07-25-2016, 10:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-26-2016, 10:38 AM by John J. Xenakis.)
*** 26-Jul-16 World View -- People in Germany are reeling after a week of violence
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** ISIS takes credit for terror attack in Ansbach, southern Germany
****
![[Image: g160725b.gif]](http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g160725b.gif)
Germany's week of violence (CNN)
The Amaq News Agency, the public relations arm of the so-called
Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh) has taken credit for the
terror attack in Ansbach, southern Germany, on Sunday evening,
saying that the attack was carried out by "one of the soldiers of the
Islamic State."
The ISIS public relations statement was issued after the police
searched the mobile phone of the perpetrator, known only as "Mohammed
D", and found a video declaring loyalty to ISIS and announcing a
"revenge act against Germans because they are standing in the way of
Islam." However, it's believed that Mohammed D was a "lone wolf"
inspired by ISIS, but unknown to ISIS prior to the attack.
Mohammed D exploded a bomb on Sunday evening outside a large music
festival in Ansbach, injuring 15 people. He was prevented from
entering the music festival by police since he didn't have a ticket.
There was heavy security at the festival because of three previous
violent attacks in Germany during the week.
Mohammed D was a 27-year-old Syrian national who had arrived in
Bulgaria in 2013, and was granted refugee status by Bulgaria in
September 2013. He left Bulgaria in mid-2014, and came to Germany,
where he applied for protection, which was denied. He received
deportation warnings from Germany between December 2014 and July of
this year, threatening to deport him back to Bulgaria, although it's
unclear whether Bulgaria would have accepted him.
Mohammed D had spent time living in a mental care facility and had
twice attempted suicide, but failed. On Sunday, he was successful.
Deutsche Welle and BBC and Novinite (Sofia Bulgaria)
****
**** Germans in a state of shock after four violent attacks in one week
****
Until this summer, Germany had been largely untouched by the wave of
terror that hit France and Belgium in recent years. But now, the
attack in Ansbach was the fourth violent attack in a week, and Germans
are becoming increasingly anxious. Many are blaming Chancellor Angela
Merkel for permitting close to a million refugees to enter Germany
last year.
On Monday, July 18, a teenage Afghan refugee hacked at passengers on a
train in Würzburg with an axe and knife, wounding five. He was shot
dead by police. ISIS claimed credit for the attack.
On Friday, July 22, a German-born teenager of Iranian descent shot
dead nine people in Munich before shooting himself dead. According to
police, gunman David Ali Sonboly was inspired by other mass shootings
that had no political motivation, such as a school massacre carried
out by 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer in Baden-Württemberg in 2009. It
would be surprising if someone whose heritage is Iran, which is a Shia
Muslim country, were inspired by ISIS or al-Qaeda, which are Sunni
Muslim terrorist groups.
On Sunday, July 24 in Reutlingen, a few hours before the Ansbach
attack, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee took a long knife from the kebab
shop where he worked, and used to kill a 45-year-old woman whom he had
claimed to be "in love" with. Some unconfirmed reports indicate that
the woman was pregnant. Five others were injured as well. A witness
hit the attacker with his car, knocking the man to the ground so that
police were able to arrest him seven minutes after the first attack.
The attacker was previously known to the police for assault and drug
offenses.
There's a thread of mental instability that runs through these
attacks. The Ansbach attacker had spent time in a mental care
facility, and had previously attempted suicide twice, as we mentioned
above. David Ali Sonboly carried out his attack on the fifth
anniversary of the 77 murders by far-right extremist Anders Behring
Breivik in Norway in 2011. The Reutlingen attack was apparently
related to an affair with a woman.
This has led some people to suggest that these attacks would all have
occurred anyway even without being "inspired" by ISIS, in the same way
that one public murder can lead to copycat murders.
Nonetheless, pressure is growing on Angela Merkel to revise her
policies on refugees. Her political allies point out that these
attacks were not directed by ISIS, but only claimed by ISIS after they
occurred. Her political enemies are blaming the attacks directly on
her policies. Germans will go to the polls about a year from now, and
Merkel has not yet announced whether she plans to run for a fourth
term. The Local (Germany) and Deutsche Welle and BBC and The Local (Germany)
****
**** Knife-wielding massacre near Tokyo Japan kills 19
****
In one of the worst mass attacks that Japan has seen, a man wielding a
knife went on a stabbing rampage in a care facility near Tokyo for
people with disabilities, killing at least 19 and wounding 25 others.
