The theater of evil: masks and guilt
I notice that Dexter Filkins at the New Yorker agrees with me on the first motive I listed for the perpetrators of the Foley and Sotloff beheadings in my PJ piece, which is that the murderers enjoy these killings.
Filkins stops there, though, in his analysis. He remarks that the executioner in the James Foley video is wearing a mask, and adds:
Is it the mark of a warrior? Or is it the mark of a murderer who knows, deep in his soul, that he should be ashamed?
Filkins misses the fact that the answer for these perpetrators is probably “neither.” The key to a better answer is in Filkins’ employment of the word “executioner” to describe Foley’s murderer, a term that Filkins uses minus the scare quotes. The word actually appears twice in his article, once at the beginning and once at the end.
But these killings are actually more akin to an act of theater in which the murderer is dressed as though he were an executioner, an agent of the state who is merely carrying out the lawful decree of the courts against a person who has been judged guilty of a crime. A real executioner (not this pretend one) does not murder, although he kills.
This role-play enacted by the murderer of Foley and Sotloff is a mockery of a true execution. ISIS has not subjected their captives to the rule of law in a state, and it is these fake “executioners” who are the murderers. They are play-acting in an attempt to reverse that reality for the viewers, aping actual executioners by wearing their traditional costume—and, in the process, enhancing the theater by hiding (or at least attempting to hide) their identities and making themselves into the faceless bogymen of a child’s nightmare.
Filkins is thrusting his own morality on them, but they do not share his idea of who is guilty and who innocent. “Deep in their souls” they are unashamed. People with psychopathic tendencies do not share the common definition of shame, and these people are both psychopathic and religious fanatics who believe their cause is sacred.
The muslims have always committed ritual murder and human sacrifice. It’s in the koran. There are warnings in the Old Testament about a moon-demon called Moloch who demands human sacrifice. Isn’t allah the moon god?
its a cargo cult analysis..
same issue with germany last war..
it was easier to demonize those who you think enjoy something rather than just find it pragmatic..
These arguments are inane and silly… and unless you sit them down and discuss them and they are open and admit it, even more silly.
why do you think that they enjoy it, and not that they think you will be distracted by their claiming they do?
the idea is more comforting to YOU than it means anything real… its trying to come to terms with the idea that your neighbors are also capable of such behavior, which they are…
— Brig. Gen. Gordon “Jack” Mohr
as i have mentioned before, the majority of the writing is based on ignorance… but the person writing, thinks they know what is going on in the world, while at the same time complaining about the way the news is and so on… and yet, they do not read any of the information that would round out their analysis
in the absense of knowing that there are troops and “little brother” organizations with the kind of training how else does a person raised in the box of modern civilization come to terms with normal? yes. normal… its the person who sees such things as abnormal that is abnormal!!!
when did they become abnormal? when the romans took masada? russians took beslan? holodomar? tianeman square?
think about it… the abnormal are the people who after 10,000 years of such behavior and worse, think that its abnormal when their existence has been less than 100 years in the modern era!
you who get your meat from the grocery, find butchery something that one has to enjoy to do… maybe in a isolated society in which normal is abnormal, but in a less modern society, such behavior is common… remember, its our society that wants us to stop eating animals and stop hunting, so the modern man believes its normal not to do normal things… like butchering the food you eat..
doing that to another human being after you have spent 30 years fixing your own food from a farm, is not a long leap…
and when i read such things, i read abnormal people normalizoing their abnormality… put them in the time of the founding fathers, and they would starve… or else figure out how to field dress animals.
humans are animals…
such behavior and worse, has been par for the course for normal humans for millinea… its silly to think that because your isolated from the reality, that your isolation is normal and th4eirs is not.
but it does set you up to not be ablt to think clearly
enjoyment has nothig to do with it..
the reason is easy… your made so abnormal that such behavior has an effect on you… if you were not that way, they would not do that as it would not work
see? they dont do it to russians as russians are not abnormal… the socialization of the past years has made most americans unfit for survival in the real world… which means when the fit hits the shan, they cant cope… trained to break down by such things!!!
