http://www.flickr.com/photos/79391197@N00/588520240

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79391197@N00/588520240

Three related things happened to me over the weekend:

  1. I saw the headline of the Evening Standard on Friday night on the train on the way home;
  2. Paris was attacked and over 120 innocent people killed; and
  3.  On Saturday I caught up with both Dr Who episodes about the Zygon invasion.

Bear with me, I’m not being flippant; as with all good science fiction, Dr Who holds up a mirror to ourselves.

First the Evening Standard headline, it’s different in the online version,  but in hardcopy it was stark; in big letters it celebrated the death of Mohammed Emwazi (aka ‘Jihadi John’) with the word Evaporated. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I can’t mourn the death of a man who claimed responsibility for brutally beheading innocent hostages. I fully accept that ISIS are at war with us and it is unlikely that he would ever have been brought to justice, but I can’t celebrate an extra-judicial killing. He showed no mercy, but we don’t need to dehumanise him with a word as ironically cold as ‘evaporated’. I think it reduces our understanding of his crimes.

With that headline the Evening Standard demonstrated that it has fully bought into the propaganda war. In propagandaland, killing Emwazi has struck a blow at the heart of ISIS and we are now safer.

Three hours later the first news reports came in from Paris.

And then I watched two episodes of Dr Who back-to-back (SPOILER ALERT). 

The set-up: 20m shape-shifting Zygons are safely hidden on earth having taken human form after a secret treaty was signed between the Doctor, Unit (the UK’s secret alien busting service) and the Zygon leaders. But the next generation is growing up. They are unhappy with the treaty that hides them and therefore allows them to live safely. They have become radicalised and have established training camps in a made up country with a central Asian sounding name.

So the somewhat ham-fisted parallels are there, and to be honest, I thought the first episode was a bit weak. But the main speech in the second episode nails it.

Bonnie, the terrorist Zygon’s commander, has got command of the box that can end the peace treaty. But when she opens the box she finds it has two buttons which the Doctor informs her will either detonate a nuclear bomb under London or unmask all Zygons on earth whether willing or not. This will force them to fight the humans who will be horrified to find out what has been hidden in their midst. This what Bonnie wants of course; instant radicalisation of her core demographic.

Kate, the head of Unit, has the twin box which offers two equally apocalyptic and unpalatable choices .

Both Bonnie and Kate appear willing to take a chance and press one of their buttons, despite not knowing which will give them pyrrhic victory.

And then the Doctor pitches reason against hate (for the full transcript see here).

The Doctor:The only way anyone can live in peace is if they’re prepared to forgive. Why don’t you break the cycle? […]

Bonnie: Why should we?

The Doctor: What is it that you actually want?

Bonnie: War.

The Doctor: Ah. And when this war is over, when — when you have the homeland free from humans, what do you think it’s going to be like? Do you know? […} What’s it going to be like? Paint me a picture. […]

When you’ve killed all the bad guys, and it’s all perfect and just and fair, when you have finally got it exactly the way you want it, what are you going to do with the people like you? The troublemakers. How are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one? […]

There’s then a little back and forth which ends with the Doctor mimicking a gameshow host daring them to press one of their buttons.

Kate: This is not a game!

The Doctor: No, it’s not a game […]

This is a scale model of war. Every war ever fought right there in front of you. Because it’s always the same. When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who’s going to die. You don’t know who’s children are going to scream and burn. […] until everybody does what they’re always going to have to do from the very beginning — sit down and talk! Listen to me, listen. I just — I just want you to think. Do you know what thinking is? It’s just a fancy word for changing your mind. […]

Bonnie: I will not change my mind.

The Doctor: Then you will die stupid. […]

Bonnie: No, I’m not stopping this, Doctor. I started it. I will not stop it.

The Doctor: You’re all the same, you screaming kids, you know that? “Look at me, I’m unforgivable.” Well here’s the unforeseeable, I forgive you. After all you’ve done. I forgive you.

And there it is in a nutshell. We can make ourselves feel good by evaporating the latest terrorist bogeyman and then sit back and wait for them to feel good about their latest outrage.

Or we can reach out to the millions of muslims who condemn the murders in Paris as we do, who feel as sick and scared as we do. We can build the future together, or we can tear it apart.

Photo credit: openDemocracy