On The Ariana Grande Concert Terrorist Attack

From The Desk Of Jakob Musıck: Secretary-General of Nothing
May 23 2017 (Savonarola executed)
4 Prairial an 225 de la Révolution
Year Juche 106

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On The Ariana Grande Concert Terrorist Attack

I write today’s editorial with the greatest sadness in my heart over (of course) another senseless attack on civilians. Every life matters and everyone is important. Human life is equal. That is something that a number of ideologies can agree upon, thankfully. But, for me, as well as many die-hard pop musick fans, this attack meant something more-- building upon the sense of insecurity that the assassination of Christina Grimmie and the attack on the Pulse dance-club that happened just miles from where I am composing this. Unfortunately, as the world woke up this morning, we learned that the deaths were in the double-digits, some of them children. The youngest confirmed death I had heard was 8 years-old. From what the police of Greater Manchester, UK have released thus-far, we know that there was an explosive which was detonated about 2-5 minutes after the final end of the concert. This led to pandemonium. The killer reportedly died with his weapon, although the police arrested another man.

This is one of several nefarious sides to acts meant to cause terror: They de-stabilize the very foundations of social life. Things that are routine are no longer routine anymore. It makes everyone think twice about themselves in large crowds. It will make countless people extra-conscious when attending concerts. It could be about a larger assault on Western Culture, although some have said it was just where he could kill the most people on that night, as the stadium is a massive venue.

Most tragic of all is, the age of many of those who had the misfortune of being present at this concert. Yes, a small number were killed, but a much larger number are still here with us, traumatized and paralyzed with fear. Nobody should go to a pop concert and have to think about whether they will return that night. This is even more true for children and teenagers. For some, this concert in Manchester was their chance to see an idol. For some, it may have been their first time going out to a big event on their own. A user on Popjustice remarked on the makeup of the Dublin concert just days before the Manchester event, that it was composed mostly of young children and their parents. To think that there were children who just had the time of their lives, feeling the high of seeing on-stage magic, and then just seconds later being exploded to their death is a violent thought in and of itself.

For many, myself included, popular musick is and has been a life-line, particularly in the sensitive years of puberty and high school. For devoted fans, these popstars are our gods and goddesses; they are larger than life. The only possible thing that we can take heartened from the deaths of these concert-goers is that hopefully they were able to fully enjoy seeing one of their favourite people before their lives were cut short. For the kids and teens of today, I have read and will repeat here, Ariana is akin to Madonna or Britney Spears. And of Ariana-- can you imagine having to deal with the fact that 20 people died after coming to see you?

Time is needed in these incidents before we publicly begin to draw political judgements and make commentaries upon the implications of such things. If this is indeed the work of Islamic State, as the Caliphate has claimed, than it will cause us again, the West, collectively to try to advance our cause against them. But for now, while we know barely anything beyond the nationality of the man who was alleged to have done this, (Libyan) speech such as the disgraceful television presenter Piers Morgan demanding of Soap stars the morning after the attack that they, as non-Muslims, should demand of the masses of Muslims try to reform their community. The television stars were rightly shocked that Morgan would bring it up so soon (we know he is Arab, but not *all* Arabs are Muslim; it is likely, but not something that was in circulation to my knowledge at the time) and try to make political hay of it. Same with the equally disgraceful Sun magazine using the event to level attacks on the Bourgeois “Labour” party over their positions. In short, the death of children at a pop concert is already being used politically, which makes sense in a way, as terrorism is inherently political in most cases. But speaking so soon, with so much left unknown is rash and we should not do that. I have spoken privately to family about what I think may have happened, or whom was behind it, but that would irresponsible to distribute because we simply do not know enough yet.

We do know enough to understand how tragic this event is, how tragic it was for life-- both young and old to die at the site of enchantment and wonder, how tragic it was for so many traumas created yesterday, how many lives will be affected, people who will now suffer survivor’s guilt, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, and PTSD. How tragic it was that a site of fun and fancy (pop concerts) that are havens for, stereotypically, younger girls and gays, sites similar to Gay bars and theme parks where (sometimes) anything seems possible makes this doubly sad. For pop fans, it truly does feel like an attack on us. Many others have said this, and I understand it may sound completely narcissistic given the circumstances, but even with each having their own favourite-- online and offline -- we form an obsessive community where we watch, listen to, and talk about new things everyday. These commercial works of art mark the times of our lives-- as we first started to buy musick, and then grow up, through our teen years, and become adults, face the worst times of our lives, and hopefully the best. For some budding pop fans, they will never get this chance to have a decade or more of pop fandom. Their timeline was cut short. I have no doubt that this will change the way things are run, though I don’t know how. It is worth it to remember that the much-vaunted ‘concert disaster’ of The Who, resulted in about half the deaths we are speaking of today.

Sometimes events are just absorbed into your subconscious, when your conscious mind has a less-strong reaction or cannot react at all. Today, reading through the threads of pop fans, some who had attended Manchester, some who were planning to go to future concerts, some who had taken their children to concerts like these, and teachers who witnessed their students shook-- reading their stories repeatedly caused my mind to go numb, but my feelings ached in deep sympathetic pain. We live in an age where every day is filled with less and less innocence.  If I was of a young age, attending perhaps my first concert, I saw one of my idols performing and then immediately witnessed a mass-tragedy, my life would have been irrevocably split between the ‘before’ and ‘after.’ I imagine that is how many children, teens, and adults are beginning to live today.

We may have our different faves; we may participate in feuds and drag each other through the dirt on occasion even being fundamentalist about our devotion to our artists when we know they are wrong/bad, but today the Pop stans are united in their solidarity and revulsion at the innocence they have stolen from these victims, and from our community. There is ‘news’ everyday in this pop world; rarely will any of it be of consequence in 40 years, not less the next week. But this event will go down in infamy, as when the seemingly distant struggles of the political world befell the innocence of the pop world, and forced us into engagement with the outside world.

I would like to end this post by sharing this image. This is a picture of the first victim named as dead from the attack, meeting her idol Ariana Grande in 2015.

Rest in Peace