its real easy to stop…
but your trained to be incapable of the acts needed to stop it…
your a trained victim
and a victim has to conjure up all kinds of things that are false to come to terms with things – espeically if this is to prop up the false idea that the world has changed.
its pretty easy to solve this situation…
take the relatives of the family, and film us cutting their fingers off one digit at a time one knuckle at a time. no one has to enjoy it… it only has to work.
the training these people get, are so that when up against the US personages, and the training they get, they win…
if one thinks of the social training one gets in the US society, and how its conjured from mostly socialist thinkers for goals other than the trained monkey we are… then its just part of a recipe…
i forgot to mention that the article as to what spetznaz did was from 1986
think about what was done to make you think this way? to be a crippled victim of islam… or some other group? the idea that by not doing or ot acting, your somehow morally superior in a world in which morals are not a real thing, but an idea or ideal one pretends to have…
since the opening of our borders, hundreds of such groups are now in the US with the islamics being the front that you pay attention to..
there are tons of actions that we as a ignorant public ignore. and so make the things we often discuss completely meaningless… (but not to us!!!)
I’d wager these cravens have played many, many hours of violent video games in their parent’s basement and have jumped at the chance to slaughter defenseless innocents in real life.
Artfldgr:
I wonder whether you actually read my PJ piece. Enjoyment was just the starting point of the motivations and goals for the perps. Sadists and psychopathic personalities are very useful in such movements and always have been. That doe not mean that ail members are sadists. Nor does it mean that sadism is the sole motive or the most important one for these murders. Nevertheless it. Is often one of the motives
I make that clear in my PJ article.
The Thin Red Line
Inside the White House debate over Syria.
By Dexter Filkins
now… if one knows the history of modern conflict, terror of the persons involved is a major point of it.
and terror is ALWAYS chosen based on the targets ideas of such, and not anything else. what would terrorize a US citizen, would not do the same to others.
the Horrors of the gas chambers were invented by a british author who was quoted as saying we should all stand before a council every 5 years and justify our existence…
George Bernard Shaw
A founding fabian…
You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you can’t justify your existence, if you’re not pulling your weight in the social boat, if you’re not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we cannot use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself
he thought that this cleansing shouold be done with gas chambers “Shaw also called for the development of a “deadly” but “humane” gas for the purpose of killing, many at a time, those unfit to live”
but think about what has been normalized in your existence… you feel beheadings are an old way of doing things… by what measure? you think that murdering a baby and having it sucked out by a vaccume hose is just fine… even if its old enough to live on its own when put in a closet to die slowly…
which is more humane?
and what of the doctors who write papers in which all oer them are the missives that the state must intervene in this childs life, or that childs life… and how they forget that that was joseph mengele’s same job
or how, you read at the fact that a nine year old is too young to use a gun (specifically an Uzi), but forget that David Farragut was in the military at 9, and recieved his first naval commission as an officer of a ship at 12..
who is right?
modern people are normalized to being helpless.
to seeing the normal and being paralized by it
[and to often come up with inane unreal fixes that dont fix anything]
[edited for length by n-n]
arrrrgh…
better that i make up stuff
its shorter than reality
Art it’s best that you’re never interrogated…
“Too much … data…!”
%%%
As devious as Moscow has proved to be…
Even Central can’t hatch up all of the perverse evil that slouches towards Damascus.
&&&
We’d best regard Islamism as ebola for the soul.
Once cut loose, it becomes pandemic.
&&&
Speaking of which, the ‘ebola princes’ have yet to figure out that it’s too late for West Africa.
They cry out that quarantine must not be — even though, due to weather and custom, no-one at the scene is using the provisioned isolation suits correctly.
To wear such a garment, with the hood open and the front unzipped, is to make merely a fashion statement.
Due to the local climate, none of the isolation suits is tolerable. They’d have to have an astronaut style air conditioning attachment for them to have viability.
For those too young to remember: the earliest astronauts immediately discovered that the high altitude ‘space suits’ they were compelled to wear were totally insufferable in Cape Canaveral weather. So NASA had portable air conditioners manufactured — at terrific expense — so that the boys could stay in their suits in the hours before a launch.
West Africa has even hotter, wetter, weather than the cape.
