Arafat Dead

[Gabu]

It's one thing to look forward to what the world will be like after someone's death and to be happy about that.  It's certainly true that things can probably only get better now that Arafat is out of power and that certainly is a good thing.  There's absolutely nothing wrong about being happy about the changes that will occur as a result of Arafat's death.

However, it's another thing to actually be happy about the death itself.  If we start to celebrate death and to be happy at the thought of someone going to hell, the separation will grow ever fuzzier between us and the Palestinian children seen cheering after 9/11 that everyone decried so harshly (and no, I'm not equating Arafat's death with the deaths on 9/11, for anyone who wants to make that comment).

Should we mourn the death?  No, absolutely not, not unless you want to.  Respect certainly doesn't have to be shown when respect is not due.  You don't even have to stop hating someone after they've died, although it would be good for your blood pressure.  However, a death should not be something to be celebrated.

That said, flame away.  I know that most will disagree and will likely call me a terrorist sympathizer.

[Gabu]

Gabu- I don't call you a terrorist sympathizer but I respectfully disagree that a death can never be celebrated. I think that good people can rationally celebrate a death when it might mean better things, e.x.: the death of Hitler. This should actually be phrased as, celebrating the thing that comes from a death.

Hitler's death was probably the best thing to happen to the world in the first half of the 21st century.  It signified the end of an extremely dark era and the end of a terrible, terrible regime.  I absolutely think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with viewing the death as a turning point after which the world can start to heal.  Hitler's removal from power was an extremely good thing to happen to Europe and no sane person could argue otherwise.  I would certainly not argue with anyone who felt happy looking at what could now happen now that Hitler was out of power.

However, I would argue with anyone who was happy at the death itself.  I personally feel that the lives of people like that are extremely lamentable cases: often a horrible childhood and bad circumstances in the world lead to what would have otherwise been a normal life turning into a horrible calamity for the world that fills everyone involved with hatred of something.  I would certainly deal with it as appropriate, but I would not celebrate the inevitable end of it.

The world should not shed a single tear over this guy's grave.  And Gabu, this guy made his deal with the devil when he started his terror career.  No 72 virgins waiting on him.  No , you are right, hell is not a joking matter but he will reside there as surely as any lost soul.  May God comfort his family.

As I said, I'm not asking people to mourn his death.  I'm certainly not going to.  The world will probably be much better off without him.  I'm just saying that I don't feel that it's right to derive happiness from a death.

[Gabu]

Gabu, you may be right. You are certainly right as applying to certain people. It's kind of hard to see in these particular cases, however. It's hard to see what happened in Hitler's development that may have led him to do what he did.

Well...

- His mother, Klara, the only one of his relatives willing to support him in any way, died from cancer when Hitler was nineteen.
- His father, Alois, savagely beat him whenever he did not do what he was told.
- His younger brother, Edmund, died at the age of six.
- In 1909 he was a penniless homeless person in Vienna.
- In 1918 when the armistice was signed, Hitler felt immensely betrayed.

Perhaps none of this would make someone do specific activities, but it would certainly foster a lot of hate in someone, and with hate and the subsequent loss of humanity, a lot of unspeakable things become possible.

For practically all of his and Germany's troubles, Hitler blamed the Jews, from having a bad economy to losing WWI.  It can only be speculated upon regarding how Hitler would have been different had he had a loving, upper class upbringing, but it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he would have been a very different person.

To clarify, I am not in any way justifying his actions or trying to say that they were okay.  Hitler's actions were of an undescribably horrific nature and, as I said before, his death was absolutely essential for global well-being.  I'm simply saying that they did come from somewhere.

Similarly, Arafat understood the benefits that might have been accrued from seriously negotiating a deal, he also knew the costs if a deal were to fail, or at least he should have. He had a strong hold as Palestinian leader and long experience as a figure on the international scene. It's hard to see how exactly his failures throughout the 1990s to act decisively against terrorism, then again in 2000-2001, can be somehow blamed on environment or childhood. More likely it was something willful, relating to his desire to maintain power within Palestinian security structures. Though, admittedly, he probably regretted his mistake at Camp David. So it's hard to say. Overall, he was not a good leader and supported terrorism over and over again, even though he had plenty of opportunity to act differently. He certainly did not deserve to be leader of the Palestinians and caused 1,000's of deaths.

I'm not saying that his actions specifically stemmed from his childhood and the environment in which he grew up.  Rather, I'm saying that his personality from which he derived the logic behind his actions stemmed from something along those lines.  Psychologists have said in the past that one's personality is only 10% genetics; the other 90% comes from your environment as you grow up.

I personally reject the notion that anyone is inherently evil; obviously, someone who doesn't will arrive at a different conclusion than mine.  Given that I don't believe that someone is inherently evil, I simply personally don't feel that it's right to celebrate that person's death, no matter how evil his actions may have been.