United under Art

Often, what happens when the newest video from ISIS pops up, is a simple thing. We see acts of brutality committed by half-wits and full-of-shits and we are able to judge them for their actions. This includes feeling sympathy for the victims, vindication that our own beliefs don't lead us to barbarous acts, and anger that these events continue to occur and ISIS has found a vein on the internet which allows them to enjoy a Kardashian-like popularity (though they send fewer obvious ripples through the fashion industry.) But these emotions are normally brief before we return to the lives that we have chosen to live.

But one of the more recent ISIS videos caused me more pause than a routine beheading. And instead of pass judgment on cretins for being cretins, I was forced to judge myself for not reacting how I thought a proper humanist should react. Why had this video caused revile in a way that someone losing their life had ceased to do?

The video showed men acting, with the sort of aggression that can only come as a result of sexual non-to-do, by taking sledgehammers to ancient statues. I was offended at a depth that one of their videos (videos of senseless murder) had not offended me since, well, I can't remember when. These goons were destroying art.

Even the fucking Nazis collected art.

But, perhaps, therein lies the rub. For as truly disgusting as the Nazis actions were, their motivations were forward. They had goals. Ridiculous goals, sure, but even they were working towards something.

I guess so long as the thugs with ISIS were forcing people to praise allah before executing them, I allowed myself the convenience of imagining that their motivation was world domination in the name of a child rapist.

Like a bad episode of G.I. Joe.

But it seems they truly have no endgame. Even a child crying in the night has a purpose, even if that purpose is simply to gain attention. But these acts are sub-toddler in their nature. One is tempted to say sub-human, but their justification of "god" is far too human. It seems ISIS is simply acting with no drive, goals or motivation except for the destruction of everything humankind has heretofore constructed.

Do not confuse this for Nihilism, which often gets its point muted when shouted in accusatory tones by someone with a pop-culture education (see: "its just a theory.) Said Russian Nihilist Dmitri Pisarev of the philosophy, "Here is the ultimatum of our camp- What can be smashed must be smashed, whatever will withstand the blow is sound. What flies into smithereens is rubbish. At any rate, hit out right and hit out left, no harm will or can come of it."

Sure, this sounds right after watching the video of these buffoons, no? But Nihilism is a philosophy, and the "blow" to be sustained is philosophizing. Not sledgehammering. In this way, ISIS acts less under the banner of Nihilism and more under the banner of Annihilationism. Which may be where the initial rebuke comes from when watching that video. It is sad when someone loses their life. But art is symbolic of civilization itself, for and under which every Homo sapien sapien has the duty to protect and the right to live. So when these things are destroyed in such mindless acts, it is an attack on everyone who has ever lived.

Also, the ISIS stooges have put their precious, third-hand, mostly plagiarized, babble-book in a hermetic box before the job of delivering the blow was executed. Hence, there are no blow jobs in Islam. And any ideology which is not subject to or accepting of the proposition of blow jobs, is an ideology which I clearly wish to be free from.

Those ideologies tend to leave their followers with more daily frustrations than I'm willing to deal with.



ADRIAN FORT is a writer, blogger, and essayist from Kansas City, Missouri. Follow him on twitter @adriananyway. His work has appeared in Existere, decomP magazinE, The Bluest Aye, Bareback Magazine, Gadfly Online, Chrome Baby, The Eunoia Review, Linguistic Erosion, and Smashed Cat Magazine. His Master's Degree is from Lindenwood University.