I’m painfully aware of the horrors of the Nakba, of the Holocaust, of the genocide that the U.S. inflicted on the native Americans through Manifest Destiny, of the ongoing travails promoted by colonialism, particularly on descendants of people from Africa, and of our current administration’s horrendous actions toward so many decent undocumented immigrants; the latter at the violent direction of Stephen Miller, who is himself the descendant of Jews who fled the pogroms of Easter Europe. But I’ve never read such an accurate, coherent description of the origins and propagating forces behind terrorism.
Always love your references. But it is more reading on terrorism than I have time for (as i struggle to compete a dissertation). I am glad, to the point of relief, to see some discussion of this term which is perhaps one of the most woeful pieces of 'common sense' (a la gramsci) of our current era. It always disturbs me to see how people (left, right, and everywhere else on the spectrum) use this term so unthinkingly - apropos of Arendt's notion of the lack of "thinking" she identified to explain Eichmann's behaviour. Every time i hear or read this term I am reminded of Arendt's warnings that any of us can practice this unthinkingness - creating, of course, the threat of the reproduced horrors of which the Holocaust is only the most infamous instance of too many. Your analysis is spot on. I am a big fan of Raymond Williams' "Keywords" to which i turn regularly for illumination though neither his book nor several of its descendants include "terrorism." I did find a good rendering by Tony Crowley in "Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism" (No. 14 (2016), pp. 116-118). Crowley writes that the term really gets it's start in the French Revolution (i.e. "The Terror") and that is when it began a stretch of almost 150 years of referring to the State use of violence. It strikes me that we were made powerfully amnesiac about that history which set the stage for virtually flipping its meaning to that of the "violence of non-state actors." And that it created the conditions of the non-thinking association of terrorism with "barbarism," "savagery," "monstrosity," "evil," that continues to characterize its deployment today. All part of that unthinking "preload[ing] with moral judgment and political intent" you so accurately name.
Dear James, I shall be short: The Arabs want to erase Israël from the map and want to kill all the Jews, so we will fight till the end. Thank you for analyses. Am Israël Chai!!!
Dear Pablo, you will see in the near future that the Jews and Israëliërs has not much to choose. Sadly the rage is : they let us no other choice. The only door to our future is fighting for our lives. I have the sadly expirience as a Jew. THEY LET US NO CHOICE!!!! THEY DO not WANT US TO LIVE PEACEFuLLY. THEy SHOUT AT US AS ANIMALS. Sorry my friend, that is OUR live. Am Israël Chai.
“A warrior’s greatest victory is the mastery of their mind through the power of critical thinking.”…….Sun Tzu.
I’m painfully aware of the horrors of the Nakba, of the Holocaust, of the genocide that the U.S. inflicted on the native Americans through Manifest Destiny, of the ongoing travails promoted by colonialism, particularly on descendants of people from Africa, and of our current administration’s horrendous actions toward so many decent undocumented immigrants; the latter at the violent direction of Stephen Miller, who is himself the descendant of Jews who fled the pogroms of Easter Europe. But I’ve never read such an accurate, coherent description of the origins and propagating forces behind terrorism.
Required reading!
Always love your references. But it is more reading on terrorism than I have time for (as i struggle to compete a dissertation). I am glad, to the point of relief, to see some discussion of this term which is perhaps one of the most woeful pieces of 'common sense' (a la gramsci) of our current era. It always disturbs me to see how people (left, right, and everywhere else on the spectrum) use this term so unthinkingly - apropos of Arendt's notion of the lack of "thinking" she identified to explain Eichmann's behaviour. Every time i hear or read this term I am reminded of Arendt's warnings that any of us can practice this unthinkingness - creating, of course, the threat of the reproduced horrors of which the Holocaust is only the most infamous instance of too many. Your analysis is spot on. I am a big fan of Raymond Williams' "Keywords" to which i turn regularly for illumination though neither his book nor several of its descendants include "terrorism." I did find a good rendering by Tony Crowley in "Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism" (No. 14 (2016), pp. 116-118). Crowley writes that the term really gets it's start in the French Revolution (i.e. "The Terror") and that is when it began a stretch of almost 150 years of referring to the State use of violence. It strikes me that we were made powerfully amnesiac about that history which set the stage for virtually flipping its meaning to that of the "violence of non-state actors." And that it created the conditions of the non-thinking association of terrorism with "barbarism," "savagery," "monstrosity," "evil," that continues to characterize its deployment today. All part of that unthinking "preload[ing] with moral judgment and political intent" you so accurately name.
"An eye for eye leaves the whole world blind" may be a cliche, but you clearly explain why it is true.
Dear James, I shall be short: The Arabs want to erase Israël from the map and want to kill all the Jews, so we will fight till the end. Thank you for analyses. Am Israël Chai!!!
I wonder what you envisage as “the end” you’ll fight for. I feel saddened by your apparent rage.
Dear Pablo, you will see in the near future that the Jews and Israëliërs has not much to choose. Sadly the rage is : they let us no other choice. The only door to our future is fighting for our lives. I have the sadly expirience as a Jew. THEY LET US NO CHOICE!!!! THEY DO not WANT US TO LIVE PEACEFuLLY. THEy SHOUT AT US AS ANIMALS. Sorry my friend, that is OUR live. Am Israël Chai.