Have We Become Numb to Terrorism?

It seems like terrorism happens too often for us to keep up with it anymore. It's actually really sad.

On Monday, May 22nd, after I had arrived home from a busy day at my internship, I got a notification on my phone that really worried me. Now, I can't remember a day within these past few months that a news notification didn't worry the crap out of me, but this one was concerning. Of course, my mind went straight to "Oh no, this is another terrorist attack", but I wanted to tell myself that it wasn't the case. I wanted to believe that ISIS wasn't able to pull off yet another devastating attack that took the lives of innocent people. I wanted to believe that everybody was going to be okay and that maybe the article was a piece of "fake news" or the explosion was actually something else. I should've stuck with my first instinct.

As more information started leaking out, I was saddened to hear that 22 people had died and 59 people had been injured in some way (as of Friday, May 26th). I was relieved to hear that Ariana Grande herself was safe, but then I realized the demographic that her music appeals most to: younger girls. The majority of the victims had been young girls who just wanted to have fun at a concert. For many of them, it was probably their first experience at a concert. Even those young ones who survived the attack without a scratch will probably have nightmares for months after experiencing the chaos that happened that day.

But what surprised me even more was not what happened, but what didn't happen. Usually, after any large world event, good or bad, I would see a lot of activity on my Facebook feed regarding the event. Now, I did see a lot of action on Twitter, but I had to seek out the correct hashtags and keywords to see it. My Facebook friends or the people that I follow on Twitter (not including news accounts) did not seem to care about what had taken place. There was basically utter silence. It was shocking. But then I thought: have we become so used to terrorist attacks and the normal cycle of events that we just don't care anymore? Have we become numb to terrorism?

The media used to spend a lot of time on these events when they first began to happen. When the Virginia Tech massacre happened, it was the top story for weeks on end. But now, especially within the past year or so, the coverage of these events disappears within the next day or so, even in instances where massive attacks occur. It seems like the media, along with the people, have gotten used to the cycle so much that they feel that they don't need to cover it as much anymore.

Here's that inevitable series of events that I'm talking about. Obviously it starts with the event itself occurring and it is followed with the fast leaking of new information, including the number of victims and the finding of who committed the act of violence. Then we find out that the perpetrator had a history of radicalization. Then the debates start about whether to have stricter gun laws or whether to limit Syrian refugee immigration to the country or whether the United States should declare war on the Islamic State, or ISIS.

I TOTALLY understand why people get sick and tired of it all, as it just adds to the problems of partisanship and lack of unity that I have stressed about before. But we cannot just sit here and let it happen again. And again. And again.

If we just sit here and let the cycle continue, it gives off an impression to the terrorists that we tolerate the events and that we are totally okay with letting more attacks happen, even though that is not necessarily the case. If we ignore the events happening around us, we are closing ourselves in and not letting ourselves be educated on what is happening around the world so that we can be prepared for anything. By doing nothing, we let the terrorists win, and we give them permission to do it again.

If we want to stop living in this cycle, we need to bring more attention to what happened so that more people know what is going on. We also need to educate people about the religion of Islam and tell people how it isn't the entire religion that allows for these types of events to happen, but it is only a small fraction of followers that twist the words of their scripture to justify killing children and other innocent people. We also need to work to agree on what the main problem is and how we can find a set solution to the problem. If the proposed solution doesn't work, then we reevaluate.

Another point I want to make is something that Former President Barack Obama hit on in a speech in Berlin on Thursday. He made the point that there are people "who would do great harm to others just because they are different." He also hopes that as an ex-president, he will have more time to help young people become better leaders "so that we can marginalize those who would try to divide us" through acts such as these. This is a big reason why I wanted to write this post. I want people to read this and hope that they will speak out against injustices and become inspired to try and fix the bonds that divide us as a nation. We live in such a partisan time right now that it might seem like this is impossible, but it really isn't; we will never know unless we try.

I can get very political about the issue and talk about any of the debates above, or how the $110 billion arms deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia was a bad idea and how a lot of these weapons will go to terrorist organizations to commit more terrorist acts. I can also talk about how the mainstream media wrongly talks about Islam as being a horrible religion that allows these acts to happen, but I can save these issues for another post if need be. This post is just meant to address how and why we need to be more aware of the events, and I do not want to get into the policy bits in any way at the moment.

When I initially thought about writing this post, I wanted to shape it around the classic John Lennon song, Imagine. I wanted to talk about imagining a world where one's religion, country of origin, or possessions do not create hate, but I've gotten to the point where imagining a world where people are living life in peace is impossible. Now I am a dreamer, and I know I'm not the only one, and I wish I could hope someday that others would want to join me in wanting to live as one, but we've lived too long in a world with partisanship and hate and racial injustice for that to ever become a true reality. But we can still work towards a goal like that, as every little act of kindness can get us closer to a world like the one I described.

The question still needs to be asked: are we too numb to care about terrorism anymore, or can we get together and figure out ways to prevent these acts and the heartbreak that usually follows? I know that we will never be able to end terrorism completely as it has been a thing since the beginning of time, but being able to prevent more attacks from happening would definitely be an accomplishment. At this point, all we can do as citizens is educate ourselves and others. We need to care about what is going on so that we can accurately judge those in Washington who will eventually make the hard policy decisions.

Keep educating yourself and others. Keep caring. Keep our representatives in check. The world can be a better place if we do these things and more. Let me know if I need to elaborate on any points or if anything is confusing, as I know terrorism is a complicated issue.

In Liberty,
Jacob Stech '18