Consequently, we actually don’t have ANY isolation gear suitable for the epidemic.
***
Given the above situation, then the ONLY course of action is to quarantine West Africa — and ultimately the whole continent — until ebola infection collapses due to natural events — leaving lucky survivors.
We actually don’t have any technical means to deal with it.
The production of vaccine is entirely behind the demand curve.
That’s the real status of the ebola epidemic.
Should bleeding hearts permit the quarantine to be violated, the ebola pandemic will run — planet wide — increasing the death toll into the billions.
It’s bad enough that ebola is running unchecked in rural Africa. Should it leap to India or China it would blow through all major cities like the Black Death.
And there’s nothing so special about the First World, either.
Ebola could rocket through London, Tokyo and New York like lightning.
The latest reports indicate that ebola has mutated — and that this ebola outbreak is the worst ever known.
The thing about exponentials is that they make the small, huge — in awfully short order.
Right now the medical community, the medical culture, is making the EXACT same mistakes as it did in the 14th Century.
It’s significant that doctors — with all of their gear — are constantly being infected — and there can’t really be that many of them in a position to be infected.
That’s an indication as to how totally unequipped we really are to deal with ebola.
It’s the height of arrogance to think we can handle it.
The latest reports indicate that ebola has mutated – and that this ebola outbreak is the worst ever known.
Maybe it’s nature’s idea of a wake up call, since she doesn’t like us conserving resources compared to expanding to other planets.
Add in zombies being produced by mutations of virus or other plagues, and it’ll get real interesting.
Didn’t read your PJ piece, neo-neocon, but regarding your post:
Expropriating the trappings of the legitimate state isn’t new. That was the MO of the Soviet show trials.
er, Appropriating?
Liked the article, and you are right on the mark. The bottom line is this is a matter of which will survive, the west or islam. We need a Churchill not a community organizer.
I don’t know why you believe that an executioner needs to be an agent of some state and that, therefore, these ISIS executioners are just role-playing and engaging in theatre.
It could be that, from their POV, jihad provides them with the legal and moral sanction to do what they do.
Part of my disagreement is also due to the near-automatic “filtering” that occurs when you designate something as role-playing, i.e., play acting. These people are not “playing” at anything. Which isn’t to say that they aren’t well-versed in the art of terror propaganda.
“People with psychopathic tendencies do not share the common definition of shame, and these people are both psychopathic and religious fanatics who believe their cause is sacred.”
It is interesting that no one is considering the Darwinian angle to all this. Because humans are social animals the human struggle for survival takes place within culture and through competition between cultures. If Evolution is really a law of nature, and it is, then its primary application is to the present. The law can be used to study the past but it is not a law unless it is also active now. The struggle for survival among humans is ongoing and we are evolving rapidly.
The left loves to accuse those who oppose Islam of “racism” while the right responds that Islam is not a race but rather an ideology or religion. Technically the right is right but the left might also be right. Perhaps Islam is a race as well as a religion.
Through slavery and polygamy, Islam favors the rapid reproduction of the most violent dominant males. Since philosophy died in Islam with al-Ghazali about 900 years ago there is no room in Islam for thinkers. Islam does select for ardently religious individuals who are willing to pray several times a day. Probably the sociopathic behavior manifested in ISIS is also more common in Islamic countries. That tendency to sociopathy could explain why the Hamas’ approval ratings have gone up even though they openly used women and children as human shields and started a war which seriously degraded the living standards of Gazans. It also explains why killing Jews is more important that establishing a decent society in Gaza. Over the last 1500 years Muslim societies have gradually change the genetically makeup of their populations through these selective pressures.
Islam could be compared to hives of killer bees. They are almost indistinguishable from regular honey bees but they carry genetic tendencies which make them much more aggressive and give them a reproductive advantage. In many ways, Islam is like the killer bees. Although Islamic societies are violent and misogynistic their aggressiveness and sociopathy are very effective at population expansion and infiltration into new territory at the expense of other peoples.
“…these people are both psychopathic and religious fanatics who believe their cause is sacred.”
No wonder the lefties go out of their way to make excuses for islamists. They are peas in a pod.
