Facts of the Matter
RICHARD BRILL
Sunday, September 23, 2001
MASS TERROR, like the technology it employs, is rooted deep in the heart of mankind, born of and nourished by fear. Hatred organizes into larger and larger groups, fueled by religious fervor, cloaked in the doctrine of some ideology whose principles have been warped to suit the equally warped rationales of the terrorists. Can technology
break hatred?How ironic it is that terrorists use the technology that is the result of thousands of years of cultural evolution to destroy the culture that created it. It is beyond irony, it is just plain irrational. Among other things, it shows a complete lack of understanding of the web of technology that supports us all.
Yet it is so human! We have the ability to rationalize our feelings to the extent that almost anything can be made to seem right if the emotion is strong enough. Hatred is a powerful emotion, and is not derived from rationality. Hatred cannot be blamed on religion or on any ideology. Hatred comes from within and will find a way out as long as it exists, whether it is innate or learned.
Without technology there can be no civilization, and without civilization there could be no mass terrorism. Technology is the framework around which civilization has grown from the earliest control of fire millennia ago.
WE TEND TO think of technology as something industrial or electronic, as in "high technology," but the full meaning is much broader. Technology is the practical application of knowledge in a particular area, or a capability given by the practical application of knowledge.
Technology of various kinds plays multiple roles in the organization and implementation of terrorism. The most obvious role is that it provides the means for delivering terror, even in the "low tech" form of fuel-laden jetliners.
Technology facilitates the global information exchange that is required to organize and plan terrorist activities. The low-tech attacks of Sept. 11 could not have been planned and implemented without sophisticated communications tech- nology.
Ideological fervor fueled by hatred is one of the most serious problems that mankind faces. As population density increases and globalization increases clashes of cultures, as technology become increasingly more capable of mass destruction, we will need to solve the problem of hatred, not just at the international level, but hatred in general. In the guise of bullying and child abuse, ethnic supremacy and international terrorism, hatred breeds hatred. It is passed from generation to generation like fire from candle to candle, primed and ignited during the first five years of life.
If we are to mature and survive as a species, we will have to be smart. We will need to find some way to eliminate hatred from our hearts without losing the passion that drives the human spirit. Let's learn how to control and prevent the hatred that breeds terrorism.
Let's use the ingenuity and inventiveness that has created today's high technology to solve this problem. Of all of the great inventions and problems that we have solved in human history, we have done little to solve the problem of hatred. Retaliatory terrorism is a short-term solution at best, and not really a solution at all. Let's develop a technology to eliminate hatred. Are we smart enough? I hope so, because the future of civilization depends on it.
We could all be a little smarter, no? Richard Brill picks up
where your high school science teacher left off. He is a professor of science
at Honolulu Community College, where he teaches earth and physical
science and investigates life and the universe.
He can be contacted by e-mail at rickb@hcc.hawaii.edu
