Anatomy of a Terrorist
John Perry

25 June 2014

This week we're looking at the Anatomy of a Terrorist. But how exactly do you know what is or isn't terrorism? There's an old saying -- “One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.” That suggests the words “terrorism” and “terrorist” are contested terms. Are these words so entangled in rhetoric and polemics that they're useless for objective philosophical discussion?

The key to a philosophically useful definition is the root word, ‘terror.’ Terrorists are people who spread terror. They do so by injuring and killing people -- often lots of people, especially innocent people. So what’s the difference between a terrorist and a garden-variety mass murderer? Terrorists usually don’t kill just for the thrill of it. They aim to cause fear and intimidation as a way of achieving certain political ends. But freedom fighters also do that in some cases -- even some governments.

就恐怖主义的定义而言，这是一个特征，而不是一个缺陷。恐怖主义和恐怖分子有很多种形式。以第二次世界大战为例——一个名副其实的恐怖主义丰饶之地。佛朗哥、斯大林和希特勒恐吓本国人民。欧洲各地的抵抗运动用恐怖主义手段对抗纳粹占领者。许多国家——甚至是所谓的好人——对城市和平民使用恐怖炸弹。

但这一切也可能是古老的历史。如今，当美国人想到恐怖分子时，我们想到的是波士顿马拉松爆炸案，或者奥萨马·本·拉登和他启发的9·11劫机者，或者中东的自杀式炸弹袭击者。因此，集中精力对付这类恐怖分子可能会有所帮助。

Now Americans tend to think of terrorists as bad guys with bad causes. And yet plenty of supposedly good guys with supposedly good causes have resorted to terrorism too. The ANC in South Africa in its early days was up to its neck in terrorist techniques. Or take contemporary eco-terrorists out to save the planet. Does pointing them out amount to denying that terrorism is an intrinsically bad thing? It’s just not so simple to evaluate either the morality or the rationality of terrorism. Once you realize that sometimes good guys with good causes resort to it too.

Still, it seems reasonable to claim that sane, rational people with a decent moral sense don’t engage in terrorism -- except maybe as an absolute last resort. Take the 9/11 hijackers. They were well-educated adults who, before their terrorist acts, functioned relatively normally in society. Nobody identified them as nut-cases. They don’t seem to have been mere irrational pawns. And they certainly thought of themselves as doing something both moral and rational. Is there any way that flying those planes into those buildings can possibly be construed as a rational act of a normally functioning mind?

Well, what makes an act rational? When it's a way of advancing one’s desires and goals, on the assumption that one’s beliefs are true. So if a terrorist desires to advance a political cause, and thinks that flying a plane into the World Trade Center will advance that cause, then he's rational... right?

But suppose you start out with some crazy beliefs and goals. Maybe you believe that by strapping a bomb to your chest and blowing yourself and lots of other people up, you’ll be instantly transported to heaven to sleep with seventy virgins. If you start out thinking like that, it probably doesn't matter how calmly and coolly you reason from there -- you’re just plain crazy. Irrational garbage in, Irrational garbage out.

So we've identified our question: are acts of terrorism typically motivated by crazy beliefs and desires? Or could a terrorist be acting on a reasonable assessment of the political situation, in pursuit of a fairly reasonable goal? Our guest, Martha Crenshaw, has spent many years study the psychology of terrorism, and she'll help us try to understand whether it's reason or un-reason that makes terrorists tick.

Comments(18)

lindamat2001@yahoo.com's picture

lindamat2001@ya...

Saturday, June 28, 2014 -- 5:00 PM

Regarding ?Does the end

关于?目的是否为手段正名??？From the first time I heard this in high school, I have always thought that this was JUST a short-hand way of asking
？合法的、伦理的或道德的目的可以证明使用非法的、不道德的或不道德的手段来实现它吗?Of course, the answer is no.
I would love to hear any comments on this.
All the best (ethics) to you!
-Linda M.

Devon's picture

Devon

Sunday, June 29, 2014 -- 5:00 PM

At some point during the show

在节目的某个时刻，肯注意到美国人倾向于使用“恐怖分子”这个词，完全是轻蔑的，轻蔑的。虽然这毫无疑问是正确的，但我认为重要的是要注意，这根本不是美国独有的做法。弗拉基米尔·普京、巴沙尔·阿萨德和其他政治领导人经常把那些(暴力)挑战国家政权的组织称为“恐怖分子”。正如这位客人指出的那样，这种指控——至少从他们声明的英文翻译来看——似乎要频繁得多，而且通常是政府采取暴力反措施的依据。不管怎样，美国并没有像国家那样应对有组织的内部暴力。

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