Love and War

When it comes to terror, there is little to say that hasn’t already been said. The tragedy that unfolded last night in Nice was horrifying and the very epitome of terrifying. Yet, we go through the depressing cycle of grief, anger, futile action, and eventually, further terror.  It is also an extremely sensitive topic, especially for the people of France, which makes discussion of terror particularly difficult and measured.

The Supreme Court ruling in the USA that it was unfair to not allow people of the same sex to marry sparked the hashtag LoveWins to reach the top of twitter. But in the face of modern terrorism and its responses, how far is this true?

Right-wing nationalist movements have sprung up across Europe and North America, perhaps most significantly at the moment: The National Front in France. Marie Le Pen came 3^rd in the presidential elections of 2012 and led a huge number of departments in the 2015 election’s first round, before left wingers came out in their droves to support the opposition. The rise of Donald Trump alongside this, as well as UKIP, promotes a distinct anti-outsider rhetoric. Although this may appear to be a new phenomenon of right-wing extremism being cultivated by terrorism (flying in the face of #LoveWins) the matter of fact is that the ‘Others’, the ‘Bad guys’ have always existed in society.

The excellent lecture from Prof Rodney Barker puts this into better perspective, but it can be generally said that governmental demonisation of outsiders unifies the nation. Barker references Lincoln describing the unifying effect the Revolutionary War had, distracting them from the real cultural divisions between the north and south, which led to the civil war. Since the civil war, America has essentially always had an outsider to focus hatred on. The Jim Crow laws intensified the racism in America, increasingly with a colonial mindset as they approached the first world war. Then the red scare set in, which set up American foreign policy with an outsider for 90 years. Between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, there was a period of relative calm, despite the shocking events in Bosnia.

After September 11th and the subsequent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the political enemy had been set. Communism had fallen, and so the War on Terror began. George Bush's Axis of Evil speech was an incredible display of this mentality of the outsider. 

The key difference, though, with terrorism as opposed to any other outsider, is that it grows with the increasing governmental spotlight placed on it. The war in Iraq being a key inducer of terrorism as we know it today. However we cannot apply all of terrorism to governmental actions. Terrorism is an absolute horror, a true evil in the world. What unfolded in Nice was barely short of inhuman.

So how far can love get us in these situations. Surely the logic is to go and destroy whoever is performing and endorsing these sickening acts, but time and time again this approach has failed. We all feel anger and despair in these moments and we think why not go into Syria and turn those bastards to dust? Maybe that would be easier. Equally we have to consider how love factors into this. Terrorists do not feel compassion for those they see as infidels, so should people even entertain a compassionate approach to government? Maybe not. 

But we can all do our best to create an atmosphere of compassion within our own society. This may seem utopian and unachievable, but just being helpful and considerate can go a long way.  Despite this, I'm not sure that without a unifying hatred of an 'Other' society can be properly unified in order to be compassionate, and people within society will be demonised.

Don't listen to me though I'm not the expert! Ask our new Head of Foreign Policy, Boris Johnson.