Once upon a time, I woke up to a news report that someone had flown an airplane into a building in New York City. I was in a rush, and I just had time to think What an Idiot before I grabbed my things and left for the day. After all, it’s not that hard to avoid flying into buildings. If it’s above your horizon line, you’re going to hit it. Pull up!
I was envisioning a private plane. Something like the crop dusters you see around here, or the nifty 4-seater the country doc uses to fly to the next 24 bed hospital. Nobody likes a flying drunk.
By the time I got to school, the second plane had hit, and televisions were being set up so everyone could watch. That’s when the disbelief set in.
At the time, I thought about where else? Where else would I attack, if the goal were to disable the United States?
Yeah. Obviously, I’m not telling you, but some of the sites were fairly close to home.
And none of them were ever touched.
The other side of it–the how do you make terrorism unappealing side of it–didn’t come until later. And I’m not talking about what governments do, or what James Bond can do, or anything like that. I’m talking about individual people with no particular motive beyond preferring not to be run over, stabbed, or blown up, and no Tomahawk missiles… what can they do?
The answer–as always–is chicken soup.
Buy chicken soup. Patronize immigrant businesses. It doesn’t cost any more to try something new, and give a new business a foothold, instead of throwing more money at long-standing chains.
Let’s be honest. Some terrorism is… less politics, and more desperation. Sometimes, it’s more of a “You blow yourself up here, and the higher ups will take care of your mother and sister, and younger brother. (Because you sure wouldn’t want the “martyr’s” family running around whoring themselves in the street.)” thing.
The answer is chicken soup.
Successful business people have other ways of taking care of their families. They don’t just send money home, they send stories home. They pull everyone closer. It’s not just “those people over there” anymore. It’s the regular customers as individuals.
If you have more than one way to support your family… if you have the option of “blow yourself up” or “sell chicken soup, and then go home and play Nintendo with your kids…”
There really is an obvious choice.
It’s important not to mistake poverty and desperation for ideology. Ideology is hard to get a grip on.
Poverty… well, you can overcome poverty by buying chicken soup. Or those nifty, jelly filled, not-quite a cookie, not-quite a turnover things.
It doesn’t take any special skills to work on poverty. You don’t even have to join the Peace Corps, or leave the country. You just… drive across town, to that deli with the foreign language in the window, and buy chicken soup.