Love in a time of terror: can we break the cycle?
The terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut have elicited a disturbingly predictable series of responses.
We’ve witnessed the usual political posturing, harsh military reprisals, the immediate political and popular backlash against Muslims and public displays of patriotism and online pledges of solidarity.
The fact that there is nothing particularly new about any of this points to one of the great conundrums of the moral life: at moments of crisis when clear ethical thinking and generous solidarity are most needed, we are least capable of providing them.
We tend to fall back on the habits and fears and prejudices cultivated in times of relative quiet.
Indeed, terrorists themselves bank on this.
So how can we break this cycle?
The Minefield by Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens, interview with Dr Joshua M. Roose.