Post by tjara on Aug 12, 2009 13:12:08 GMT -5
One extreme gives way to another. Fascism begets communism -- Nazi Germany leads to the birth of the Red Army Faction (aka the Baader-Meinhof gang).
Nazi Germany? These people were disenchanted with imperialism & captialism, against US hegemony or what historians have called "the coca-colonization of the world". The only real Nazi-connection is that they were angry with their parent's unwillingess to confront their own Nazi history. But I'd definitely not put this in one sentence, since there were similar organizations in other countries, like the Red Brigades in Italy.
Marxism, Leninism, Che, Chairman Mao, the PLO (with whom the RAF trained), Al Qaeda, homegrown cults of blind hatred. Blow up a building in Oklahoma City; blow up a building in New York City. A stolen sausage roll, a stolen candy. A broken finger, the slaughter of millions -- an outrageous equivalency. And all of it intertwined, all of it somehow becoming the same in certain minds -- an infection of violence passing through the generations, feeding on both myths and reality, kept alive by the abuse of power and the greed of whatever ruling class.
Strong words AL, and while I'd generally agree, I'd be careful to put all of these organizations and ideologies into one sentence. Covers many areas, and I think there have been and are distinct differences between many of these groups and ideologies. Sometimes, all they have in common is the label "terrorist" - but whether it's the PLO, the RAF, Hamaz, Al Qaeda, IRA, ETA they each have their own history and have to be "judged" differently.
This is why I was a little disappointed with "Revolution". There was little discussion of ideology, and the final scene with the daughter's attempted suicide attack seemed to adhere to what's generally known about terrorists, but not what the RAF used to do. Suicide bombings weren't what they used, they'd rather kidnapp someone to do a trade.