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About this quote

What does it mean?
Seeing terrorists as purely evil and ourselves as purely good creates a mirror that obscures the real nature of conflict.
In plain terms
Labeling enemies as evil blocks understanding.
What can you take from it?
Avoid moral binaries when analyzing terrorism.

Where it applies

  • policy debate
  • media coverage

Putting it to work

  • critical reporting
  • balanced policy

Questions to consider

  • What are the risks of oversimplifying opponents?
  • How can we achieve a more accurate view of conflict?

Another view

Even nuanced views can be politicized.

More from Wendell Berry

  1. To imply by the word 'terrorism' that this sort of terror is the work exclusively of 'terrorists' is misleading. The 'legitimate' warfare of technologically ad…

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  2. One cannot reduce terror by holding over the world the threat of what it most fears.

    Permalink to quote #31
  3. We are alive within mystery, by miracle. 'Life,' wrote Erwin Chargaff, 'is the continual intervention of the inexplicable.' We have more than we can know. We k…

    Permalink to quote #28

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