Fed up with seeing terror suspects' photos everywhere

Oil

Yep. The oil flag continues to wave.

I have a suggestion for dealing with terrorists and other crazies on the media loosely borrowed from an old science fiction short story whose name and author I simply cannot remember at the moment (feel free to chime in if you do).

Rather than show us the faces of terrorists and endless footage of the carnage they wreak on the innocent repeatedly, endlessly, ad nauseam, ad infinitum, providing them and their "causes" with free publicity that money can't buy and encouraging an endless stream of like-minded wingnuts to blaze their own trails to hell for the amusement of a voyeuristic public, I'd like to propose a caricature be developed that places terrorists in an appropriate context--say, a skinny, mangy, rabid dog foaming at the mouth. Whenever an act of terror is perpetrated, place ONLY this image on the screen along with whatever description of the act and brief video clip is relevant. Any time thereafter when a terror suspect or convicted/dead terrorist is named, put their name under the mangy, rabid dog as a stand-in for their picture. Use as many mangy, rabid dogs as needed to represent any number of these morons. We can even differentiate domestic and foreign terrorists by using, say, a mangy, rabid dog for a domestic terrorist and a mangy rabid jackal for a foreign terrorist (or hyena, or some other unattractive lesser animal--I'm nothing if not flexible).

I might even watch an entire newscast again if these standards were adopted without an aching thumb from changing channels on my remote any time a glorified punk is shown on TV again, again, again and yet AGAIN.

Good idea Victor. A caricature depicting them as cowards/crazies instead of a real picture. A real picture would be appropriate if the person was still at large, armed and dangerous together with the caricature.

Victor, I hear you.

Hey, Victor. I hear you, too. I'm not sure my solution to the situation would be the same, but I think maybe I get where it is coming from.

You are, among other admirable things, a poet. You have considered a career as a teacher of English Literature. So, maybe you can see why, during these last days, that line from Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn" keeps running through my head:

"Beauty is Truth; Truth beauty.
That is all we know on Earth, and all we need to know."

And so, (bear with me for a bit) we look at the images of these two young men Two obviously "beautiful" young men, and wonder how they could possibly have committed such evil acts.

Of course, their beauty is a surface illusion, but isn't that part of the problem? We are so focused on the surface of things - and people. The younger brother obviously had a charismatic charm; everybody liked him. The older brother had enough of that charm to convince a young American woman to marry him, have his child, and even convert to Islam - to the point of wearing a hijab. Let's face it; they were attractive, at least on the surface.

And so, there are those who look upon those faces and ask, "How could they possibly be evil?" It would be so much easier to just depict them as snarling dogs.

Remember King Duncan in Macbeth? Speaking of the Thane of Cawdor?

"There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust."

And then, he turns toward the approaching Macbeth and hails him as his "worthiest cousin!"

We have this thing about taking our symbols literally, and, doing so, we expect the shallow, surface image to be the real person, when, very often, that surface is just a mask, hiding the true person inside.

We come across it most often, I think, when we assume that surface beauty is "more than skin deep." We see an image, or a person, we think of as unattractive, for whatever reason, and we turn away without even trying to find that beautiful person they really are inside.

We want to believe that what our eyes tell us is real. Unfortunately, that is not often the case.

In order to see a person's insides, we need to use our intuition. We need to look deeper into the person and the situation. From that standpoint, we need to ask questions about where this person is coming from? What is her history (herstory?)

Personally, I think that the imbalance in these circumstances that is causing so many to run to extremism - either end - goes back to an imbalance of the masculine and feminine archetypes. Note: I'm not saying male/female, although, when we only look at the literal surface, that is what seems to come out. We see it in that hijab that Tamerlan Tsarnaev apparently forced his wife to wear. We see it in the focus on the material surface - of the proof of a thing being in what we can see with our eyes and other four senses as we look down on feminine intuition. We see examples of so often in this extremely radical version of Islam.

It would be so much easier if those who are capable of such evil deeds were ugly to look at, but I think our modern definition of beauty is not at all what Keats had in mind.

