The Role of Trauma in enabling Genocide

 

The unpacking of trauma is supposed to be therapeutic. Gone are the days when everyone buried their emotional garbage somewhere in the substratum spaces of the sub – consciousness. This was the done thing in personal and public spheres, worthy of the Beast of Traal, that mind – bogglingly stupid creature which assumes that if you cannot see it, it cannot see you. Nowadays, it is considered healthy to commemorate tragedy, by talking about it constantly, reliving every excruciating moment, and inviting others to share in the agonizing experience.

Few things have more traction on social media than tragedy. When disaster strikes, it is time to celebrate for those looking to gain more followers and instant celebrity. If they play their cards just right with the right amount of bad taste and ruthless manipulation of emotions, there could be a lucrative movie or book deal in there or a jumpstart to a soul -sapping career as an influencer or gatherer of torture porn.

This exacerbation of suffering is usually done in the interest of constructing a narrative of victimhood. When sufficiently politicized and weaponized, it serves to allow so - called victims to feel perfectly justified in victimizing others. We see evidence of this sickening new trend everywhere. All one needs to do nowadays to get away with everything including mass murder is to manufacture a real or imagined fable celebrating victimhood and mourning tragedies dredged up from the past.

The use and abuse of tragedy to inflict even more tragedy is an art form that Israel seems to have perfected. The rogue state’s propaganda machine has been working overtime to mark the one – year anniversary of the savage October 7^th  terrorist attack made by Hamas, where hundreds of Israelis were captured or killed, equating it to the holocaust. In this version, the Israeli government which seems less intent on securing the hostages and more committed to committing genocide in Gaza is keen to portray the righteousness of Israel and insists on full support from its global superpower ally – the USA and the rest of an appalled world since to do otherwise would be unforgivably anti – semitic. Goebbels would be proud!

The Palestinians have been aggressively displaced, killed outright or forced to live in subhuman conditions for decades now. The inhabitants of Gaza have endured an Israeli blockade since 2007. After October 7^th, Israel’s brutal retaliation has resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinians including infants being slaughtered while the rest of the world merely watched. The conflict continues to escalate with Israel detonating entire apartment blocks in Beirut to take out Hezbollah (another terrorist outfit, spawned by Israeli misdeeds) leader, Nasrallah, and using cutting edge technology to decimate their enemies with remote controlled – devices, forcing Iran to enter the fray.

There doesn’t seem to be a peaceful resolution to the war in West – Asia but Israel must not be allowed to use the Holocaust excuse to justify the ongoing Nakba. Terrorism in any form cannot be condoned but the causal agents of evil are guilty too. The rest of the world needs to wake up from woke mode, to tamp down on this chain reaction of genocidal violence and restore peace.

This article was originally published in TNIE Magazine