| The Amateur (7) |
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Although my involvement in national and international politics was limited in the Rote Armee Fraktion era even though I was a political science student at the time, the recent newspaper report on the subject has sparked thoughts in my head that I must admit to finding surprising. Although from my limited involvement I did at the time sense a certain fear whenever the names of Meinhof and her comrades were uttered, characterisations such as "criminal" failed to do justice to the substance of what they were doing. Clearly there were people who dared risking their own lives and those of others for something one dared having a considered opinion about despite their no-holds-barred stance, tragic as it was that blood evidently had to flow. But that was then. It is only now that I read in the paper that Meinhof's brain was at the time subjected to tests aimed at identifying faults that could be associated with her terrorist ways that I am beginning to appreciate the immense difficulty of putting into the appropriate words the fight against something you don't like - words that reflect compassion with imperfections (for if the association had been found to exist, terrorism could just as well be considered a disorder) as well as the modesty befitting the awareness that you're absolutely right. I don't know whether it was this that did it, but I suddenly understood what it would take to really start working towards a solution for a global problem: the only power in the world that is truly a match for terrorists is also the power that could have the audacity as well as being able to afford to urge terrorists all over the world to gather around the table in their disputed capital, the City of Jerusalem. |