fascination and focus of the media on the negative ..... world wide violence has in fact decreased steadily since WW 2 . With the exception that for the last decade violence in specific hot spots around the globe has increased somewhat , which interestingly enough also coincides with the last worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and one of elements of the aftermath of which, is an increased feeling of disenfranchisement

Also fear as a basic foundational element for perspective is actually part of the problem not part of the solution, and is not, as many convince themselves, "just being realistic"


In a very general sense we should note, disenfranchisement and hatred does not grow in vacuum.
Yes humans are flawed and always will be and freedom comes with a certain amount of inherent risk. But that does not mean it is hopeless and things cannot improve because in fact they have .

[fazool]

Originally Posted by dbintegrity

Well, I don't know if anybody else is with me on this, but at the age of 50, I've seen the world do such an about face that my head is spinning...,...

One thing to be very careful of is to not fall for the lies.

Everyone thinks the world is a horrific scarier place than ever.

Kids can't play outside alone.

Everyone locks and bars their doors.

No one trusts anyone and everyone is afraid all the time.


But, for America the statistics don't bear that out: all statistics show that all violent crimes are at the, per capita, lowest in American history. All violent crime. Lowest in HISTORY.

So, why do we feel like the world is coming apart?!?

Because the media sensationalizes the very rare horrors.

It's the problem of cars vs. airplanes for safety. Folks are 100X more like to suffer tragedy in a car, but folks are only afraid to fly - because of the sensational stories of mass losses (which are STILL hundreds of times lower in occurrence).


Don't cave in to the hysteria, the despair, the doom-and-gloom. It just ain't true.

Do some reading and research and prove it to yourself.

The "media" is the great evil there.