In Reply to: What motivated the bombings ? posted by albert on Monday, 10. October 2005 at 23:28 Bali Time:
I understand where your question is coming from. I can understand on a theoretical level the politics behind the bombings but can't quite figure out how people can feel so much hatred and lack of empathy as to justify random killings. I can understand why people feel a deep resentment towards Westerners as a result of years of systematic oppression, but not why this means we should therefore die a violent and shocking death.
Someone suggested to me it is a little like some paranoid schizophrenics in western society who have deeply delusional thinking strongly connected to ideas of God that can result in violence. This adds something to the picture for me but it's not solely about individual pathology or people trying to add some meaning to their lives.
Fundamentalism scares the hell out of me. We talk a lot about Muslim fundamentalism but there's a lot of Christian fundamentalism, especially in the US, and this is equally as scary (and bigotted, and one-tracked). I don't know why the world is becoming more polarised but it doesn't bode well.