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John O’Sullivan in National Review on the Martin Place siege:
“His was a terrorist version of a ‘happening,’ or what the Russian anarchists in the late 19th century called ‘the propaganda of the deed.’ Capturing innocent people, menacing them, making them help with his propaganda, maybe trying to kill them … and then perishing himself when the police intervened to stop what threatened to be a massacre — these were intended to excite the admiration of other Islamists and young men tempted by the Islamist ideology.
In a narrow sense he may have briefly succeeded. Throughout the Islamic world there are likely to be terror groupies sending tweets out to celebrate his name. Let us help them. His name is Herostratus: He burned down the Temple of Diana at Ephesus so that his name would live in history. And so it has — as the man who burned down a beautiful building for a stupid pointless reason. Herostratus is not remembered with admiration or with fondness but merely with shrugging contempt. And so it will be with Whatshisname.”
For the full column follow the link below
