Terror: Does the West commit acts terror?

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(first draft, comments are welcome, text part of serie:)
Terror: Why do Muslims commit acts of terror?
Terror: Does the West commit acts of terror?
Terror: Land of the free?

Intro

Now that we found some possible reasons why Muslims might commit acts of terrors, let's make a list of characteristics of the West that might motivate us to do the same.

The list

1. Individualism. We in the West think it is all about ME. We are not part of a whole, but individuals. Our fortune depends upon our own actions. Sometimes this gives us incentive to choose taking over sharing.

2. Control. Closely tied into the psychology of individualism, and generally into the psyche of the human mind, is the need for control. All animals seek out maximum control in order to survive, and we are no different. Any perceived threat to our existence has to be dealt with (real or imaginary).
In some societies this control is outsourced. Usually to a deity. People accept that they themselves as having limited control. However a deity will ensure on their behalve that everything is going to be allright as long as they follow a certain path of behavior. Thus control over one's life is gained via indirect means.
During the enlightenment period, we in the West found out that man controls his own destiny directly. You yourself as an individual need to get that control in order to make things workout allright.

3.Competition. Individualism combined with the need for control produces selfish people in constant competition. The individual is responsible for your it's own share of both material and social power.  In order to maximize it's own chances of survival, it's control, the individual needs to compete with others. In this proces there are winners and losers. These winners achieve control over their own destiny and those of others.

4. Rampant consumerism. The industrial revolution gave birth to mass production. Initially a lot of products made lasted forever. Factory owners were not content with this. A lot more money could be extracted if products broke down after a period of use. And more money equals more control. The producers of light bulbs were the first to fix the issue. They came together in a secret conference in Europe, and decided on profitable life time cycle for their products. From now on, light bulbs would burn out after X time.

This solution has been copied by virtually all producers across all fields of mass production. However, in order to further maximize profits one more thing was needed. A consumer willing to buy and buy and buy. Not just replacements, but new types and new versions of products. Hence commercials. We are bombarded with Pavlovian programming for the new, improved, extra, fashionable, status giving, ultimate and comfortable.
Industrialist are the winners of the competition between individuals. They run the companies (and in varying degrees the countries). For these industrialist, like for any Western person, life is all about ME. In order to increase their control over their own destiny, they need to increase their dominance over the consumer. They are willing to program whole populations into mindless consumerism and destroy the planet in the process with masses upon masses of waste.

5.Greed. As mentioned earlier, we seek to maximize our chances of survival. One way we can do that is to gather as much materials and power as we can. Throughout history kings and sultans conquered and looted country after country, increasing their power over people and their material wealth. Our modern industrialists are no different. If they can get resources via less than fair means they do it. It's all about their amount of control. This includes labor and material resources both in their own homeland and abroad.

Outcome

These characteristics of the West, individualism, individual control, competition, consumerism and greed might motivate any individual to seek improvement of their own situation at the cost of hurting others. We call this exploitation. The exploitation becomes organised via competition. The winners of the competition race impose their models of behavior upon the losers. Whether they are consumers or (unwilling) resource providers.

Organized exploitation can produce acts that terrorise individuals and populations. These acts of terror can be direct or indirect. In the previous century Belgium exploited the Kongo in a most brutal way during their quest to control the worldwide rubber market. They terrorised the native population by cutting of hands and separating families. In modern times Brittain, France and America supported brutal dictators in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East in order to exploit natural resources like oil.

Though at first glance we might not recognize these acts as terrorism, the effect of these acts is the same. Terror. It hardly matters if you are terrorized by a suicide bomber, the secret police of a dictatorship or via collatoral damage caused by bombs from Western aircraft.

Conclusion

Our terrorists aren't named Ahmed and they are not from a suburb of Paris. Our terrorists are our 1%. They are winners of the competition game.

Questions

Of course the view of the West portrayed in this text does not conform at all with our own self image. After all we are the land of the free and home of the brave. The source of justice and human rights. In the next text we will explore this paradox in our society.