Calling terrorism transcendent evil blocks the worldly analysis needed to counter it

Evidence

Johann Hari observed — surely not approvingly? — that the bombings on Thursday were received in London almost as if they were a natural disaster. Much of the media here has insisted, rather, that the bombings be treated as a SUPERNATURAL disaster, the act of a transcendent Evil that cannot and furthermore must not be explained. Both Blair and Bush find it expedient and congenial to use a theological language to describe a threat that would be better considered in more worldly terms. That language is dangerous for two reasons: first, because it contributes to the sublimation of the al-Qaeda threat, transforming a diffuse network into a supernatural force, and second, because it renders all analysis of the threat al-Qaeda actually poses all the more difficult. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1430

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the claim that monsters flourish in societies that commodity unnamed fear, and that demonizing framing forbids political understanding. — connects to: Analyzing and explaining evil may itself contribute to banalizing it; Terrorism is framed as irrational fanaticism rather than political response; Absolute evil is evil detached from any humanly comprehensible motive — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 13 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Absolute evil is evil detached from any humanly comprehensible motive #exemplifies (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 13
• Analyzing and explaining evil may itself contribute to banalizing it #complicates (0.82)
• Terrorism is framed as irrational fanaticism rather than political response #exemplifies (0.82)
• The causal explanation chosen for terrorism dictates which solutions become politically viable #expands (0.82) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 895