We are all very shocked about the terrorist attacks on Friday the 13th in Paris, and there has been much discussion about why it happened and what one should do about it.
I have no great insights into the situation, and am in no position to give advice. No doubt the state will adopt measures, and enact laws, and generally do what they can to protect us, which is their job. But as for myself, I plan to go on with my life exactly as before.
I recall reading a 'joke' once about three Jews in a concentration camp, who were discussing what they would do to Hitler and the Nazis if they managed to survive. The first two outlined various punishments, which I have forgotten. But the third had a different story to tell.
He imagined that he would be back in his old cafe in Vienna, drinking coffee and reading the papers. And one day, when he was almost finished reading, Hitler came by and asked this man whether he might perhaps be kind enough to give him the paper to read, please, when he was finished with it. And the man lowered the newspaper, and looked at Hitler, and said, "To you, never!"
I never forgot this, because it seemed to me strangely appropriate.
It is easy to retaliate, to repay violence with violence. We feel this need to act, to do something. But faced with such attacks, there is really nothing any one individual can do. Whether we agitate for the state to retaliate, or demonstrate, or write articles, or start to distance ourselves from Muslims, it will all be water to the terrorist mill.
But there is one thing we can all do individually. We can continue with our lives, exactly as before, as though nothing very important had happened. As for the terrorists, we can lower our newspapers, look at them sternly, and say "Tut tut tut" in a slightly disapproving way. And then go on reading.
The world is full of misfortune and disease and hunger and hardship. We tend to forget this, being comfortable in our own homes. And when we hear about a particular issue in the news, or are confronted by it in our own lands, we focus on this one issue, and don't see the wider context.
This is one of the reasons why we are dealing so foolishly for example with the recent migrant issue. We feel sorry for the Syrians, and rightly so, but forget that about 3 billion other people have just as much reason to abandon their life and seek a better one in Europe as they do. And instead of considering the matter thoughtfully and devising a proper plan of action, we more often than not rush into action and waste our money and emotion and help the wrong people, if indeed we help anyone at all in the long run.
In the same vein, we get all excited because 50 people are killed in a school shooting, or 20 get ill from salmonella poisoning, or 130 die in a terrorist attack. But what about the tens of thousands who die in car crashes, hundreds of thousands who die of diseases, millions who perish from being malnourished? The billions who lead truly wretched lives all over the world?
Compared to the big problems that face humanity, terrorism is chickenfeed. The terrorists are mainly just angry confused frustrated misguided young people who want a purpose in life and have been used by a few fanatics. Like children who have temper tantrums, the damage they inflict, compared to for instance the major diseases, is tiny. Of course they can kill and injure individuals, but they cannot harm the state or humanity as a whole.
That's why the response of lowering one's newspaper and tut-tutting is appropriate. We grant these people an importance they simply do not have. What makes them dangerous is not that they can kill people - we can all do that, and frequently do (drunk driving, spreading diseases, facilitating global warming, etc). No, the danger is that we react so disproportionately to terrorist threats that we completely change our lives for the worse.
Personally, I refuse to contract myself into a nutshell of pointless fear, afraid to lead my life as I see fit, because some overgrown children might throw a deadly temper tantrum.