Agree they enjoy it and more so when westerners plead for mercy and tell them how they have come to respect and understand Islam, “a religion of peace”. They probably replay the parts where individuals begging for mercy attempt to engage them in a logical discussion, arguing that that putting innocent people to death is not according to Islam.
Only in America would such idiocy flourish. It takes a liberal mentality to assume that the people who have abducted your loved one are ignorant of the Quran, or care what you, a non-Muslim, thinks it means. The arrogance of it only confirms what these barbarians believe – that Americans are all stupid and arrogant.
Sorry if this is rubbing salt in the wounds of the families, but they need to stop and think. Subjugating yourself before these animals is exactly the the thing they look for, and they get it in spades whenever they pull off one of these atrocities.
Would I ask to spare my child’s life? Of course. Would I try to argue it was against their belief system, or tell them I understood their plight, or identify with them? Never. Screw them and their ideology. They live to exploit the willingness of American citizens who will say, or pay, or compromise anything to save a life. It reinforces their sense of superiority and serves to divide us amongst ourselves, and from our principles and government.
A few heads is priceless to them in recruiting fanatics and proving to their followers how we can be manipulated because we don’t hold any principles sacred.
Maybe we don’t anymore. The fact that there’s a debate about what to do about this bunch leads me to believe we’re ok with all sorts of atrocities as long as we’re not personally affected. Hardly a principled people who stand for liberty.
I can’t watch the endless debates anymore, that’s all our “leaders” do and what the media encourage. Academic debates about simple, straightforward concepts like murder, right and wrong. The selfish indifference of many, and the desire to seek justification by people on the Left and Right to do nothing about the most hideous acts of violence is what’s killing us. I think we’ve all lost our way.
“ISIS has not subjected their captives to the rule of law in a state”
Not true, not true at sll. THE ISLAMIC sTATE CALLS ITSELF THAT AND ACTS LIKE A STATE. A typical courtroom argument is whether it looks and acts like a State–YES. But it has not yet received diplomatic recognition as a state, so No, not a state.
Are we children? Do enough of us have enough warrior left in us to shrug off these female legalistic pompositiies?
Don Carlos:
I have no idea what is female about the law or what I wrote in this post, or childish either.
Be that as it may, you are misreading the sentence that you yourself quoted. Of course ISIS calls itself a state. But whether it actually is or isn’t a state is not the point I was making (I would say it isn’t a state, though, because it has none of the usual trappings of a state, despite what it may call itself). Note, however, that what I wrote was [emphasis mine] “the rule of law in a state.”
These are terrorists who kidnapped the people they are killing. This has nothing to do with the rule of law in any state, even ones with laws with which we disagree (such as certain elements of sharia law, for example). Therefore the word “executioners” is completely inappropriate, and journalists such as Filkins should not use it because it confers on ISIS a status (state) and process (rule of law) they do not deserve and have not demonstrated. In other words, Filkins is buying into their propaganda and giving them a dignity and status they absolutely do not deserve, and he is therefore helping to perpetuate their propaganda to a certain extent.
Irene:
Why do I say the term “executioner” needs to be an agent of some state? Because that is the definition of the word “executioner.” It is not my personal definition; it is what the word means.
And play-acting or role-playing as a propaganda message when you are actually executing someone is not “just” role-playing, as you say. It gives off a deadly (literally) serious message.
You write:
“It could be that, from their POV, jihad provides them with the legal and moral sanction to do what they do.”
My response is that of course that could be. But who cares about their point of view? Filkins shouldn’t be using the word “executioner” just because that’s the way they define themselves. If they called themselves heroes, or saints, would we refer to them that way? Why buy into their propaganda and perpetuate it, which is what Filkins is doing in his article?
“Executioner” implies that Foley and Sotloff were guilty of something and the executioner wasn’t, because executioners execute people who have been judged guilty by a court of law. Otherwise, we’re talking about murderers, which is what the person who killed them is. Why dignify these killers with the term “executioners” and give them a status they do not deserve?
