3 Review(s)

Frank Furedi argues that Western culture appears to feed off a diet of terror and inadvertently offers its enemies an invitation to be terrorised.� We have not developed an intellectual framework in which to be able to confront the fear of terrorism.� The language we use betrays confusion about the threat we face and therefore undermines our capacity to engage with it.� Beginning with the question of 'Why do they hate us?' we find ourselves unsure of who 'they' are.� Even more unsettling is the realisation that we are not quite sure of who 'we' are.� In this startling and original book Frank Furedi engages with some of the most fundamental questions confronting society today. We are in a global conflict that appears so confusing that we are not even certain what to call it.� The failure to conceptualize the issues at stake is demonstrated by the absence of consensus around even what words to describe the meaning of the present conflict and enemy.� Suddenly governments stop speaking about the War on Terror and talk about the Long War.� The shift in terminology often betrays confusion about the issues at stake.� Lack of clarity about what this war is about, who are the protagonists, its scope and duration dominates discussions on this conflict.� Meaningless terms often represent an attempt to evade.� In this case they express confusion and the inability to make sense of life in the twenty-first century.