Stimuli

The BBC reports on what is becoming all-too-familiar barbarism by Islamist terrorists:

The Pakistani city of Peshawar is burying its dead after a Taliban attack at a school killed at least 132 children and nine staff.

New images from the school show the brutality of the attack, with pools of blood on the ground and walls covered in pockmarks from hundreds of bullets.

Mass funerals and prayer vigils for the victims are currently under way.

Gunmen had walked from class to class shooting students in the Pakistani Taliban's deadliest attack to date.

What is truly fascinating about this horrific event is the manner in which it it being reported in the West. The details are provided to the public, the appropriate politicians cluck their tongues expressing outrage that "militants" or "extremists" have done such a horrific thing, and even in the reportage, there a subtle tone that implies this is nothing new, that it will happen again, and again, increasing in ferocity, in barbarism, in brutality.

But back to the MSM description. In almost every instance, there's no adjective used before the nouns, "militants" or "extremists." No attempt to tie the barbarians to a specific religion, ideology, or mind set. It's almost as if some in the West are afraid to face the actual problem—that a major religion has spawned a virulent subclass, and that the subclass is growing, becoming increasingly more violent, more demanding, more desperate for attention. In the west, we cling to the notion of a "lone wolf" Islamist (think Sydney as the latest in dozens of other instances), as if that somehow absolves the broader virulent subclass and the mainstream ideology from which it has been spawned from responsibility.

It's long past the time when Western leaders should use the appropriate adjectives and "have a conversation" (to use a phrase much beloved by progressives) with mainstream Islam on what can be done by it to eradicate its virulent strain.

Richard Fernandez comments:

Numerous readers in newspaper articles describing the Peshawar massacre have asked whether there is some depth to which human depravity will not go; some irreducible floor beyond which we cannot fall. The answer is probably “no”. Depravity will keep going as far as it will go. Terrorism, like all perversions, needs stronger and stronger stimuli to achieve the same result. The door to hell is self-sealing. The damned vie with each other to burrow deeper into it.

Who cares about mere beheadings any more? That’s so yesterday. The Taliban spoke the truth. The Peshawar massacre is just a trailer. The theatrical release will be much bigger, with an all-star cast and full of special effects with lots and lots of extras. Western politicians have pushed the risk out of sight. But not out of existence.

Indeed, it does seem that the Islamist barbarians—the Nazis of the 21st century—need "stronger and stronger stimuli to achieve the same" terrorist results. I suspect, sadly, that at some point we'll need to adopt stronger and stronger counter-stimuli to battle them—particularly if mainstream Islam won't do the job that is its responsibility.