Eiffel Tower by Robert Stribley

Choose Life

After another series of atrocities, let’s not confuse the terror perpetuated by a few with the humanity of the many

After the horrific attacks in Paris last night, which left at least 128 people dead, the radical group ISIS claimed responsibility for the event, saying they had singled out the Parisians whose lives they ended expressly because they were “idolaters” who were “together in a party of perversity.”

This “party of perversity”? A live concert performed by a band with the very tongue-in-cheek name “Eagles of Death Metal.” Additionally, members of ISIS murdered people in nearby restaurants and at a bar near the Stade de France soccer stadium.

The British author Ian McEwan lives in Paris at the moment. Here’s how he described the attacks:

The death cult chose its city well — Paris, secular capital of the world, as hospitable, diverse and charming a metropolis as was ever devised. And the death cult chose its targets in the city with ghoulish, self-damning accuracy — everything they loathed stood plainly before them on a happy Friday evening: men and women in easy association, wine, free-thinking, laughter, tolerance, music — wild and satirical rock and blues. The cultists came armed with savage nihilism and a hatred that lies beyond our understanding.

Grasping for Solutions

It’s an understandable, human response to grasp for solutions immediately after such an event, but sadly — as we saw in the aftermath of 9/11 — some of the solutions we’ve seen offered immediately play into the hands of the terrorists. Many of them come from the usual suspects, of course. We shouldn’t expect anything less than craven and small-minded responses to the attacks from the likes of Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Newt Gingrich, David Frum, or even Rob Lowe. All of those people devoted their attention to blaming these murders on the current immigrant crisis in Europe and attributing the terrorist acts to the broader Muslim community. Even worse, Presidential candidate Ted Cruz seized the opportunity to release a statement, which implies an end to Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States — a relief action, which the United States has arguably already played far too small a role in.

Says Cruz:

Even as chaos rages in Paris, we need to take immediate, commonsense steps to preserve our own safety. … We need to immediately declare a halt to any plans to bring refugees that may have been infiltrated by ISIS to the United States.

So his solution is to punish the group of people most immediately affected by terrorism for fear that they may include terrorists in their number. A fine example of playing right into the terrorist’s hands. And a paltry example of the human spirit.

There’s a better way.

Photo taken at the Charlie Hebdo vigil after the earlier attacks in Paris this year — Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

Choose life.

Refuse to cower before terror. That means we have to resist the nihilist conclusion that we have treat an enormous percentage of the planet’s inhabitants — our fellow humans — with fear and distrust.

Many of those people are living with the fear of such violence every day. They’re leaving their countries, hoping to avoid this sort of horror. In fact, the day before the Paris attacks, suicide bombers associated with ISIS killed 43 people in an attack in Beirut, Lebanon. That attack primarily affected people of the Muslim faith. And you heard little of it in the news.

We have to recognize that. We have to recognize that those innocent people in Paris and Beirut have much in common. If we don’t, if we focus on the differences, if we lump the terrorists in with another 1.6 billion people, we effectively surrender to the terrorists. We give them exactly what they want.

The Atrocities of Fundamentalism

We have to remember that those weren’t everyday Muslims who attacked innocent Parisians last night. They were ideological fundamentalists. And fundamentalists can be found everywhere — in most of the world’s religions — and outside of them. You could partly define fundamentalism by a desire to force other people to adhere to your particular beliefs by rule of law — or often by brute force or intimidation. Through fear. And that tendency exists in the fundamentalist strains of Islam, certainly. But it also appears also in segments of Christianity and Judaism and many of the world’s religions. It appears in the most extreme versions of the political ideologies of libertarianism and conservatism and, yes, liberalism. It even appears among those who profess non-belief or who abstain from membership with any party.

Sure, you might argue that the influence of fundamentalism is stronger in some parts of the world than others. But what would be the point? That still leaves huge swathes of humanity, who share our common desire for peace, suffering at the hands of extremism. Some of them happen to be suffering under circumstances far more dire than our own. So why would we shut them out?

No, to defeat the evils of fundamentalist intolerance — wherever they may be — we have to unite with our fellow human beings against this common enemy. Separating ourselves from them won’t help. That enables the fundamentalists. Gives them artillery for their cause. No, the only sensible thing to do is to band together. Embrace our common humanity.

Anything else would be cowardly.

So reject the nihilistic belief that suggests otherwise. Choose not to align yourself merely with those whose beliefs most closely reflect your own. Choose humanity. Choose life.

Choose Life

How do we do that?

Make this a time of affirmation, not alienation. Make this a time to celebrate our common humanity. And do some of those very things the extremists would love to force you not to do.

Join your friends for a drink. Or a concert. Or a movie. Make love. Listen to music. Dance with someone. Hug your friends. Hug your family. Write. Read. Watch. Speak. Learn. Travel. Insist on the freedom to do all of these things.

Engage with life and don’t shrink from those areas of it unfamiliar to you.

Do something good for someone who doesn’t look like you. Or speak your language.

Vote for candidates who deny terror a place in the world, but who seek nuanced solutions and recognize and respect the intricate variability of the human experience.

Anger’s appropriate, sure. By all means, give terror the finger. Fuck terror. I make no excuses for terror. Or for those who employ it as a weapon.

But don’t confuse the terror of a few with the humanity of the many.

Don’t surrender.

Don’t give them what they want.

Choose life.