Academic elites may romanticize terrorists out of bourgeois self-loathing

Evidence

Despite the obvious importance of society’s reactions to terrorism, there has been little research on general psychological and social effects. Gutmann (1979) argues that psychological studies neglect the audience for terrorism, although terrorists are shrewdly aware of the composition and attitudes of viewing groups. Even though the social arena—especially critical elites—is decisive to the success of terrorism, “liberals” have permitted the development of a terrorist mystique. Gutmann (1979) contends that academic elites are victims of a fatal fascination for terrorism, derived from their bourgeois midlife crises, the comfortable life they despise, and their idealization of the terrorist as a hero. In his opinion, those who study terrorism have made it respectable. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4166

Categorization

• QUESTION: Gutmann’s psychologizing of terrorism scholars is rhetorically vivid but empirically thin — is there any data on researchers’ motives, or is this pure ad hominem by theory?
• XREF: Distantly echoes the ‘moral panic’ framing (elites amplifying a threat) and Cohen’s work, though here the accusation runs against elites themselves.