Waking Time: A Sample Essay For Inspiration & Mimicking

In January 2015, two persons attacked “Charlie Hebdo”, a renowned French satirical weekly newspaper. It turned out later that the attackers were Al-Qaeda jihadist - born and raised in France. Instantaneously, the mass media including TV, Internet (Social Media), and newspaper started broadcasting and publishing videos and images related with the horrible incident. People all around the world showed their support to the victims and their families by honoring them with tributes and also arranged peaceful demonstrations against terrorist activities. The gravity of the event reached the desired threshold for the formation of another international coagulation against the new brutal and growing up terrorist groups, particularly ISIS and Al-Qaeda. After one year of the Paris incidence, the coagulation efforts do not seem strong enough as a complimentary solution to eradicate the problem. The reason is simple. Since then, the terrorist activities have metastasized from Middle East to Europe and the United States. The creation, propagation, and the threateningly negative impact of these new terrorist groups can be briefly explained from various political and social aspects.
The Western politicians have eventually realized that democracy can neither happen overnight in any society nor it can be bestowed as a gift. The leaders of the ‘powerful’ countries have now gained the understanding and admit that their precedent wrong actions to make changes in the political system of other countries in the past were inappropriate. They recognize that the attempts to modify political systems through military coups and provision of support to the tyrannical dictators and militant groups must not be practiced anymore. Hence, it is now understandable that changing the governments, social dynamics, and cultural textures in the name of democracy without knowing their history and background certainly results in catastrophic consequences. These activities inevitably create political vacuum; which in turn destroys all ongoing democratic movement in the occupied/invaded countries and almost always empowers the extremists. Undoubtedly, all wrong strategies in the past have directly or indirectly resulted in the creation of all the new terrorist groups in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Syria.
The social changes that took place mainly in European countries have played a major role in feeding the terrorist groups. The reason behind this claim comes back to the structure and composition of the terrorist groups. By looking at the organizational structures of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, it is rather simple to comprehend that these groups principally recruit young personnel in the Western world rather than those inhabiting the Middle East. To understand this phenomenon, it is important to look nine years back and investigate the 2005 Paris riots. At that moment, the French government did not take the riots seriously. Moreover, the other Western countries also did not pay any heed to those anarchic circumstances. However, several French sociologists introduced the prolonged social and systemic discrimination against people with different descent and foreign origin as the main underlying reason of the riots. In other words, pushing people to the margin of the society will eventually polarize a society wherein extremists have the opportunity to grow up, live, and survive. In this polarity, radical people can be easily deceived for anarchic and anti social activities by terrorist groups. This is the reason the new terrorist groups have targeted the European young generation through the mass media such as the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
People in a society wherein terrorist activities are a norm definitely feel insecure and unprotected. This feeling of insecurity is a huge problem that may consequently affect all other aspects of individual and public life. Additionally, having an insecure country can have a drastic economical impact on the lives of the people by dissuading foreign investors. This, in return, dwindle job opportunities. In a terrorized society, no one will feel secure and safe. The question is: how can people find a permanent solution for this seemingly invincible problem? One way to achieve this goal is to go through the media. In my opinion, the free and independent mass media, as the heart and eyes of democratic societies, can have an essential role in educating people rather than just covering the terrorist groups’ news. For instance, the media can broadcast more programs and invite sociologists and political experts who can thoroughly analyze the problems and their underlying reasons. In this way, public will not blindly support the war against any country. Personally, I do not believe in the utilization (and manipulation) of the military force as the sole solution for this universal problem. In fact, fighting against these groups, over the last two years, has only worsened the circumstances. I truly believe that the permanent solutions to this issue lies in education, mutual respect, and equity in sharing the world resources with others. Instead of spending billions and billions of dollars on weapons, we can provide better educational, industrial, and economical systems to the terrorism-affected countries. In this way, there would be no room for any radical or extreme ideology or belief to grow, expand, and circulate. In order to fight with the darkness, we do not need to raise the sword; we need to bring the light in. These solutions might not work immediately, but they will eventually show their impact in a long run. We do not have to forget that every astonishing accomplishment starts from the seemingly impossible dream.