spiked-politics | Article | The truth about 7/7: it was meaningless
spiked-politics | Article | The truth about 7/7: it was meaningless
The truth about 7/7: it was meaningless
The UK government’s ‘narrative’ on the London bombings shows how empty and pointless the attacks were. So why do so many try to read meaning into them?
by Brendan O’Neill
Why did four British citizens blow up themselves and 52 others on a Thursday morning in July 2005?
From what we’ve read over the past 10 months – the reams of analysis, commentary and speculation – you might think they did it as part of some Islamist conspiracy, or to register their opposition to the war in Iraq, or because they were evil and wished to topple British, even Western civilisation. In fact, as the UK government’s narrative on 7/7 now reveals, there is little hard evidence that they did it for any of those reasons. The truth appears to be that 7/7 was meaningless; it was a nihilistic attack carried out by four fairly ordinary blokes for no easily discernible aim or agenda. And tragically, those who died in it may as well have been killed by an earthquake or in a train crash. It is time to stop trying to read meaning into 7/7, and get over it.
Meaning is not something inherent to something.
Meaning is social constructed, accrued. 9/11 is meaningful because lots of people think it is.
Get over it! 😉
Wasalaam
TMA
I like that definition.. “meaningful because lots of people think it is” I think that
could be applied to many issues, people etc…
The article was very interesting. I am always struck by the difference in reactions between the
British and American media. If this article had been published in the States after 9-1-1
the author would have been tarred and feathered and run out of town. In fact I think some people
did lose their jobs over comments made that were deemed not pro-American enough.
I don’t know if I agree with the author about the similarities between Columbine and the bombers. The Columbine
students were teens in high school – the bombers were grown men. I’m assuming their frontal lobes had
finished developping. We will never know the reasons for why they did what they did, but it behooves
us to try and make sure it never happens again. Assuming they were just wayward young men won’t help
to prevent another incident.