Sunday, someone commented that they believed the legal behaviors of a minority group were the reason we have terrorism in this country. My acquaintance talked about when group A’s rights were talked about and when Group A’s rights were secured by law is when terrorism started in this country. The connection was spurious if it exists at all.
Let’s be clear, any time you ascribe causation for a major event to a person who is impoverished, has no voice, is physically weak, or young, or powerless you are making an inappropriate role reversal.
Asking a young child to take on the role of a parent, is an inappropriate role reversal. Blaming impoverished immigrants for taking American jobs is an inappropriate role reversal and logically impossible. But they are working in factories, you say. Illegal immigrants work in factories because the person with power hired them in order to avoid paying a livable wage, benefits, and social security taxes. The employers have the power to choose to hire legal immigrants or residents. Corporate American has the power to insist that the government write immigration policies that will allow them to fill their factories with legal workers. They write enough policy about how they will be taxed, how they will dispose of toxins, and how their product will be protected from legal liability issues. The employers have the power. They have the choice. They are the source of the problem, not the guy who wades the Rio Grande and certainly not the woman on a bus with forged papers who thinks she’s taken the proper steps to enter this country.
It is always the person with the most power who is responsible for a problem. It is always the people with the most money who cause social injustice. The rapist is the guilty party in a rape case-not the victim. The child-molester is the guilty party in a child rape case. We just had a case where a middle-aged man accused a four year old child of seducing him – inappropriate role reversal.
Believe me, adolescent boys who masturbate while fantasizing about another male are not the reason we have terrorism. We have terrorism because the power elite has created economic injustice in other parts of the world. We have terrorism because the global power elite has bombed the crap out of the homes of innocent people. We have terrorism because our own power elite allows it, and abets it. We have terrorism because of the direct actions and policies of the powerful.
Those who fall in love with someone with the same reproductive equipment they have, don’t have the power to cause terrorism. The woman who made a bad choice looking for love and is now seeking an abortion doesn’t have the power to create terrorism. Impoverished black boys on their way home from the store don’t have the power to create terrorism. Men who feel better about themselves when dressed like women don’t create terrorism. Only the wealthy and powerful have the power to create terrorism.
The only groups rich enough and powerful enough to hurt others so bad they overcome inertia and strike back are the insanely rich corporate class looking to exploit the weak and steal their resources. The insanely powerful military industrial complex creates terrorism through lies and lobbying in order to sell more bombs, airplanes, and weaponry. If you want to know who creates a problem, look for the person with the power. Look for the person making money off of the problem.
At the end of the day, those who blame the weak, impoverished and vulnerable for the great ills of our time are liars. Never follow the liars for they will turn on you and you will be their next victim.