View Single Post
  #10  
Old Sunday, January 15, 2023
hammadtahir hammadtahir is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 117
Thanks: 4
Thanked 7 Times in 7 Posts
hammadtahir is on a distinguished road
Post 1980 Precis

Write a Précis of the following passage:
The attention we give to terrorism often seems disproportionate to its real importance. Terrorism incidents make superb copy for journalists but kill and main fewer people than road accidents. Nor is terrorism politically effective. Empires rise and fall according to the real determinants of politics — namely overwhelming force or strong popular support-not according to a bit of mayhem caused by isolated fanatics whom one would take seriously enough to vote for it. Indeed, the very variety of incidents that might be described as “terrorism” has been such as to lead critics to suggest that no single subject for investigation exists at all. Might we not regard terrorism as a kind of minor blotch on the skin of an industrial civilization whose very heart is filled with violent dreams and aspirations. Who would call in the dermatologist when the heart itself is sick?
But popular opinion takes terrorism very serious indeed and popular opinion is probably right. For the significance of terrorism lies not only in the grotesque nastiness of terrorist outrages but also in the moral claims they imply. Terrorism is the most dramatic exemplification of the moral fault of blind willfulness. Terrorism is a solipsistic denial of the obligation of self-control we all must recognize when we live in civilized communities. Certainly the sovereign high road to misunderstanding terrorism is the pseudo scientific project of attempting to discover its causes. Terrorists themselves talk of the frustrations which have supposedly necessitated their actions but to transform these facile justifications into scientific hypotheses is to succumb to the terrorists own fantasies. To kill and main people is a choice people make, and glib invocations of necessity are baseless. Other people living in the same situation see no such necessity at all. Hence their are no “causes” of terrorism, only decision to terrorize. It is a moral phenomenon and only a moral discussion can be adequate to it.
Total Words: 316

Precis:
Terrorism usually gets more attention than it deserves. The major incidents that were characterized as acts of terrorism have now been refuted by critics due to a lack of evidence. Most people do not discredit terrorism and give it some significance because of its moral justifications. Translating the justifications of terrorists’ actions to scientific claims is tantamount to yielding to terrorists’ own imagination. Understanding terrorism from a self-righteous high ground is a phony-scientific endeavour. Terrorism simply results from the denial of self-restraint, the prerequisite of any civilized society. Resorting to terrorism is a choice some people make, and some do not. It has no causes; it is just a moral predicament.
Title: Terrorism: A Denial of Self-Control
Words in Precis: 111
Required Words: 106
Reply With Quote