Satoshi Uematsu, 26, later drove to the police station and turned
himself in. He had a bag full of knives, some bloodstained, when he
turned himself in. He had been an employee of the care home, but had
been sacked. He told police that he wanted to rid the world of
disabled people.
Police say that there is no connection to terrorism. Japan Times and BBC
****
**** Germany's Der Spiegel asks: Is this the Apocalypse Now?
****
"I'm tired of living in interesting times," a Twitter user wrote
several days ago. According to an article in Germany's Der
Spiegel, people on social media ask every day: What is wrong with
2016? When will it be over? What more does it have in store for us?
In just the last few weeks, there was amass shooting in Orlando on
June 12, a huge Istanbul airport attack on June 28, a massive terror
attack in Dhaka on July 1, a deadly July 7 shooting in Dallas, and the
horrific Bastille Day attack in Nice on July 14. The next day, on
July 15, was the attempted coup d'état in Turkey.
And now, in the last week, there have been four violent attacks in
Germany, including two on Sunday, and a major knife attack in Japan on
Monday.
The article says:
[indent]<QUOTE>"This year, international political events have
overlapped in an unsettling way. Something seems to be coalescing
and brewing, though it's not yet clear what. Each new development
seems to come a bit faster than the last. It may have begun with
the Arab Spring in 2011, but it also continued with the wars in
Libya and Syria and was further exacerbated by the conflict
between Ukraine and Russia and the latest terrorist attacks. We
are witnessing the destabilization of the world as we've known it
since 1989."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
In fact, this is exactly what always happens in a generational Crisis
era. There are many reasons, but there are two major ones. First,
the last of the Silent generation of survivors of World War II have
all but disappeared, and their wisdom is no longer available to
prevent geopolitical catastrophes, leaving the world at the mercy of
increasingly nationalistic, racist and xenophobic younger generations.
The second reason is the Malthusian reason. As the population
continues to increase exponentially, with 200,000 people added to the
global population every day, there have been massive flows of refugees
in the Mideast, Africa and Asia, destabilizing societies and nations
everywhere. Furthermore, growing populations are displacing more and
more farmland, and the population is growing faster than the food
supply, resulting in constantly increasing poverty and starvation.
Both of these reasons give rise to desperate people who are willing to
kill in order to get what they believe they're entitled to, and that
means increasing chaos and war.
I had to chuckle when I heard the media commentary on Donald Trump's
speech last week, characterizing it as full of "doom and gloom." I
watched the speech live and didn't think that it was particularly
gloomy at all, since all of those doom and gloom things are things
that I've been predicting for years, based on Generational Dynamics
analyses. Generational Dynamics also predicts that there are no
solutions to these problems except another world war.
The article concludes:
[indent]<QUOTE>"Many of us simply don't understand the world
anymore. It will probably be up to the historians of future
generations to accurately categorize what exactly it is that we're
experiencing in these times of transition. This is, however, not
the time to give in to panic -- it is time to have confidence in
one's own values and keep fighting for the society one believes
in. Geopolitical turmoil is best overcome when one is grounded in
clear convictions, which holds true for both citizens and
countries as a whole. First of all, a clear compass is needed in
order to take responsibility for foreign policy, confront
dictators and manage the crises that we're
witnessing."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
I would respond by saying that those who study Generational Dynamics
understand the world only too well, but just aren't happy with what
they understand. As Solomon, who had an excellent intuitive
understanding of generational theory, says in Ecclesiastes: "For with
much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."
Der Spiegel (Berlin)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Germany, Ansbach, Mohammed D, Syria, Bulgaria,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Amaq News Agency, France, Germany, Afghanistan, Angela Merkel, Iran,
David Ali Sonboly, Reutlingen, Tokyo, Japan, Satoshi Uematsu,
Der Spiegel, Donald Trump, Solomon, Ecclesiastes
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- ISIS takes credit for terror attack in Ansbach, southern Germany
- Germans in a state of shock after four violent attacks in one week
- Knife-wielding massacre near Tokyo Japan kills 19
- Germany's Der Spiegel asks: Is this the Apocalypse Now?
