Terrorism

[fpb]

One thing in which I did not share the emotions of other people who posted on the Russian school massacre is surprise. A lot of people seemed bewildered, as though this represented something new in their lives. I have every sympathy for this reaction, but I cannot share it. Growing up in the seventies in Italy made you familiar with the worst kind of political violence. On August 2, 1980, Fascist terrorists murdered some eighty people in the main railway station in Bologna, as they were going on their holiday. That was only the worst of a long, long series of acts of violence from Fascist, Communist and Mafia terrorists. Those who remember those days are not surprised by any depth of abjection in political violence. And, incidentally, anyone who is idiotic enough to be nostalgic about the seventies (and seventies nostalgia is a growing industry) was obviously never there.

Comments

[bruno-greengras.livejournal.com]

One thing you have to remember, is that not all people have your experience.
I was born in 1974, and to me the 70ies was the happiest time of my life. I was a child, and I lived a sheltered life surrounded by people who loved me. I've lived all my life in a corner of the planet where nothing happened, at least not bad things. Know what I mean? I think back and remember completely other things than you. I was a child, that's true, but my mother feels the same way - she's fifty now. And by no means is she an idiot for thinking back and being nostalgic about the time she was happy. To her, the 70ies meant something else than what it does to you. She's an intelligent woman, and calling people idiots...
No.

To some people yesterday came as a shock. I can't say I was shocked, but I was hoping so much for a peaceful resolution to this - and I was disappointed. I should learn to not get disappointed anymore, but that's a thing I'll never learn, I suppose.