Think About It
Amid the blood and bullet holes in the boat where he hid, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote, ”We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all,” then “Now I don’t like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said (words not clear) it is allowed.” Elsewhere in his message, Tsarnaev admits he, hiding in a boat, is jealous of his brother Tamerlan because Tamerlan is now with the righteous in the highest heavens. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suggested that it must be his destiny to write the note that he was writing on the boat. Defense attorney Judy Clark claims Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was brainwashed. Well, she had to say something.
If Dzhokhar Tsarnaev qualifies as brainwashed, everyone does. The Merriam- Webster Dictionary defines the term brainwash as follows: “1: a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas” and “2: persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship.”
Most people who take or support actions based on regimented ideas view those actions as loyal and justified much in the way Tsarnaev characterized his own and his brother’s as “righteous.” Dzhokhar hopes to soon join Tamerlan in the highest heavens and despite reports that most people in Massachusetts oppose the death penalty, Dzhokhar may get his wish. I have read more than one commentary critical of the court’s requirement that the Boston jurors be open to the death penalty. I understand the court’s requirement. Think about it, though.
Human history tells the story of the struggle between enslavement and enlightenment. All bondage starts in the minds of people who believe they have the right to control other people. Like it or not, our minds only process new information in the context of what we already know. Intelligence, wisdom and good information don’t always come together for everyone all at once. The sad fact is that people limit information to control other people.
All civilizations and cultures mess up. As if centuries marked by witch burning, the Inquisition and the Holocaust have not taught us enough about people following orders; some people had to prove it in a lab. In 1961, Yale Professor Stanley Milgram commenced what he advertised as a “study of memory.” In reality, Milgram tested obedience. Volunteers earned $4.00 and carfare to, under the direction those identified as “teachers,” administer electric shocks, fake though the volunteers did not know it, to “learners” who failed to learn. Despite the screams of the “learners,” most volunteers increased the voltage when the “teachers” told them to.
Fear of godless communism marked the Post WWII Cold War Era in the USA. Under the CIA’s MK Ultra mind control project, some US citizens found themselves experimented upon with aversive, coercive brainwashing techniques in the interest of protecting us here from infiltrators from there, whom many suspected might already be here. The MK Ultra program ran from 1953 through the early 1970’s. During this general timeframe, doctors in the US performed forty thousand lobotomies, not to treat brain disease, but to control and limit thought – to brainwash.
Our senses work with our minds for our protection and good. We need time to learn to accurately see through our own eyes.
Attorney Judy Clarke described how Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s mother practiced a strict, gender rigid interpretation of Islam. Clarke suggests Mrs. Tsarnaev brainwashed Tamerlan, who in turn brainwashed Dzhokhar.
Secular thinkers, agnostics and atheists might suggest Mrs. Tsarnaev was herself brainwashed in a world awash in religious indoctrination.
I have read that the word atheist (a-theist) came about to describe the first Christians. The first Christians refused to acknowledge or worship the Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses. Christians not converted in Roman prisons died at Roman hands. Today, in the birthplace of Christianity, Islamic extremists often demand that Christians convert to Islam or leave their homes.
Enough from me today about that portion of this big world.
I live here, where many US Christians decry US atheists and where in the 1960’s, my early academic education came from Roman Catholic nuns who wore heavy black habits no matter the temperature. Many of them spoke sternly using terms such as honesty, modesty, self-denial, and humility, concepts that suggest different things to different people at different times, with nuanced meanings that malleable children cannot always discern*.
*Discern: “1: to detect with the eyes; distinguish; 2: discriminate; 3: to come to know or recognize mentally; to see or understand the difference.”
Our worlds are more than the sum of their parts.
One size does not fit all.
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