****
**** ISIS takes credit for terror attack in Ansbach, southern Germany
****
Germany's week of violence (CNN)
The Amaq News Agency, the public relations arm of the so-called
Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh) has taken credit for the
terror attack in Ansbach, southern Germany, on Sunday evening,
saying that the attack was carried out by "one of the soldiers of the
Islamic State."
The ISIS public relations statement was issued after the police
searched the mobile phone of the perpetrator, known only as "Mohammed
D", and found a video declaring loyalty to ISIS and announcing a
"revenge act against Germans because they are standing in the way of
Islam." However, it's believed that Mohammed D was a "lone wolf"
inspired by ISIS, but unknown to ISIS prior to the attack.
Mohammed D exploded a bomb on Sunday evening outside a large music
festival in Ansbach, injuring 15 people. He was prevented from
entering the music festival by police since he didn't have a ticket.
There was heavy security at the festival because of three previous
violent attacks in Germany during the week.
Mohammed D was a 27-year-old Syrian national who had arrived in
Bulgaria in 2013, and was granted refugee status by Bulgaria in
September 2013. He left Bulgaria in mid-2014, and came to Germany,
where he applied for protection, which was denied. He received
deportation warnings from Germany between December 2014 and July of
this year, threatening to deport him back to Bulgaria, although it's
unclear whether Bulgaria would have accepted him.
Mohammed D had spent time living in a mental care facility and had
twice attempted suicide, but failed. On Sunday, he was successful.
Deutsche Welle and BBC and Novinite (Sofia Bulgaria)
****
**** Germans in a state of shock after four violent attacks in one week
****
Until this summer, Germany had been largely untouched by the wave of
terror that hit France and Belgium in recent years. But now, the
attack in Ansbach was the fourth violent attack in a week, and Germans
are becoming increasingly anxious. Many are blaming Chancellor Angela
Merkel for permitting close to a million refugees to enter Germany
last year.
On Monday, July 18, a teenage Afghan refugee hacked at passengers on a
train in Würzburg with an axe and knife, wounding five. He was shot
dead by police. ISIS claimed credit for the attack.
On Friday, July 22, a German-born teenager of Iranian descent shot
dead nine people in Munich before shooting himself dead. According to
police, gunman David Ali Sonboly was inspired by other mass shootings
that had no political motivation, such as a school massacre carried
out by 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer in Baden-Württemberg in 2009. It
would be surprising if someone whose heritage is Iran, which is a Shia
Muslim country, were inspired by ISIS or al-Qaeda, which are Sunni
Muslim terrorist groups.
On Sunday, July 24 in Reutlingen, a few hours before the Ansbach
attack, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee took a long knife from the kebab
shop where he worked, and used to kill a 45-year-old woman whom he had
claimed to be "in love" with. Some unconfirmed reports indicate that
the woman was pregnant. Five others were injured as well. A witness
hit the attacker with his car, knocking the man to the ground so that
police were able to arrest him seven minutes after the first attack.
The attacker was previously known to the police for assault and drug
offenses.
There's a thread of mental instability that runs through these
attacks. The Ansbach attacker had spent time in a mental care
facility, and had previously attempted suicide twice, as we mentioned
above. David Ali Sonboly carried out his attack on the fifth
anniversary of the 77 murders by far-right extremist Anders Behring
Breivik in Norway in 2011. The Reutlingen attack was apparently
related to an affair with a woman.
This has led some people to suggest that these attacks would all have
occurred anyway even without being "inspired" by ISIS, in the same way
that one public murder can lead to copycat murders.
Nonetheless, pressure is growing on Angela Merkel to revise her
policies on refugees. Her political allies point out that these
attacks were not directed by ISIS, but only claimed by ISIS after they
occurred. Her political enemies are blaming the attacks directly on
her policies. Germans will go to the polls about a year from now, and
Merkel has not yet announced whether she plans to run for a fourth
term. The Local (Germany) and Deutsche Welle and BBC and The Local (Germany)
****
**** Knife-wielding massacre near Tokyo Japan kills 19
****
In one of the worst mass attacks that Japan has seen, a man wielding a
knife went on a stabbing rampage in a care facility near Tokyo for
people with disabilities, killing at least 19 and wounding 25 others.
