The Terrorist Attack In Barcelona: When Bad Things Happen Good People

When injustice and adversity collide with good people, life loses its rhythm and logic. But what kind-hearted people will never lose is hope.

Even if evil lowers them, goodness will always bring them back. It is a golden link around us all that will sooner or later make us stronger, brave people.

They say that terrorism has a weapon beyond taking life and creating chaos. This second weapon is to instill mental fear in people.

That fear gives them power over their victims. It makes them confident that the invisible thread of terror will change our lifestyle and reveal our need to feel safe.

On August 17 last year , we experienced the same feeling again. That was after two new terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain. There were victims of 18 different nationalities.

Again, we mourned the loss of life. The lives of beautiful, good people. Little children. Mothers and fathers, grandparents, friends and citizens who just enjoyed another afternoon on one of our world’s beautiful streets.

The evil came to visit again. And although it is not new or unique, even though there are dozens of people dying every day in the same circumstances all over the world, there is more than that.

How should we respond to these situations? Psychologists who specialize in terrorism have an idea. Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon and Tom Pyszczynski warn us that these things change us in a very specific way…

Good people come together in bad situations

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack, social media was filled with pictures of cats. Why? Many Twitter users joined together for a common purpose: to stop images of victims from spreading. Instead, let’s share photos of our cats.

They also want to reduce the possible filtering of information that may be useful to terrorists. And it goes beyond this one attack; people show solidarity, a beautiful concern for their neighbor.

The citizens of Barcelona offered people who needed it a place to live, transportation was free, and businesses did their part.

These situations help us to see something. Despite the chaos, tragedy and fear, it is generosity that gives us dignity in the end. Those who show us how, more than we would have thought, are our world, inhabited mainly by good people.

This is exactly what the experts say, including those mentioned above.

Dr. Jeff Greenberg is a psychologist at the University of Arizona. He explains that after such an act of terrorism, we set in motion cultural survival mechanisms.

Very few moments make us feel as fragile and vulnerable as these events. Nothing is as devastating as the feeling that our security is a scam. Or that terrorism is as indiscriminate as it is unpredictable.

But in these contexts, far from giving hatred or revenge, something very interesting is happening to people. We feel more of a sense of community.

And above all, people are looking for a way to rebuild stability – and much more than just rebuilding a destroyed building.

What they want most of all is to restore their emotional stability and trust in who we are. A society that still believes in peace and respect.

People who, even though they have been hurt by terrible evil, continue to trust the goodness of mankind.

Learning to minimize and maximize our response to terrorism

Psychologists and psychiatrists who specialize in terrorist psychology suggest that in these situations we must put two types of answers into practice.

Read on to find out what they are.

Let’s try to minimize…

• Let’s try to minimize the exposure to images of the attacks, but not the information. Most media will try to control access to the worst images from the massacres. But sooner or later we see something that will have a big impact on us. So let’s avoid them. Let’s share pictures of cats.
• We must also minimize our thoughts about hatred. It is also important to minimize the feeling of fear as much as possible. We can not let terror prevail over us.

Let’s try to maximize…

• Let us try to maximize our actions of support and generosity.
• Our donations. Either through social media or messages of  support or even our presence, by helping (offering places to sleep, donating blood…).
• Positivity. We stop being victims, and instead encourage authentic support, solidarity and community.

Unfortunately, even bad things happen to good people. But there is a difference for people who understand that violence is a form of language and oppression.

They understand that goodness knows no surrender, and never gives in. We stand up again to defend our values, and peace will be the flag we wave.