Terror

 Idelber Avelar’s The Letter of Violence: Essays on Narrative, Ethics, and Politics is a brillian little book gifted to me over 16 years ago by the author. Avelar traces how violence was pervasive tool in western ideologies including its presence ffrom Greek “democracy” to the catholic church structures in the Middle Ages to the modern usage of this by states like the USA and Israel. One chapter from my book on “Sharing the Land of Canaan” Violence and terrorism written soon after the events of 11 Sept 2001 addresses some of those issues http://qumsiyeh.org/chapter8/

But much more needs to be written on this subject. I remain haunted by such horrors like the killing of 67 children in Gaza in May 2021 or by the murders and butchery witnessed in Nanking (Nanjing) in 1937 or by the hundreds of other atrocities committed in our history of misnamed "civilization". Such images should give us pause to think about this species of ours optimistically named by Linnaeus as Homo sapiens. The methods of murder may change (from swords and bayonets to F-35s) but we must face the fact that the story of our species is that horrors repeat and only the actions of few people advance peace and justice. What is to be done to stop it? Your thoughts please in the comments section below