How We See the World ??

One of the joys of being a retired octogenarian is that there is more time to read and relax. However, I have a peculiar fetish: for serious non-fiction reading I like a paper edition. The reason for this: I read with a pen in hand to help me focus and remember important ideas. Also with non-fiction I try to multi-task (!) and read more than one book at a time. My current companions; "The Arab Mind" - 1983 edition by Raphael Patai.  No doubt it is out of date, or better be, but it does give a great historical background. Face up on my desk and waiting frequent visits is "Flight from Famine" by Donald MacKay. It's an account of the Great Famine and the Irish who arrived in Canada in the early 17th century. We think we have it tough today! Finally, one everyone should read, "GUT" by Jill Enders.  "A gastrointestinal tour de force", says one M.D. 

On the recreational side I enjoy my non-paper Kobo Reader and chose authors like Ken Follett, Jeffrey Archer, and Michael  Connelly to name a few. These and other writers entertain me during the 4 pm coffee break. Actually, Maureen and I will be off to cocktails and hors d'oeuvres with Michael Connelly early next month!!

More to the point. I am currently reading Archer's Jack Daws. A German officer is speaking during the occupation of  France. "I'm an existentialist. War enables people to be what they really are: the sadists become the torturers, the psychopaths make brave front-line troops, the bullies and the victims alike escape to play their roles to the hilt, and the whores are always busy." Given the violence currently being experienced in France and many other countries, that clip seemed to make a lot of sense.

I have to ask myself, how can 'a lone-wolf terrorist' or a well orchestrated group, blatantly enter a building and mow down unarmed and presumably innocent people? Are they moved by their own impaired minds or by some extreme movement? Are they just deeply troubled and over zealous? Is not an all-embracing egotism one of the classical symptoms of schizophrenia? Or have they just given Charles Darwin's principle of 'natural selection' a little boost?

Each of us looks at the world through our own tainted glasses. In so doing we develop our ideas and get emotionally attached to them. That is why it is so hard to get another to see your point of view, or for you not to believe your view is the correct one! No one wants to admit they are wrong or to be ignored by friends and acquaintances. I know, I don't! Each of us has an opinion about gun control, religion, history, politics, sexual behaviour, the hijab, and even the the number of Syrian refugees Canada should admit.

Nevertheless, most of us don't go around killing those who disagree with our view of the world. Hence, my unprofessional point of view is that those individuals who perpetrate these horrendous crimes are both deeply troubled and over zealous.

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Yet there remains the quote from Nelson Mandela, "When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw."  We all see the world differently.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week

Did you Know?  Will cyber attacks by ISIS get worse as tensions increase? The U.S. defense doctrine says that destructive hacking could be considered acts of war!