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Group Violence. The Origins of Group Violence Ervin Staub. The central issue of our times is the murder, torture, and mistreatment of whole groups of people. The illusion that society had advanced to a state of peaceful, civilized interactions has been shattered.
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The Origins of Group ViolenceErvin Staub • The central issue of our times is the murder, torture, and mistreatment of whole groups of people. • The illusion that society had advanced to a state of peaceful, civilized interactions has been shattered. • Certain characteristics of a culture and the structure of society, combined with great difficulties or hardships, are the starting point of mass killing.
The Origins of Group ViolenceErvin Staub • Mass killings are more likely to occur under certain conditions: • Perceived threats to physical safety. • Perceive threats to lifestyle. • Perceive threats to values and culture. • Perceived inequities, past or present. • Perceived humiliation, past or present. • Unbridled pursuit of power.
The Global Rise of Religious ViolenceMark Juergensmeyer • The loss of innocence was keenly felt by Americans as they watched in horror at the televised images of the September 11, 2001 assaults on New York City’s World Trade Center and the U.S. Pentagon. • People in other societies have suffered many terrorist attacks for many years. • Terrorism often is linked with religious fanaticism. • But “religious fanaticism” is too simple an explanation for terrorism. • Terrorism, like other forms of severe conflict, has many causes, and like other forms of conflict, often is justified using appeals to a religious purpose.
The Global Rise of Religious ViolenceMark Juergensmeyer • Mobilizing a large number of persons to engage in severe conflict requires appeals to a higher moral purpose: to “save democracy,” “our way of life,” the “women and children,” or “our religious beliefs.” • The factors of mobilization, however, are more diverse and include economic deprivation, relative deprivation, perceived humiliation, perceived threats, or desires for more power.
The Global Rise of Religious ViolenceMark Juergensmeyer • Terrorism seldom is a lone act. It usually requires a large network of economic and political support. • As such, it requires much planning, organization, and mobilization of resources. • The agents of terrorism gain strength through activities that mobilize resources, but they also gain visibility to others. • Potential targets of terrorism need to be ever vigilant to the signs of terrorist organizations.
The Global Rise of Religious ViolenceMark Juergensmeyer • Potential targets also need a sense of common purpose to fend off terrorist acts and to inhibit the ability of terrorist organizations to gain popular support within the society. • It is a paradox, therefore, that although terrorist acts often are justified in part by religiosity, religiosity within nations who are potential targets of terrorism is needed to inhibit the growth of terrorist organizations.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Terrorism requires us to think carefully about who we are as free peoples and what we need to do to remain so. Constraints on our war against terrorism: • We cannot allow the claims of national security to trump the claims of liberty. • Freedom must set a limit to the measures we employ to maintain it. • We must preserve ourselves and our freedom, but we cannot do so by denying the moral claims of others who do not belong to our national community.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff • Our constitutional commitments oblige us to respect the rights of enemies who do not respect us, to use lawful methods against those who observe no laws at all. If these are the constraints that our moral and political identity imposes on the war on terror, then the question is: Can continue to abide by our current sense of national identity as the threats against us increase?
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff • What happens when terrorists obtain weapons of mass destruction? • What happens when terrorists emerge from within our national boundaries rather than infiltrate us from other lands? To help us understand possible responses to these and other important questions we need to understand different types of terrorism and the kinds of threats they impose upon us.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Loner Terrorism • Perpetuated by a single individual or very small groups. • Socially marginalized people. • Psychologically disturbed people. • Feel they have nothing to lose and often take their own lives in their act of terrorism. • The true nihilist: The loner who is indifferent to fame and posterity and who wishes to destroy everything and everyone, including him/herself.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Loner Terrorism • It will be very difficult if not impossible to stop loner terrorism. • Constitutional commitments in America guarantee the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, and a considerable degree of freedom in movement. • Any large, complex society will have psychologically disturbed persons who have the means and ability to strike out against others.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Group Terrorism • Perpetuated by a group of persons with a clearly identified goal. • Well-organized and well-funded. • Organized and stable leadership. • Leaders often are charismatic psychopaths. • No appeasement or appeals to reason or compromise are sufficient to deter terrorist acts.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Group Terrorism • To fight against group terrorism we first must clearly identify who we are. We cannot fight and prevail against an enemy unless we know who we are and what we wish to defend at all costs. • Faith in democracy need not make us blind to its faults. • At the same time, we need to recognize the faults of denying ourselves and others the benefits of democracy.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Suggestions • Globalization in the trade of material goods requires increased scrutiny and surveillance. • Greater restrictions need to be placed on the dissemination of sensitive scientific information and technology. • All institutions, not just the government, must learn to recognize and speak out against groups that advocate violent responses to legal actions taken by others.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Suggestions • Preemptive military action, the last of the lesser evils to be considered, poses two distinct problems. • How to determine when military action is justified. • Who should authorize it internationally.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Conclusions • The major ethical problem in democracies is not the absence or loss of stable, clear, ethical values, but simply living within the real constraints of the values we have. • Because we always will struggle with such constraints, society must constantly engage itself in a process of self-justification of its values and adjustment to its institutional structures.
Democracy in an Age of TerrorMichael Ignatieff Conclusions • It is a condition of our freedom that we cannot compel anyone to believe in the premises of a liberal democracy. • So we are stuck, as we should be, with the duty to persuade ourselves and others to respect the dignity and rights of others while also allowing for reasonable constraints upon our actions.
