Friday 6 January 2017

Man's Inhumanity



It never ceases to amaze me how so many people can sink so low in their actions against fellow human beings. You would have thought that humanity would have learned a lesson when the scale of the Holocaust was uncovered and made public at the end of the Second World War.

Yet it didn't end there. Stalin's purges continued in his new colonies of Eastern Europe. Chairman Mao did his best to emulate and exceed his mentor in China and North Korea became one giant prison camp, Cambodia a death camp.

Even with the fall of communism the world continues in a spiral of hate and murder. Genocide in Rwanda and even in Europe once again as Yugoslavia fell apart.

Despite the fall of the "red menace", history has far from "ended" as Francis Fukuyama once proclaimed. The world has spawned a new menace. Religious fundamentalism in the form of a death cult around Islam as seen in al-Qaeda and in particular ISIS.

Mass torture, rape and murder. Genocide, proclaimed in the name of some non-existent entity.

Many of the participants originate from what is normally seen as the more tolerant and advanced Western nations. What propels men and women to go to another country and commit such unspeakable crimes? Is it just "Islam"?

Religious fanaticism is only part of the cause, albeit a major component.

There is also something else.

A basic evil that still lurks in the hearts of men.

Everybody has had bad thoughts for want of a better phrase during their lives. The difference is that most people do not act on these baser impulses. There are however those who simply let the inner beast come to the fore.

A prime example of this was seen on Facebook as four youths, young black men and women in this case acted out their violent tendencies on a young eighteen year old man, live for the world to see. There are indications the may have been a hate crime as racial abuse was clearly heard, but it has also been suggested one had a hate-on for his disabled classmate.

Either way these dangerous individuals need taking out of society. This wasn't their only crime. Other charges for stolen cars and burglary have been added to the assault and kidnapping rapsheet.

There can be no excuses for such barbaric behaviour. Crime is wrong regardless of colour, class or religion. None of these factors can be used as an excuse.

Sometimes people are just plain evil.

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