| A large black galleon sailed by |
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The other day, a
large black object passed by me. The clue as to its
identity was a pair of glasses at about the position
that would have been occupied by the eyes of a very
large human being. It was a little dark and so I
could not actually see whether there were any eyes
behind the glasses, but the glasses and the fact
that the object was moving, apparently unaided, at
the Fort Shopping Centre in Birmingham clinched it
for me.
Did I feel threatened by this person? Well no, because I made certain assumptions - that it was a woman, although the shape was indeterminate, and that she probably didn't have any bombs strapped to her, because ‘she' was accompanied by children, although her large size clearly left room for doubt. What was the point of making such an attempt at anonymity? As I understand it, it is so that such woman will not have to suffer the attentions of lust-crazed men. For it seems to be axiomatic that the mere sight of a woman, any woman, is enough to arouse primordial sexual instincts in men. And it is also taken as an eternal truth that women do not have the same weakness. Speaking as a man, I have to say that whilst we may eye up the talent from time to time, there are not many women who, on a relatively cold day at the Fort Shopping Centre, are likely to do anything primordial to mankind simply by walking by. But, it is said, to dress in this way is a part of these people's genuinely held beliefs. Just as wearing a turban is for a Sikh and wearing a skull cap is for an orthodox Jew. Although people used to worry about bus conductors and policemen wearing turbans, we do so no longer. And so it may be with the black objects that propel themselves around our streets in total anonymity. Of course, the wearing of a total blackout is not something which more than a very small minority of Muslims actually believe to be right. Indeed, I understand such an injunction is nowhere to be found in the Koran. Which leaves us wondering why anyone would decide to do it. Leaving aside the women who are pushed into it by their over-zealous or inadequate men-folk, there are seemingly many amongst them who choose it as a statement of something or other - insecurity? A wish to say that they do not want to fit into the society in which they find themselves? A willingness to be found a mate by someone-else? For no normal man is going to fall in love with a woman he has never been allowed to see. It all seems to be a retreat from reality into a strange make-believe world where the wearer has no responsibility for engaging with life as it is. So perhaps it is not really a threatening form of behaviour, but a sad reflection of the wearer's inadequacies. Then again, people who are terrorists also live in a strange make-believe world where no-one is right apart from them and the whole world is against them and their kin. Perhaps it's somehow part of the same mind-set. That people go around in life with a victim mentality is a major concern. It not only messes up their lives, but puts the rest of us in danger when that mentality turns into an obsession with getting even for the imagined problems. We see this from time to time with gun attacks by pupils and ex-pupils in the USA and elsewhere. When it becomes institutionalised in a significant part of the population, then, as we have already seen, it poses a real danger to the rest of us. The solution is to try to root out that mentality. How to do it is the problem. If only... Iraq, George W Bush, Syria Iran... As the Irishman in the joke said, when asked for directions, "If I were you I wouldn't start from here". But somehow we have to. |