Culture and Terror (Hardcover)

Post-9/11 America is in a cultural haze. The relationship between terror and crime is evolving more closely together at the same time that many Americans seem to have forgotten that America, too, is a source of terrorism. Domestic terror is a long-standing and ongoing pattern within American culture, having woven itself into America's social, geographical and emotional heart, with support from problems in America's national character and American society. American culture will keep moving, either in the direction of the jackal, representing terror, or in the direction of the phoenix, representing the ability not just to revive, but also to become stronger after a terrorist attack. Americans who are accustomed to comfort and convenience have the challenge of understanding that domestic terror can be combated by rooting out problems in contemporary American culture. To fight the collective psychological challenge of terrorism, Americans need to come out of their individual social boxes and create a culture characterized less by anger and fear. Short American memories and the tendency to view each American terrorist as one more deranged individual both prevent Americans from seeing domestic terror as a pattern that is characteristic of the culture, and that can be fought from a cultural perspective. Oklahoma City, school bombers, snipers, and the Unabomber are all expressions of the dark side of American character, a side that America tends to deny. That dark side is fueled by a cultural paradox. Individuals who are powerful in a land that is independent and free, have come to feel disempowered instead because of the scale of American culture and a disconnected social environment.Americans have lost a sense of their positive social power. American terrorists react to that feeling by making intensive pathological social connections instead, with acts of violent destruction. Tim McVeigh, the smiley-face bomber, and an ongoing parade of American perpetrators of terror