Did we really learn anything from the events of  November 13, 2015? I am not talking about as a nation or residents of our own small town, but as human beings.

On Friday evening, a series of co-ordinated attacks consisting of mass shootings, suicide bombings and hostage-taking occurred in the French capital of Paris and its northern suburb of Saint-Denis.

Beginning at 9.20pm CET, there were three suicide bombings outside the Stade de France, along with mass shootings and another suicide bombing at four locations near central Paris.

The deadliest of those attacks took place at the Bataclan Theatre, where gunmen took hostages before engaging in a stand-off with police until 12.58pm on November 14.

The stand-off was ended with a barrage of gunfire and explosions.

The above information was taken from open-source information site Wikipedia just days after the attack.

Imagine, an incident this monumental already has a page assigned!

Should we really be that surprised? I know, in the past, scholarly gentlemen would investigate, interrogate and often debunk unhistorical truths before publishing historically factual articles, but now we live in an age where literally hours after an event, it has already been assigned to its place in internet history. A blip on our social consciousness.

Why I highlight this fact is because I had to remove the word “terrorist” three times from such a short snippet of internet history already written and classified as FACT!

Only a few days after the event and judgement has been passed, blame allocated and a war declared!

There is a saying: “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter“. Another worthy addition would be: “History is always written by the victor“. BUT in the age of the internet, this is not always true and I would alter the last one to: “History is always written by the most popular and socially acceptable belief”.

Granted, the attack was big and impressive in scale, but did it achieve anything other than to sell news to an insatiable audience?

Facebook and other media outlets were quick to cash in on the social frenzy. Changing your profile pic became  “de rigueur” of an expectant and helpless viewing audience.

But let’s face it, the sun still came up the next morning and set again the following evening.

Fighter jets still pounded targets in Syria and Iraq. People still died.

In the grand scheme of things, big and small, what happened on November 13 may have made a big difference to the people living in Syria, Iraq or France. But for the rest of the world, it was just a social blip on their ever-expanding social media news feeds, lost in the clutter of the latest celebrity fads and fashions in the tantalising, orchestrated social media addiction that spoon-feeds them every second of every day.

Mouthful after mouthful of social garbage disguised as news.

The attackers are already old news, a footnote in Wikipedia. The world has moved on and until their next big thing, they have moved off our news feeds and into history, to be archived and eventually trashed as so much unwanted news is.

I hear Charlie Sheen is now big news (if you are reading this later, just scan any news feed and insert a new name here).

So why am I writing this? Well, because the attacks hurt humanity and the relationships between us all. And not in some way the so-called terrorists intended, but in an ever-encroaching and insidious form. It became unreal, like watching a TV show. The greatest thing most people did was change their profile pic to “show” they cared!

Another saying I am rather fond of is, “You live by the sword, you die by the sword“, and there, gentlemen, is the rub, as the bard would say!

You missed it, didn’t you?

Let me explain. If we no longer care, if our humanity becomes so desensitised, then how long before social media (which has defacto become the “World”) decides every Muslim is a terrorist? And their very use of social media to propagate their atrocities becomes their undoing? The difference between moderate and radical becomes a blur.

We have to care and embrace each other and somehow find that humanity that is slowly dying in all of us and turn it back on!

We cannot let this beast that is social media dictate to us what is life. It is a sacred gift from God and not something to be garbled into a hashtag or expressed with a LIKE.

We are all God’s children and we need to act like it, before it is too late!

Sorry, I would continue but my phone tells me I have exceeded my data limit! Death to the machine…

DID YOU KNOW?
Click on the words highlighted in red to read more on this and related topics.
If you are reading this on your cellphone and there are telephone numbers provided in the text, you can call these simply by clicking on them.
To receive news links via WhatsApp.

For the latest news, visit our webpage or follow us on Facebook and Twitter  why not join us there?