haunted by fire (4)

what the IS killers have done with these horrific executions is to confront us with a form of evil we had intentionally left behind: face-to-face sadism -- knowing we would project it through our media to all corners of society. they are like the horror/suspense movie villain, using security cameras to mock the police captain helplessly watching as the villain prepares to torment his (usually female) captive. i believe that IS emerged in part -- in large part -- due to the controlling and distancing inherent in the global system. first, in the existence of the twin dictatorships of iraq and syria, sustained by the global system of alliances and trade and nourished by cold war blocs. these dictatorships bred a kind of latent extremism, as citizens were held in the suffocating embrace of the state but without a corresponding sense of usefulness or belonging. and secondly, in the american invasion which brought the state structure of iraq crumbling down, a violent process into which the disaffected and disempowered elements moved swiftly.