By Stanley Tiger
SAN DIEGO — It took just one “yold” driving a truck with a bomb into a crowd to do atrocious things, as happened last week in Nice, France. (Note: The word “yold” is specifically chosen since it is a Yiddish derogatory term loosely translated as “jerk.” (If I have hurt the “yold’s” feelings, well then, sorry. Not.)
Terrorism is nothing more than a form of vandalism. It is the most horrific form of vandalism that the depraved mind can imagine and then carry out. It is incredibly efficient, since either one or a mere handful of sickly souls can perform these acts. For a relatively small amount of money and effort, havoc is wreaked by the forces promulgating the terrorism, resulting in bona fide acts of war – whether acknowledged or not by the European or American powers-that-be.
Besides the relatively inexpensive cost of these acts of war, the windfall profits are enormous! They require no armies, no uniforms, no Geneva conventions, no adherence to the laws of civilized man. They represent incredible bang for the buck – both figuratively and literally.
The yield is fear – a fear that has become so pervasive in our Western societies that it has changed our way of life (think TSA, bag inspection at public events, etc.). Fear is a most powerful ally of the invading force – after all, the exponents of “the religion of peace” themselves boldly declare, “terrorism works!” And its effects are compounded even more in a society that is afraid to identify its sources which are the misguided political ideologies masquerading as a religion/ a religion enmeshed with political agendas. (Truly, the “religion of peace” is in dire need of a serious reformation before it can even remotely resemble a religion of peace.)
Historically, the Middle East has a long history of performing acts which violate respect for the sanctity of human life. A formerly prominent ancient god of the Biblical era, “Baal,” required child sacrifice, which was so dutifully performed by the peoples of the region. Judaism is, in many ways, a reaction to the vile culture of these primitive practices. Just before Abraham was about to commit an act of human sacrifice on his son, Isaac, he was stopped by higher forces. Forces which eventually became canonized forming the religion that definitively abolished human sacrifice – Judaism.
Tragically, human sacrifice is still being practiced today in front of our eyes. We see it on the news, even on YouTube proudly broadcast by the warring forces still centered today in the Middle East. These terror masters are bringing hell on earth to Europe and the U.S.A. – and at bargain rates, with the complicity of naïve government policies. For the mere cost of infecting the minds of a few so-called “lone wolves,” the Middle Eastern throw-backs wage their wars and sow widespread fear by convincing their misguided useful zombies planted in the West which they operate by remote control.
The power of fear as an instrument of war is enormous! In his historical novel, Mila 18, on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, author Leon Uris describes a German official who understands that; “The intelligent application of fear could win the battle of a hundred armies.” Many a battle has been won by much smaller armies whose generals knew how to leverage this powerful, yet intangible weapon.
In ancient Tibet, it was a custom to create the most frightening and hideous demonic masks as part of their religious customs. (These can be easily seen on Google images, search phrase, “Tibetan masks.”) The Tibetans were truly peaceful people (perhaps too peaceful, their culture survives in a diaspora). But their intentionally frightening masks had a purpose which was to teach people the psychological lesson that the fear triggered by these masks was in their minds. They also offered a solution to the many forms of fear that haunts the human condition – and that was by the practice of Buddhist virtues, none of which included mass murder.
Judaism presents fear from another angle. The well-known proverb states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” These words were written after the Jews had received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The sacred laws include a simple injunction against murder. Life is such a precious gift in our tradition and the abhorrence of the wanton destruction of human life is a crucial part of the beginning of wisdom. The proverb also shows how the Jews employ the use of fear in a similar manner to the Far Easterners, using it for the edification of humanity and not for its defeat.
if there is any “fear of the Lord” in the hearts of the deranged bombers, it is eclipsed by a culture of obsessive hatred inculcated into the young and the gullible which obliterates any thoughts of a global lovingkindness for humanity.
It is also sadly fascinating to see how our present governments are so eager to have our Western nations buy into that pseudo-psychiatric term, “Islamophobia,” using the fear of the smear – attaching degrading labels to individuals who dare to see through the hoax. Thus the perpetrators of terror reap an additional dividend by thwarting the fear of something legitimately fearful. That dividend is confusion and silence in the face of this real and stealthy war of civilizations.
At this rate and with these logic-defying ideas, the West is slowly losing the battle. It is said that a person can be stupid until they need to get smart. Similarly, a nation can be stupid until it needs to get smart. How much more weaponized fear must we make excuses for and write off until we get smart?
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Stanley Tiger is president of Jewish Universe Media, an educational 501(c)(3). He is currently writing a book on the interaction of Judaism and modern science.