I, I, I, ME, ME, ME:

Groundhog Die: a review of Blood & Rage: a Cultural History of Terrorism (Michael Burleigh Christopher Orlet, 3/10/2008, American Spectator)

It was like that scene from Groundhog Day, you know, that one scene played over and over again? After each terrorist attack, whether in New York, London or Madrid, President George W. Bush would go before the nation and declare that the perpetrators of these "cowardly acts" were "cowards." For our chief executive that pretty well summed up matters. The terrorists were cowards who committed cowardly acts out of a sense of cowardice.

Naturally many liberals disagreed. "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away," said Bill Maher, host of Politically Incorrect. "That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

In his new cultural history of modern terror, Michael Burleigh finds terrorists distinguished not by cowardice, but by several recurring, and similarly offensive traits, most notably resentment and narcissism, a willingness to place abstract and unrealistic political goals before basic human decency, and a dim understanding of the forces -- whether economic, cultural, or religious -- they seek to destroy.

What's interesting to note is that Mr. Maher's comments are, likewise,
a function of resentment and narcissism, that strange need of the rationalists to believe that they dictate the actions of others.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 10, 2008 7:10 AM