'Terrorism' as Total Violence?

• Published in: International social science journal Vol. Dec; pp. 473 - 481
• Main Author: Sommier, Isabelle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-12-2002
• Subjects: History; Homicide; Oppression; Political violence; Terrorism; Wars
• ISSN: 0020-8701

This article defends the idea that terrorism, to which the term 'total violence' will be preferred, namely a deliberate strategy of blind violence against the civilian population according to the principle of disjunction between victims ('non-combatants,' 'the innocent') and target (a government or other authority), is the civilian version of the extreme violence that is in most cases used by states. It identifies three processes that go to explain the emergence of this new form of violence. First, the historical process of the ideologization and mythification of warfare, which permitted a substantial unleashing of state violence during the 20th century and its civil society counterpart, arbitrary murder. Second, due prominence must be given in the analysis of violence to the purely technological factor, namely the new military and communication resources that hugely increases the human capacity for destruction and its resultant terror effects. Lastly, there is an anthropological dimension, which, in the aggressor's relationship with the victim, places total violence in the category of extreme violence, as the conclusion of an a priori paradoxical linkage between the terrifying instrumentalization of victims and the near mystical exaltation of their sacrifice. 1 Photograph, 15 References. (Original abstract - amended)