Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00241)

In response to the letters on the horrific massacre at Beslan. Has mankind learned anything from history?From pre stone-age times man has set upon others to dominate,subdue or annialate "enemy" or those that are different. In modern times man continues in that same mind-frame.Looking through the history books,the bible and other contemporary documents reveals that no matter what point of view that a group,family, nation,continent or whatever,if they are of the opinion that they are"right" or their cause is "just" then they can do as they please with impunity and with religious blessing and absolution .Each nation,group,clan or whatever is guilty of massacre, inhuman treatment, torture &etc. 
of some kind. Why people do such acts is perhaps not as complex as it may seem. Those who perpetrate such crimes as well as those who instruct those to carry out these"deeds" have probably been not been accepted by their own people whether family or the community that they dwell. in short they lack of love. Love in its many forms.look at the perpetrators background, there is rejection,and non-acceptance.For an example Thomas Hamilton , who massacred those young kids at DUNBLANE, SCOTLAND, was a "loner" he was totally rejected by the community, the way he took his "revenge" on the society was to harm the children he abused kids on adventure camps, he targeted young people.The warning signs were there but no-one seemed to know how to deal with him.The Police were aware of him, reports were made to higher authorities, they recommended the cancellation of his gun licence and the confiscation of his weapons.This was rejected with horrific consequences.The lack of love and understanding was significant .He was a difficult,awkward,inward looking man,the community did not know how to communicate with him.his revenge on society was through the children.
In the Bible the slaughter of the innocents by Herod also similarly Pharaoh and the story of Moses is well known, but do not forget the wisdom of Solomon and the disputed baby story.
For terrorism to work it needs to feed on fear and maximum exposure of the media,for this to succeed,soft targets have to be selected.The Moscow Theatre hostage siege cost a lot of lives, the Russian frame of thought was that no matter what the cost to the hostages in the theatre the hostage-takers must be crushed.Things went wrong the loss of life should have been much lower than predicted but the hostage -takers were wiped-out.At Beslan we see a very soft target,Civilization maintains that children should not be party to warfare. The terrorists showed scant regard to this "accepted unwritten rule of war" with such devastating result It is starting to become clearer from the survivors that no matter what was going to happen these innocent kids were going to be destroyed.For the effect at permanently damaging the parents and other relatives of the area.
What happened here is evil,it is wrong,I cannot find the words to condemn those who think nothingoftaking a life in a callous cruel manner.My heart,goes out to all those people who have suffered a loss,those young lives never getting a chance for fulfilment to develop their potential. To all those who will endure the pain for the rest of their lives,physical and mentally.Let us all take time to send them our healing thoughts.
We must try in our theosophical ways to try to change the world perception. To change for the good,the attitude that it is some how great or noble to die for one's religion,should we perhaps try to get people to live for their beliefs and to understand and respect the other's point of view.


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