What puzzles me is why terrorism has become so prevalent in my lifetime.
As a child I remember wars being fought in various faraway places – Kenya,Cyprus,Aden and so on.They were regrettable of course,and even more so when they involved the loss of British troops.But you never had the sense that ordinary people would be deliberately targetted.
The first really shocking thing to me was Kennedy’s assasination,and yes,I do remember where I was at the time.
It seemed as if there had suddenly been an enormous shift.
Before that I’d had the impression that these things were only likely to happen in some tinpot foreign country,not at the very centre of Western civilisation.With attacks on political leaders more or less commonplace now it’s difficult to comprehend the sense of shock and disbelief felt at the time.
Same thing when the IRA and loyalist extremists attacked civilians,it just was something that would previously have been unthinkable.
So in very general terms it feels as if the world has become a more violent place.
And why now,in this particular century,should followers of certain religions feel that their way of dealing with followers of other,or even no religions,is not to attempt to convert them by peaceful persuasion,but simply to destroy them ?
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