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| Georgina Callander (18) who was murdered last night. Seen here with her pop heroine - Ariana Grande |
To devise a jerkin made from explosives and nuts and bolts with a detonator. To walk into the entrance lobby of a concert arena. To see the excited young concertgoers descending the staircase on their way home. To make the electrical connection that would activate the deadly suicide jerkin. To do all this.
What is the point of it? What can it possibly achieve? What does it say about the perpetrator's view of human life, of the world, of other people? Why did he fail to see the obvious truth that such actions are wicked and unforgivable? Why could he not see that if there was such a thing as an all-seeing God, he would massively disapprove of any such evil.
Until last night I had never even heard of Ariana Grande. She is an act that had completely passed me by. This morning I looked at the lyrics of her songs, perhaps hoping to find a line or a verse that would somehow accidentally or prophetically reflect upon what happened in Manchester last night. Saying something of significance. But all I could find were the usual pop song themes of love lost, love enjoyed or love desired. Innocent shallow stuff. The sort of music that your average fun-seeking teenage girl seems to like.
In a sense that makes the bombing seem all the more cruel. More vile. This wasn't a pre-election political rally. It wasn't even a concert aimed at adults. It was aimed at young teenyboppers. Kids.
You don't need to worry about making me crazy
Cause I'm way past that
And so just call me, if you want me
Cause you got me, and I'll show you how much I want to be
On your Tattooed Heart
Why?
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| R.I.P. Saffie Roussos aged 8. |
It beggars belief but the reality is that there is no why. ISIS or whatever you want to call them has no short or long-term objective other than the medieval belief that anyone not of their faith is a target, be they men, women or children.
ReplyDeleteI fear you have answered my question in a nutshell Ian.
DeleteIncomprehensible and, sadly, there is unlikely to ever be an end to this kind of terror.
ReplyDeleteThis is a different kind of enemy who doesn't play by the usual rules.
DeleteWhy, indeed. I can't imagine the thought process that leads to an act like this.
ReplyDeleteKnowing what you are about to do. Knowing what will happen. Knowing deep inside that these people are innocent... and yet you still go ahead and do it anyway. I can't imagine either Steve.
DeleteThere is no reason, nor reasoning with people like this. I am so sad today.
ReplyDeleteThe sadness is overwhelming today.
DeleteIt's so awful. I don't even have words for something so horrible. It's sickening.
ReplyDelete"I have no words". I believe that is what Ariana Grande said too.
DeleteTO answer your question.... because they are nutters who believe they are doing Mohammed's will. They are not,of course, and most respectable Muslims would disagree with these nutters, just as most Catholics did not side with the IRA. It seems there will always be nutters who misinterpret their religion or outlook on life to suit their own depraved beliefs.
ReplyDeleteThe fanatic murderers are never thinkers, men who have considered all the angles and through intellectual struggle have arrived at their awful conclusion. Mostly they are dimwits and nobodies.
DeleteI think the basic problem is men who feel inadequate. Young men might think that their moment of self-professed bravery is a way to gain power - the power of life and death. I doubt the actual cause (religious or political) motivates them as much as their own inadequacies. Interestingly, I see the same behavior in old, rich men. At a time when they should be enjoying the fruits of their labor, some are looking for ways to assert their power over everyone else, and disrupt other people's lives. Their money ultimately gets them no further than a terrorist's acts; they end up dead in the long run and no one cares they're gone. It's the innocent victims that people mourn.
ReplyDeleteYou are right Jan. Who will mourn the murderer?
DeleteSuch a horrific tragedy.
ReplyDeleteHow can you reason with a fanatic? I hope his eternal paradise is a never-ending hell.
That is what he deserves.
DeleteI think several commenters have pretty much nailed it, plus, I would suggest, there is a lack of other purpose in the terrorists' lives. People who have learned to contribute to society do not go around blowing up other people. The deliberateness of the act is incomprehensible to most people.
ReplyDeleteThe loser who did it clearly had nothing to look forward to - wasting his pathetic life for nothing, nothing at all.
DeleteThe future is looking very grim with these random horrors. There doesn't seem to be a solution.
ReplyDeleteSadly, tragically, awfully I suspect that we shall live with this terror for the rest of our lives Helen.
DeleteWhen I was watching the news last night, it had not yet happened. This morning, I noticed "Manchester" appearing in the headlines of several posts on my dashboard here on blogger, and wondered what had happened. A quick check of internet news sites told me.
ReplyDeleteTonight, almost half of the entire time of our main news on telly ("Tagesschau") here was about Manchester.
I keep thinking that my nieces Emily and Lucy, both in their mid-teens, would have probably loved going to the concert if they did not live in Derbyshire and were very busy with school and work and a million other things.
I didn't realise you had nieces in Derbyshire Meike. It is nice that you immediately thought of them.
DeleteTrump is a twat but he described the terrorists well....not monsters ( they want to be known as monsters) but loosers
ReplyDeleteI agree. The perpetrator was an utter loser. Why throw your life away like that? For what>? For what? Such an ignorant and cruel loser.
DeleteAnother despicable act by a despicable, worthless, low-life coward....I could go on, but I won't. I will refrain.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep what else I want to say - what I am thinking, feeling; what I am saying here between my own four walls - to myself...
Those four walls may burst with your anger and your grief Lee.
DeleteLoosers, yes. There are no winners in any kind of war. I just heard on the radio of the first crusades in 1099, downright horrible that was!
ReplyDeleteWe loose a lot in that fine thing of being human, when being human is the very thing that means nothing to us. YP, I don't think there is any answer to the Why, more than the fact that Good ( God ) has an enemy. We can't fight evil by hating the evil doers, thinking evil will be gone once we have found every evil person and crushed them... A young man alien to any kind of human emotions blowing himself and other young lives up, have no goal or purpose. Woe to him when he discovers the truth, love, care and comfort between people of all kinds, is forever lost to him. To be a looser was his choice, unknowing perhaps. Those children and teens had no choice and no saying, neither did their parents. Oh we can burst with anger, and cry for those lost in attacks all over , we must or else we will crack. But the only way out is to use what the attackers seem to lack: love for the next person, whoever that may be. Love works wider, deeper and faster, makes stronger and braver, mends and gives comfort and asks not for rewards or power. The people of Manchester have given proof of that love .
If this nutter had even one brain cell, there's even a chance that he chose Ariana Grande's concert on purpose. An independent young fun-filled girl, telling other girls they too can be free and independent and do their own thing rather than following traditional role models .. just the kind of thing that these nutters with their twisted minds have been told their "God" wants to see wiped out.
ReplyDeleteAriana is one of our daughter's faves. I can't help thinking those poor kids who died would be just like her.