Unintended consequences

On March 13, 1881, Ignacy Hryniewiecki assassinated Tsar Alexander II. Alexander II was the most successful reformer, whose achievements, among many other measures, included the liberation of serfs. His assassination was followed by a setback of the reform movement, brutal repression, and anti-Jewish pogroms. On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip shot dead in Sarajevo the heir to the Hapsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The assassination led directly to the outbreak of the First World War. On November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish student in Paris, shot dead the Third Secretary of the German Embassy, Ernst von Rath. This was used by the Nazis as the ostensible reason for their already prepared pogrom, Kristallnacht, to intimidate German Jews as well as German people in general. Abdelhamid Abaaoud masterminded the six simultaneous terrorist attacks in Paris this week. It is too early to know what the unintended consequences of this attack will be. So far in retaliation, French fighters bombed the Syrian city of Raqqa, the stronghold and de facto capital of ISIS in Syria, just as Americans attacked Afghanistan after the 9 November 2001 terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York. A few individual;s can set in motion vast events with unimaginable consequences. Perhaps one of the hopeful consequences of the Paris atrocity will be that the Russians, Americans, European powers, and even the Chinese, will agree on a common strategy to eliminate terrorism. Perhaps this will lead to ISIS and its affiliates being wiped out. But don't hold your breath. As long as there are people who believe in the absolute correctness of their beliefs, beliefs that they are prepared to sacrifice their own life for, beliefs for which they are prepared to commit unspeakable acts, for which they will be rewarded in a nebulous afterlife, terrorism cannot be eliminated. Treasure and protect doubt. You may be right, you believe that you are right, but perhaps there lurks a tiny amount of doubt in your mind, which makes you respect other people's beliefs.