We don't live in a completely random world- of course there are causes for the worst form of mass murder. Some Jews were greedy, had big noses and were communists -- some all at once. To dwell on those issues in the face of the Holocaust was and is a form of justification.
--Fair enough. How about dwelling on the failure to support the fight for the Spanish Republic as something that explains the seemingly inexplicable and 'psychologically irratrional' expansion of Hitler's political power, the mass destruction wreaked by a second world war.... Likewise we can ask to what extent will continuation of US policy in Israel result in the greater likelihood that more tragedies like yesterday's will occur? The argument that 'x' reaction to yeterday's tragedy is sociologically explicable is not necessarily an 'apology' for such a reaction. But it will get us closer to the root of the problem and its solutions. There has been an expansion of all kinds of whacky right wing fundamentalist ideology which embraces yesterday's act of terrorism. As irrational as it might appear, it is indeed explicable and, any objective sociological study of its origins would lead one to conclude that it is to be expected. I am reminded of the 'horror' that Americans react to inner city riots with and along with it the 'shock' at the idea that it is understandable. To which the only rational response I've heard at such times is 'the only surprise is that, given the conditions of life that exist in the inner city, they don't occur more often. Given the course of events in Israel and the Gaza strip, the militarised response of the US to 'threats' to globalization, etc. etc. the last reaction I had yesterday was surprise.
Steve
Stephen Philion Lecturer/PhD Candidate Department of Sociology 2424 Maile Way Social Sciences Bldg. # 247 Honolulu, HI 96822