I don’t really write posts about politics. Or religion. Mainly because I think that everyone should be allowed to live as they wish as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process. But sitting here tonight, having read the news about the destruction of Palmyra, I feel compelled to write something. Not because I have anything profound to say, or because I believe I have answers, but because I feel so disappointed.

Credit Photograph by JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty

Most things, once they are gone, never come back. I find it hard to believe that there are religious grounds for this kind of thing. I’m happy for someone to provide me with a convincing argument, but for now, it seems like the destruction is simply for the sake of it.

I write because I think there is an unfathomable darkness in humans. I would rather explore it on the page than in reality. Yet there is no denying that when people of a similar mindset come together, that darkness can multiply quickly. That the legitimisation of evil, of inhumanity and a disregard for history or culture, once it happens, makes people feel instantly free to give into that darkness.

After all, the legitimisation of the persecution of minorities in Germany led to the Holocaust. At the end of it, what happened to that nation? Ordinary people who behaved in ways they surely would never have imagined, but because the people who led them said it was okay, then it became okay. How did they feel? The world got together as World War Two came to an end and said this must never happen again.

The world lied.