Wednesday, October 25, 2006

HuffPo: Terrorism caused by Capitalism

The author, Philip Slater, has an StpD (A Doctorate in Speaking Truth to Power):
The people who do most to foment terrorism are not the fundamentalist imams and ayatollahs, who only exploit the hopelessness around them. The people who do the most are those who create that hopelessness in the first place--the oil monarchies, for example.

For of all capitalist enterprises, the extractive industries are probably the most deserving of the abuse heaped on them over the years.
Dentistry, for instance.
The possessors of the earth's treasures believe, apparently, that the luck, wealth, or political corruption that allowed them to own land containing such riches is a sign of divine favor, while the poverty of those around them indicates celestial disgust.

Terrorists are people who have lost hope--hope for the possibility of peacefully creating a better world. They may be middle-class and educated, as many terrorist leaders are, but their despair is one of empathy for the plight of their people as a whole.
I had no idea terrorism was so noble and lofty!

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