BLOWBACK

William Burroughs' Baboon thinks "the terrorists" do not exist. Those we think of as terrorists are merely the disgruntled of the world providing negative feedback to those who oppress:

Other cultures were understood to be inferior when they weren’t invisible. They were definitely understood to be none of our concern. Each country did its level best to secure as large a slice of the earthly pie as it could. This was known as statesmanship. And was celebrated in history and art.

Today with global travel, instant communications and 6 billion people only fools and the very old can now take comfort in forlorn nostalgic reveries about everybody peacefully reassembling behind their own borders.

And it is the rich in countries such as the USA and the UK who have least excuse for so doing. For hundreds of years these countries have been at the forefront of expanding their economic borders with little regard for the welfare of those with whom the traded and fought.

Today we have global blowback. This is allowed by the mix of destructive technology and the now global nature of all information that allows anyone of us to grab the attention of the mightiest ruler of the most powerful nation. It has also to do with the breakdown under the pressures of economic mobility of the hierarchical nature of many societies.

There is no single malevolent group which if could vanquish, all our troubles would disappear. We pretend there were. We are hardwired to believe in scapegoats. And we recently, with the visibility of terrorist attacks, have decided that some part of the Islamic world is such a culprit.

This reap what you have sewn thing works in both directions.