They can be remembered as the uncharming pretenders! LOL

Ann,

I'd love to take a class from you. Your points are very well made, well taken, and worth noting. And I don't disagree with them, though I'm trying to make a different point myself.

The images on that Grecian urn, encircling it in endless perfection, are beautiful and frozen in that state for all time, though the artisan that created it long ago withered, died and turned to dust. The image inspired and inspires strong and conflicting emotions--eternal beauty that is only an illusion since the scenes are a timeless representation of an ephemeral moment in time that existed and continues only to exist in the ideal world, not the real. Beauty is truth, truth beauty in the Platonic realm of the forms (for neo-Platonists like me) but not in the real world where the best we can aspire to is a shadowy representation of beauty and truth and, if we take the Romantic notion literally to heart, since beauty fades, withers, and turns to dust then does the same hold true for the truth side of the equation?

Yes, we can be taken in by villains masquerading as heroes. What is Macbeth to a Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao (fill in the remaining ten thousand tyrants of your choice past and present)? Like Keats, I value beauty and am painfully aware of the limited capacity of humanity to know (or, more tragically, want to know) absolute truth. But that does not make truth relative or a facade that, like beauty, does not stand up well to attempts to scratch beneath its surface. That is not what Keats meant. That is most assuredly not what truth is. And no amount of rationalization, sophistry, hand wringing or aversion to judging anyone or acknowledging the existence of evil as a force in the world and as a motivator of too many human actions will change that.

I do not advocate representing the evil that is all terrorism (from the right and left, religious and secular, in the service of some god, devil, mother earth, animals and any other cause however strongly held by the terrorists) in an unpleasant way to mock terrorists, but to prevent what amounts to enormous publicity for their causes, whatever they be. I don't see any socially redeeming value to replaying endlessly the faces of mass murderers and the images of their evil deeds. That only validates the deeds in the first place to like minded miscreants. I don't care that they are oppressed or powerless. Some of their grievances may well have merit and I am willing to listen with an open mind. My mind closes forever when they target innocent men, women and children in an effort to gain media attention in order to sow fear, destabilize governments or win the hearts and minds of the heartless and mindless.

The media need to show some restraint, some backbone, some integrity and some sense; they show none of these qualities in exploiting carnage and giving every apologist (to say nothing of every terrorist sympathizer) a forum to vent their hate, spread misinformation and lecture the victims on why ultimately it is their fault that they are being victimized.

Don't killers use the surface image they project to enable them in their murderous ways? Ted Bundy springs to mind.

Between Ann and Victor, I don't think I can reach that level of sophistication.
I'm a simple country boy that tries to do what is right and avoid what is wrong.
Keep in mind that the "Right to bear arms" applies to people who may become terrorists. Background checks would help, but that is being fought against by the GOP.
We still hear the NRA saying that "guns don't kill, people do." To my simple way of thinking, if guns don't kill, then why do people need a gun?

With all the rhetoric pro and con, nothing will stop a person from killing if they have a desire to do it. Just as a padlock is simply a delaying device for thieves, so it is with our efforts to prevent deaths. Background checks is just one method of delay. Evaluation for mental stability is another. The mental health of the nation and its citizens is important. Having a program of healthcare that includes mental health would help with detection. Determining a person's instability after the fact is too late.

Victor, taking classes from each other might be enlightening, but I think it would be even more fun to just sit in the same room and start a conversation and let it run in whatever direction it might wander. I don't think our positions are as different as they sometimes appear.

You wrote:

Quote :

Beauty is truth, truth beauty in the Platonic realm of the forms (for neo-Platonists like me) but not in the real world where the best we can aspire to is a shadowy representation of beauty and truth and, if we take the Romantic notion literally to heart, since beauty fades, withers, and turns to dust then does the same hold true for the truth side of the equation?

