"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities", Voltaire
For all my life, and I think like many in my generation, there was a belief in the gradual progress of civilization around the globe. At different speeds, no doubt, but the direction was clear. That the better angels of our nature would slowly conquer and defeat our longstanding barbaric demons. After Paris, the belief is still there but the naiveté about its linear spread has been shattered. The dark corners of globalization are there to haunt us for a long time. And it is not only ISIS. Just look at the no man's land where the Mexican cartels rule. The common thread is there. Chaos, anarchy and the fanatical pursuit of identity amidst state rule failure. And every time we empty the bucket something nastier emerges. We defeat the Colombian cartels, we get the even more savage Mexican ones. Out goes Saddam, Assad and Khadafi and ISIS takes over. So a new normal awaits us in this valley of shadows. One that must live with terrorism without being terrorized by it. One that defends resolutely our values of tolerance, respect for diversity and inclusiveness in the face of those that want to spread hate. The eagerness to reach quick solutions in the face of tragedies like Paris is natural, but the wrong course of action. This is the path that can easily lead us, for example, to profiling entire groups people in an act reminiscent of some nasty periods of our history. It is unfortunate that this will be a long-haul fight, but it is the reality. And reality cannot be wished away.
In a way we must be like the Spartans who refused to build walls around their cities because they feared it would weaken their resolve to fight. Myself, I will rather perish in any terrace, restaurant and street of our diverse and open societies than live in the closed and fearful countries that some people seem to advocate for us to transform into. It is the only way to prevail.
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