The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #139307 Message #3197505
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
28-Jul-11 - 05:14 PM
Thread Name: BS: Non-Islamic Terrorist in Norway?
Subject: RE: BS: Non-Islamic Terrorist in Norway?
Colbert?
I've noticed commentators drawing an odd distinction between terrorism and mass murder, as if it weren't possible for an act to be properly described under both headings at the same time.
The same goes for the suggestion that there is some inconsistency between saying that the perpetrator is deranged, and that they have political or quasi-political motives.
It seems a mistake to insist on either/or distinctions here, when both/and fits the circumstances better.
And there has also been suggestions that "terrorism" implies awider organisation, and should not be applied to the actions of an individual.
This horrible episode falls pretty evidently into all those categories. It involved the killing of innocent people with the aim of achieving political ends, the essential definition of terrorism, whether by governments, organisations or individuals. (And of course there have been many acts of terrorism carried out by lone individuals.)
The man responsible was operating on a political agenda, but at the same time it seems pretty clear that a personal psychological disturbance was involved. (This is of course not uncommon among organisational terrorists as well - as it is among people who do all kinds of things, burglars, musicians,politicians, artists.)
Somehow there appears to be a tendency to feel that it is dangerous to treat events like this under multiple labels, and necessary to tie them up into a separate category - pathological or political, murder or politics. But that's not the way it is sometimes. Perhaps hardly ever.