Today we can capture those pristine moments in photographs. Like lately, I've been awed by the beauty of the bluebonnets and other wildflowers that splash color onto the landscapes near my home. And, as you have recently noticed and noted, I have been sharing those scenes on my Facebook page - a way to prolong the moment. But the photos, like the urn, are only a representation of a moment. Our wildflowers are withering and fading as I write. The seeds they leave will hopefully bring new blooms next spring, if the weather gods are willing, but the beauty of each bloom is real only during its tiny little moment in the sun, so to speak. Any bit of reality that we can perceive is in that moment of T. S. Eliot's "intersection of the timeless with time."

Quote :

Like Keats, I value beauty and am painfully aware of the limited capacity of humanity to know (or, more tragically, want to know) absolute truth. But that does not make truth relative or a facade that, like beauty, does not stand up well to attempts to scratch beneath its surface. That is not what Keats meant. That is most assuredly not what truth is. And no amount of rationalization, sophistry, hand wringing or aversion to judging anyone or acknowledging the existence of evil as a force in the world and as a motivator of too many human actions will change that.

I agree that Truth is Absolute - "not relative or a facade." I also believe that absolute reality is beyond the current level of humanity to comprehend completely, and that It evolves through time, so that comprehension eludes us even more It is not Truth that is relative, but time. And time is only a series of moments. We remember the glimpses of Reality that we can perceive in each moment, but our memory is almost immediately out of date, since it belongs to the past. Time is a necessary illusion, necessary because, as Eliot also said, "Only in time can the moment in the rose garden... be remembered...Only by the form, the pattern, can words or music reach the stillness, as a Chinese jar still moves perpetually in its stillness." That is the value of art to capture the still moment.

Thing is, to create or appreciate art, we must have time and opportunity for leisure. I our moments in time are all taken up with survival, we cannot reach the place where we want to know - or care - about absolute truth. The Romantic periods in literature come about after a culture has moved beyond that initial struggle - in this country, long enough after the colonists had achieved independence and securely settled in, with time free for reflection.The disenfranchised have no time for reflection. for remembering the moments "in the garden."

Yes, evil exists in this world. It exists in each one of us. We all have a dark side, a shadow, that we can only control when we acknowledge it's existence as a potential force inside each one of us. We cannot separate it into an "other." It is the attempt to do so that causes wars, especially religious wars.

We cannot eradicate evil by seeing it as an other. When we do that, we polarize, and extremism becomes the norm.

Compassion is not the opposite of judgement. Compassion is the centering point between callousness and sentimentality. It is possible to judge with compassion, especially when one perceives a worldview that sees both/and view of reality rather than an either/or world.

I had to leave the academic world as soon as I earned a bachelor's degree and teacher certification. I was a single parent with three children to shelter,and feed. I had to deal with the apparent reality of my circumstances rather than follow what I considered an ideal. Most of what I know came through my own studies, guided by a strong sense of intuition rather than in advanced degree classrooms. I confess to being a bit of an eclectic when it comes to philosophy. I read, I observe, and I go with what resonates.

Not apologizing or complaining. those moments of my past have created a path and a journey that has always had a satisfying purpose. It still does. I seem to be right where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing.

But I was fortunate enough to have a childhood where I felt reasonably secure, and have always had time for leisure and reflection. Not everyone can say that.

Just me being Annie again.

This is an interesting, but confusing discussion.
I see agreement, Victor doesn't care what religion, origin or cause these malcontents have--he is simply tired of seeing them plastered over his news screen nonstop.
Ann is bothered by something. Ann, Please condense it to two sentences .

Thanks!

I am not bothered by anything, Alice. I am just living in the moment.

Annie

On a tangent. A young man who was initially misidentified as one of the bombers has been found dead, specifically, drowned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/us/sunil-tripathi-student-at-brown-is-found-dead.html?_r=0

Since the mid 1990's, over 100 young college men have gone missing and eventually found drowned. No histories of drinking or drug use, most from good schools and families. I am bemused at the lack of press it's getting. You have to google to find scattered stories about it, and some are dismissing it as coincidence. ?

http://sfkillers.com/

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=9006940

So many coincidences going on right now, LC: The young man you mentioned, the three men in the unsolved murder case from 2011. Misha the mystery man. We are just beginning to scratch the surface, I'm thinking. All this is far from over

4/26/2013
I think it's a serial killer ?

