The Paris massacre had a single goal: ISIS wants to kill the essence of life, life in the West — what the French so perfectly call “joie de vivre.”

Nowhere was this more evident than in the brutal attack at Le Bataclan, a nightclub that was packed full of young people enjoying a Friday night out.

The venue, originally built in 1865, was owned by Jews for decades and played host to pro-Israel events, among other celebrations deemed offensive to extremist ideologues. Even still, Friday’s celebration at Le Bataclan was far from political. The Eagles of Death Metal are a California band known for their wit and devil-may-care lyrics. Their shtick is that they have no shtick, and they were in town to party.

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Culture — art, music and writing that represent the foundation of free speech — is a symbol of the free world. More importantly, it is the most cherished by-product of capitalism.

It’s hard to imagine a productive capitalist society if the citizens of capitalist societies couldn’t enjoy the fruits of their labor. TGIF is the rallying cry for capitalist laborers everywhere because, when the work day is done, the workers go play.

“Work hard, play hard” in the free world is the formula for joie de vivre.

That ISIS would target innocent victims during play time (at concerts, sports contests and cafes — all three hit by terror attacks) reveals, more than any other attack to date, the sinister agenda of ISIS: the senseless and spiteful destruction of humanity.

Related: Stop ISIS: Borders, Guns and God

Contrary to media hype, there were no hostages in Friday’s massacre. That would imply negotiation. These killers are cold-blooded murderers bent on the destruction of mankind for their own selfish, irrational and practically cartoonish, evil philosophy.

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But there’s another takeaway. The Paris massacre, more than any other previous terrorist attack, reveals the contradictions of ISIS itself. For a group of ideologues that takes pride in employing soldiers “divorced (from) the worldly life,” according to their official statement, the execution of events in Paris was decidedly modern. Armed with assault rifles and explosive belts, these terrorists aren’t afraid to use the convenience of modern weaponry to achieve their goals.

The greatest irony of ISIS is how little it resembles the medieval vision the terrorists have for the world.

Their philosophy may be antiquated, but their weapons are not.

Related: ISIS: Faith without Reason

The mass destruction they so deftly administered is made possible only by inventions of modern society — capitalists. And the effect is nothing short of Hollywood fiction — only their executions resemble the grisly slaughter scenes in “The Godfather” more than the primitive mano a mano battles in “Braveheart.”

ISIS isn’t composed of barbarians. No, these terrorists are just gangsters. And gangsters, as anyone in Hollywood can attest, aren’t martyrs.

ISIS is a thug organization operating under the guise of religion.

If ISIS wanted to convince the world that their aims were purely religious or strictly political, they wouldn’t have chosen to target cultural symbols in one of the most sophisticated cities on the planet. Instead, they took aim at our culture of freedom, and in doing so, revealed their own hypocrisy.

These aren’t men of principle; they’re opportunists. And immoral thugs.