Title and/or Abstract:
The Rhetoric of Evil and Eradicating Terrorism

by Caryn Riswold

When the President of the United States asserts that “you are with us or you are with the terrorists.…,” and that “freedom and fear are at war… we know that God is not neutral between them…,” he assumes and suggests that struggles against evil are clear-cut, easily distinguished from the good, and able to be simply resolved. When it comes to the present “war on terrorism,” this rhetoric is not satisfactory. Theological and philosophical discourse on the nature of evil reveal its complexities; Social scientific resources examining the evil of terrorism reveal its nuances; Pedagogical implications of this work suggest what we must do as we respond to the presidential rhetoric about evil and the war on terrorism. Discourse about evil must be complicated, as the nature of evil is complicated. Understanding this allows us to seek real means to struggle for justice in the midst of terror.