Satoshi Uematsu, 26, later drove to the police station and turned
himself in. He had a bag full of knives, some bloodstained, when he
turned himself in. He had been an employee of the care home, but had
been sacked. He told police that he wanted to rid the world of
disabled people.
Police say that there is no connection to terrorism. Japan Times and BBC
****
**** Germany's Der Spiegel asks: Is this the Apocalypse Now?
****
"I'm tired of living in interesting times," a Twitter user wrote
several days ago. According to an article in Germany's Der
Spiegel, people on social media ask every day: What is wrong with
2016? When will it be over? What more does it have in store for us?
In just the last few weeks, there was amass shooting in Orlando on
June 12, a huge Istanbul airport attack on June 28, a massive terror
attack in Dhaka on July 1, a deadly July 7 shooting in Dallas, and the
horrific Bastille Day attack in Nice on July 14. The next day, on
July 15, was the attempted coup d'état in Turkey.
And now, in the last week, there have been four violent attacks in
Germany, including two on Sunday, and a major knife attack in Japan on
Monday.
The article says:
[indent]<QUOTE>"This year, international political events have
overlapped in an unsettling way. Something seems to be coalescing
and brewing, though it's not yet clear what. Each new development
seems to come a bit faster than the last. It may have begun with
the Arab Spring in 2011, but it also continued with the wars in
Libya and Syria and was further exacerbated by the conflict
between Ukraine and Russia and the latest terrorist attacks. We
are witnessing the destabilization of the world as we've known it
since 1989."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
In fact, this is exactly what always happens in a generational Crisis
era. There are many reasons, but there are two major ones. First,
the last of the Silent generation of survivors of World War II have
all but disappeared, and their wisdom is no longer available to
prevent geopolitical catastrophes, leaving the world at the mercy of
increasingly nationalistic, racist and xenophobic younger generations.
The second reason is the Malthusian reason. As the population
continues to increase exponentially, with 200,000 people added to the
global population every day, there have been massive flows of refugees
in the Mideast, Africa and Asia, destabilizing societies and nations
everywhere. Furthermore, growing populations are displacing more and
more farmland, and the population is growing faster than the food
supply, resulting in constantly increasing poverty and starvation.
Both of these reasons give rise to desperate people who are willing to
kill in order to get what they believe they're entitled to, and that
means increasing chaos and war.
I had to chuckle when I heard the media commentary on Donald Trump's
speech last week, characterizing it as full of "doom and gloom." I
watched the speech live and didn't think that it was particularly
gloomy at all, since all of those doom and gloom things are things
that I've been predicting for years, based on Generational Dynamics
analyses. Generational Dynamics also predicts that there are no
solutions to these problems except another world war.
The article concludes:
[indent]<QUOTE>"Many of us simply don't understand the world
anymore. It will probably be up to the historians of future
generations to accurately categorize what exactly it is that we're
experiencing in these times of transition. This is, however, not
the time to give in to panic -- it is time to have confidence in
one's own values and keep fighting for the society one believes
in. Geopolitical turmoil is best overcome when one is grounded in
clear convictions, which holds true for both citizens and
countries as a whole. First of all, a clear compass is needed in
order to take responsibility for foreign policy, confront
dictators and manage the crises that we're
witnessing."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
I would respond by saying that those who study Generational Dynamics
understand the world only too well, but just aren't happy with what
they understand. As Solomon, who had an excellent intuitive
understanding of generational theory, says in Ecclesiastes: "For with
much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."
Der Spiegel (Berlin)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Germany, Ansbach, Mohammed D, Syria, Bulgaria,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Amaq News Agency, France, Germany, Afghanistan, Angela Merkel, Iran,
David Ali Sonboly, Reutlingen, Tokyo, Japan, Satoshi Uematsu,
Der Spiegel, Donald Trump, Solomon, Ecclesiastes
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
