The November 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks

[Kreekakon]

You may have all heard of this already since it was extremely large news, but for those who haven't:

On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks happened in Paris which has resulted in over 100 deaths and many more injured. These attacks were the deadliest in France since WW2.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has since claimed responsibility for the attacks.

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I don't have much to say on the attacks themselves beyond the obvious reactions, but I have a few things to say regarding some of the actual reactions of other people to the whole thing. Mostly originally posted by me on Skye or reddit so copy pasta for the most part:

Regarding the France attacks I've been seeing a lot of people disscussing "selective grief" and how people only showed this sort of attention to France and not other countries.

It's an unfortunate thing that ultimately comes down to how our society has been conditioned. No one gives a damn about Syria or other related countries because in our mind's eye, it's something "to be expected". However France getting attacked is something that was "not part of the conventional plan" so everyone loses their minds.

However here's another thing to consider: It sucks, but the reality is that our compassion and empathy just simply cannot be everywhere at once. If we're going to complain about it being unfair that France is getting attention while Syria isn't, is it really possible to follow up on that complainant and give every single related incident in the world the attention it deserves?

That's the ideal world but it's too big a burden to bear for any of us to follow up on and more importantly I don't believe that any of us have the mental capacity to GENUINELY want to give every incident this attention because we'll eventually burn out our ambition. We can't save everyone no matter how much we think we can.

So while it's worth pondering on the happening of selective grief, I think more importantly is to help where we can and be thankful that at the very least the world has banded together to help this one incident.

I'd say the proper thing to do is to acknowledge yourself as an individual that there are attacks going on elsewhere. But getting pissy about the entirety of society focusing on one thing is not worth it because it's a losing battle

I also don't dislike that people are switching their FB avatars because it is a gesture of showing respect for the event and raising awareness of the whole thing.

I like to look at it as people doing "the least they can" in showing respect as opposed to the negative view of them trying to feel good about themselves by participating in "slacktism". It's the exact same action but approached/viewed from different perspectives and motivations, and I like to think of people in a better light.

Any of you also have thoughts on this? Would love to hear them!