Cheers..Joe...

Ann,

I'd love to have a long conversation with you over coffee or a nice bottle of wine about anything and everything. Degrees and credentials of all sorts are a dime a dozen. What matters is an open and receptive mind (echoes of Wordsworth that apply not only to poetry but to life). You are a thoughtful person with a gift for self expression and the ability to synthesize information and see connections that are not obvious to most people. We both like to peel back onions and can argue about or get lost in the meaning of any given layer or its relationship to the whole. When we get down to the core, though, I suspect we have relatively little to argue about.

On this issue, though, Alice has my basic point right. It is not that I do not empathize with or wish to demonize or dehumanize individuals who commit acts of terror. (Their actions speak for themselves on the latter, for me at least.) I just don't want to celebrate them or give others reason to emulate them. I have literally not been able to watch the news without changing channels constantly as I will not abide some talking head droning on dispassionately about the terrorist's acts/motivations/lives. Any act of terror is evil for me. There are no justifications. I will not stare at the face of evil while some idiot girls tells me about her crush on the nice, gentle boy on the screen in High School. Hitler loved animals and was not a bad water color painter, I understand. I won't watch his face on the tube every night as art critics or animal lovers drone on about his sensibilities or the possible reasons why he "was led" to committing atrocities by a tough childhood, or too-tight army boots, or his premature balding, or any other damned reason. Neo Nazis can hang his picture in their ratty trailers and pine for poor Adolph's pain. I won't watch it on TV on an endless loop as I don't give a flying fig why he did what he did, any more than I care what made a handsome boy blow up innocent people and plan on doing the same to others had he had the chance. Those who see the Bopsy Twins as martyrs are welcome to hand their picture on their mantles too--just keep their hateful faces off my TV 24/7. I can't even watch the Sunday news shows tomorrow or tape them as I'll be treated to more of the same. Enough already. ENOUGH!

My only problem with you, Victor, is that you never just come out and say what you really think.

Annie

Ann,

But at least I meander about forever and take my sweet time while being evasive.

Just for you, though, and only this once I'll say exactly what I really think in ten words: I wish you were my sister and lived next door. Happy now?

Oh, yes. That would be very cool.

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Annie

I'd rather be reading Redstone's Valley--still on my computer awaiting some down-time. As is Alice's paperback on my nightstand awaiting my not going to bed at 2:00 a.m. too exhausted to read so that I can finish it. Unfortunately I'm working on preparing for an Open House tomorrow at work and some 20 curriculum presentations on Tuesday. And I have two classes of papers to grade, and final exams to draft though not by the end of the weekend, alas. I check in here knowing I should not during breaks.*SIGH*

Victor,

Can I be a sister too? I will excuse you from reading my horror book.
Ann and you can live next door. You and your wife on one side and Ann on the other side.
I don't like to move. LOL.

Ann will be the boss, I will be the disturbed middle child and you can be the spoiled baby brother.
Think of the fun!

4/26/2013
This is what the news media should use
Cheers...Joe...
(c) 2013 Joseph Frank Baraba

Done Alice (as long as I still get to continue reading your very nice book)! I always wanted lots of siblings but mom and dad closed down the factory after having me, unfortunately. I'll be the bestest baby brother you could ever want. I've been practicing all my life and can boast the following credentials: I cry a lot, I run around all the time having absolutely no idea where I'm going, and I'm always getting into trouble. I'd absolutely LOVE a couple of big sisters to boss me around and set me straight as my Alice is having a devil of a time of it and needs a break. The more the merrier! And, oh yes, I'm completely potty trained already, so no worries on that score.

Joe,

Much too nice. Now if you can find a mangy coyote to photograph around those parts and maybe get it to foam at the mouth a little by maybe splashing a little soapy water in its mouth for that appropriate rabid look, that would be great. Better yet, just paint one that way so that no poor coyote actually has to have a bad taste in its mouth for this worthy project.