The Earth Liberation Front may have struck again, and again in the Pacific Northwest. (This article is on the ELF site):
SAMMAMISH - Two eastside homes still under construction appear to have been targeted in a possible case of domestic terrorism.
Whoever did it left a calling card at one house. The sign on the front yard said, 'Where are all the trees? Burn, rapist, burn. E.L.F"
To the uninitiated: The reference to "rapist" is meant to infer that the works of Man — or certain of them symbolic of Man's evil (houses, SUVs, condos, ski resorts) — are equivalent to rape, in the sense that Man is raping Mother Earth.
Symbolism rules . . .
E.L.F. stands for the Earth Liberation Front, a group known to engage in eco-terrorism.
"It goes beyond arson to domestic terrorism. It's typically what this group has been involved in," said Sgt. John Urquhart with the King County Sheriffs Department.
Inside the house at Inglewood Hill Road and East Lake Sammamish Parkway, investigators found the gas turned on and discovered a device used to start a fire. The device did not work.
"We have a device that appears similar in nature to devices we have in the Metropolitan area," said Special Agent in Charge Kalvin Crenshaw with the ATF.
ATF agents think the device is similar to those used one year ago to torch houses at Lobo Ridge in Snohomish County. ELF took responsibility for that attack. The group targeted four homes, two burned to the ground.
"It's pretty amazingly stupid," said neighbor David Ammon, "and arrogant to burn homes knowing that the lumber is going to be replaced and other trees are going to replace that lumber."
Mr. Ammon doesn't understand . . . he's judging the ELF fanatics by conventional, 21st Century standards, and mistakenly thinks that the terrorists were primarily interested in protecting the environment.
They are not. They are interested in making a highly symbolic statement. Their need to express themselves in the most dramatic way possible trumps any damage they might cause to the environment, either directly or indirectly (Mr. Ammon is correct — other trees will be cut to replace those burned by the ELF terrorists).
If you judge these ELF arsonists in terms of the rules of cause and effect — as in "if I cause a fire that burns down a wood house, then the construction people will cut down more trees" you'll be forever confused, because the consequences of the arson will have a predictably negative impact on the very environment that is the object of their reverence and whose protection provides the rationale for the act of arson.
So put logic and reason and practicality aside. In fact, discard them altogether.
But — if you see the arson as symbolic high drama, the acting out of a fantasy, then the torching of the houses can be understood as an art form — something that is meant to stand alone solely on its esthetics (or in this case ideology). Then, the practical issue of the real costs and benefits to the environment become irrelevant.
In short, symbolism and ideological purity are everything to our friendly ELF arsonists.
We've seen this kind of thing before, when ALF released foxes into the wild, and hoped with all their hearts "that some would make it." The drama of their escapade, its daring (in their eyes), the symbolism of the release — all trumped the fate of the foxes themselves, who were the objects of ALF's liberating action, and the potentially devastating effects the sudden influx of those foxes would have on the local habitat.
David wondered if his home, just two blocks away, was also a target.
At 5:00 a.m. a fire burned his home, which is also under construction. It destroyed his garage, but firefighters saved the house.
"They got lucky and I got unlucky this morning," said Ammon.
Neighbors around the first house say the owner did cut down the trees and plans to build two more houses on the lot. But neighbors see it happening all around them.
Neighbor Doug Rasmussen said, "So it's well within their rights to do what they did . And whoever did the fire, if it was something related to the wildlife or the trees, there's better ways to deal with it."
Neighbor Rasmussen is, of course, a little closer to the mark than Mr. Ammon: "if it was something related to the wildlife or the trees . . .".
"It" is related to the wildlife and trees but only tangentially: the wildlife and the trees are symbols of Mother Earth, symbols that are parts of a stage-set that provides a backdrop for the dramatic and symbolic act of arson, a ritual that will have predictable practical consequences — Mother Earth will be raped for more trees to replace the one's that our ELF actors torched while acting out a fantasy.
"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
. . ." Shakespeare, As You Like It
(Inspired by the classic article by Lee Harris: Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology)
Brian