F#@£ them and the camel or goat they road in on; IS, Al Qaeda, Ryhad, Tehran, Jakarta, and all the rest. These 6th century barbarians could not in a billion years discover oil under their feet, much less penicillin or electricity based upon their own twisted fear of the vagina culture. Anything that bho imagines islam has contributed was stolen from Greece or India. I repeat f#@£ and the camel/ goat they rode in on has contributed to the 21st century tech they hijack? Absolutely nothing!
Blockade, starve them out, massacre any who attempt to flee. My give a damn is busted.
There is writing on the wall:
×ž× ×, ×ž× ×, תקל, ופרסין
ISIS is essentially conducting human sacrifices. The practice is an old one in the region, and long predates either Christianity or Islam.
We are, in security terms, exactly where we were on September 10th, 2001. At that that time, the enemy held territory from which he could plan and organize attacks, and where he could train his killers. But there is more to it than that.
Before 9-11, we had an unwritten policy. A bargain with the terrorists which was never spoken of aloud. De facto policy was that the jihadists could commit any outrage so long as they did not commit it here and force us to take official notice. Planes were hijacked, and passengers were murdered. Hostages were kept chained and blindfolded for months and years o end. Embassies and barracks were blasted to the ground. Ships were nearly blown out of the water. Nothing was done. It could all be ignored because it was not happening here.
But Bin Laden did not recognize this limit. he did not accept this implicit bargain. The fact that we tolerated murder and terror overseas was simply evidence that those same crimes could be carried out here with impunity. The strong horse could do what it wished, and the weak horse would suffer what it must. Now we are waiting for ISIS to use it’s new territorial base and its new sources of funding to organize attacks here. We may not have long to wait. Bin Laden did not believe that the American homeland was off limits. Neither does ISIS.
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:”
Isaiah 28:15
neo…
Any despot that can control turf, raise his flag, sustain an army, and has economic sustenance for his people is a nation as far as I’m concerned.
It’s not necessary to attain Westphalian norms of sovereignty, as I see it.
It is also, rather apparent that these horrors have at least quasi-official sanction. Look at their media distribution.
As for the head-sack: it has not conferred anonymity. Fleet Street is running large with details about the perp including quite a bio.
The boy was born into wealth — and high living.
He’s chosen neo-barbarism. It’s been a life-long ‘thing’ for him. His London footprint is HUGE.
He couldn’t be more exposed if he up-linked to the iCloud server farm.
ISIS is essentially conducting human sacrifices. The practice is an old one in the region, and long predates either Christianity or Islam.
Now you’re blaming the ancients. On top of blaming the wrong team for the tactics you don’t like seeing, now it’s people you’ve never met. What else is coming up?
“…and we tortured some folks…” ..Recent Quote of Barack the Pretender..
Sound a tad Tepid?? Answer: MORE “Rendition” ASAP. Then put the recipients in the ground with General Pershing’s very useful and meaningful message of Pigs Blood and entrails.
Insensitive, Your Infantile Majesty? They ain’t “folks”. They are human sewage. Butchers.
parker, whats your beef with Jakarta? while indonesia is muslim, its also bhuddist, christian, and others…
in fact, they kind of dislike the fundementalists of Aceh, which wants to break away so as to be free to make laws… and in case you didnt read, they killed the bali bombers as punishment for the bali bombing
so whats your beef with jakarta?
note, that i am christian and walked around indonesia with a cross on… my wife is catholic, my father in law bhuddist, and we have some muslims as well i the familly.. nice silk scarves for our wedding.
while the muslim women wear scarves, there is no one forcing others to. my wife likes short shorts and skirts and shows her arms and all that and no one gave us any lip… and it wasnt because i am 6’2″ and 230… (a giant by indonesian standards).
in fact, you could always tell the extremists were from the arab states as those were the ones wearing the complete coverings of various forms and names. (not to mention they were also made of some of the finest material you may ever see)
so whats the beef? indonesia is a democratic republic that avoided being taken over by russia and china as a communist state. you can see mosques next to churches (in fact one area there is one of each on a single property), and see animists putting out their offerings and bhuddists with their incense and oranges as well.
in fact… if one were to give obama a bit of slack (which i tend not to), one would realize that his view of islam is not from the arab nations but from the more moderate and less militant indonesians.
i was there… the club last i saw was still closed, and a wall put up in the doorway making it a memorial to the people who were lost. Kuta beach being where female pedophiles from the west like to go to pretend they are “men”.
if you check it out, the people who do bombings who come to an arab state tend to get rewards, pensions, accolades, etc… they dont get sentened to death
the more you talk the more you remind me of my friends militant 14 year old…
I wouldn’t read too much into the mask. He could be wearing it for the same reason robbers wear masks — to make identification more difficult. Probably he wants to return to the West at some point. Wearing a mask here makes it easier.
