Mock – Epic of Terrorism

Mock-epic is a concept from literary genre used here to interpret the sound bites and invectives of terrorism in the aftermath of September 11. Violence, time immemorial, has been the center of discussion; historically, it becomes the theme of evolution; psychologically, the corollary of human nature; educationally, the enemy of social learning and order; sociologically, the (wrong?) path to change.

Terrorism is identified, as ‘the violence’ of present times, monomania of politicians and the obsession of the media, has become a weapon for doctrinal camouflage and mystification to keep the reality remote from public awareness. After the demise of the Soviet Bloc the unipolar world has been in the lookout for a new enemy. ‘New war on Terrorism’, the new coinage, has at last filled up this space. The cold logic of geopolitical interests, and the self-centeredness of the privileged, wealthy and powerful nations today obscures the root causes of terrorism. To absolve any responsibility, it is important that people should not realize that today’s fully matured terrorism got nurtured during the Cold War détente decades. It is important to keep in wraps the fact that regionalization and internationalization of domestic conflicts has resulted into the formation of transnational networks among insurgent groups. It cannot be revealed that open economy has turned the terrorists into occupational forces whose money is skillfully and professionally managed by investments, trading and ‘tax collection’ from the Diaspora. People should be kept distracted from the fact that the so called ‘terrorists’ of today against whom the new war on terrorism is being fought were friends of yesteryears when they were fighting the Soviets, have suddenly become enemies of humanity. Thus, in present times the sublimity and gravity of terrorism has been subverted into a ‘mock-epic’.

Terrorists of today can operate in and from far away theaters. Globalization – increased migration and communication, greater access to weapons and training, and free flow of ideas and technologies – has made this a reality. Terrorist groups consciously incorporating the three vital elements economics, security and military strength, are capable of operating worldwide. Thus, they are following an example of multinational corporations like Coca-Cola, intelligence agencies like CIA, activist organizations like Amnesty and their true brethren- the international criminal organizations like Mafias. Just as nation states worldwide feel that they have lost control over the multinationals, similarly display a lack of regulatory actions against transnational criminality. We have to move towards respect of multiculturism – tolerance of multiethnic and multireligion practices, and learn to adjust with multilanguage expression - to triumph over the ideological posturing of the terrorists.
In case of terrorism, it is important to recognize that it is essentially a political crime and therefore must be countered by upholding law, as opposed to breaking it. Imitating criminals to reduce criminality cannot be a model for us. We want to see our terrorists as bandits and not soldiers.
Terrorism develops and spreads on the contours of counter-terrorism campaign. Vested political interest to maintain the hegemony and indiscriminate response of the state against the terrorist de-legitimize the state. This is how terrorism gains public support. Due to this ‘new war on terrorism’, in present times the seriousness of terrorism has been subverted into a ‘mock-epic’ that can only aggravate the volatile situation in today’s world; the worst hit will be the poor as usual. Military action is a short term complimentary measure that does not really wipe out the terrorists whose direction of violence is non-combatants. Thus, instead of singing paeans of admiration about the statesmanship of politicians in power for initiating ‘the new war on terrorism’, we should rather seek to establish a society founded on criteria of economic parity and social justice.

We must be exposed to the hollowness of our skewed understanding of terrorism at the alter of moral obligation of humanitarianism. Then we can try to map the root causes and meaning of terrorism, thus showing the disparity between the ‘real’ meaning and ‘applied’ meaning of terrorism. Only then may be we will have a perspective addressing the problem of terrorism in today’s world.