This article is part of the reason I keep reading here. It isn’t eloquence of word, though sometimes you have some serious mojo that way. It’s the parsing. You do it well, even when I don’t agree. The eloquence, really, is in your thinking. As to agreeing, I think I read here as much to disagree as to agree. In this case, I tend to think you have it.
Now, I do think the notions have been simplified, just not by you. You are working with what you are given. And, frankly, that isn’t much. Beggars, choosers, and with the available news sources…, ‘nough about that. You did well.
Then put the recipients in the ground with General Pershing’s very useful and meaningful message of Pigs Blood and entrails.
Why don’t you go out and do that then, NC Soft. What are you afraid of?
The forces responsible for Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal will conduct major exercises this month involving more than 4,000 soldiers, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, in the latest sign of rising tension with NATO over the Ukraine crisis.
Supersonic MiG-31 fighter-interceptors and Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft would take part, Andreyev said, saying the scale of air power involved was unprecedented for exercises of this kind.
russia has a first strike military doctrine, which they say they are going to update later this year…
@ Ymarsakar
“Now you’re blaming the ancients. On top of blaming the wrong team for the tactics you don’t like seeing, now it’s people you’ve never met. What else is coming up?”
I am not blaming anyone, other than the fiends doing the killing. I merely point out that the practice of human sacrifice is an ancient one, which has now resurfaced in our times in a new and revolting form. I suppose that Abraham, or Moses, or Isaiah would have been astonished at the notion of videos of a human sacrifice being put on the internet, but not at the practice itself. Truly there is nothing new under heaven, at least not where human nature and human evil is concerned.
Rachelle:
As I already said, that’s one of the reasons he wears the mask—to hide his identity.
But the mask has other symbolic reasons. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.
blert:
That’s why I wrote “or at least attempting to hide.” I don’t actually think it was much of an attempt; I think he knew he’d be found out, but he was making it a little harder. I think the real motive was the bogeyman reason, plus the symbolism of the executioner.
And I already explained in several comments above why the “state or not state” argument is not the point. It’s whose definition we use, but much more importantly the “rule of law” part. There is no reason to give ISIS more credibility and dignity than they deserve.
That’s a good explanation, Bell. Although whether I agree or disagree is a side issue.
What is important is being direct and upfront about it.
Hell, I’m still trying to figure out a good name for them.
Heard Bill Bennett this morning calling them “Beheaders”.
Not bad, but not derisive enough…..
Bell, you’ve been given a stern and patronizing finger wag by the Pomposity of Putzim. PoP.
NCS, I think judging from several recent threads, that you’ve picked up a tiny stalker. PoP.
artflgdr,
No particular beef with Indonesia, just a preference that Iowa, Indiana, and Idaho survive. The next target of the jihad loons is Indonesia with the largest muslim population on the planet. A tremendous pool for recruitment.
Whatever people think they are getting from me, is only their own intention towards the rest of humanity, magnified back a bit from me, the mirror.
What’s funny to me is that they think I’m the cause or the source of the emotion. All they have ever gotten was their own intention towards the world, reflected back on them. Yet they dislike it so much and find it so unfair and scary.
People’s personal weaknesses and demons are like that. Something they can never ever face directly. Just as they cannot face me directly for fear of seeing themselves in the mirror.
Range…Rent Free Space twixt the jug ears.
Reminds one of Obamster’s photo op today at Stonehenge. Yep, with a good part of the globe on fire, His Infantile Majesty made surte his jacky was off and it was time to blather about his ‘Bucket List’. Cannot—Simply CANNOT—make this s*** up!!