Language and Love in an Age of Terror

Abstract

Contrary to what the dominant discourse from both the Left and the Right claims, fundamentalism is not limited to the actions of a marginal group of religious radicals. Rather, fundamentalism corresponds to a significant characteristic of American culture and, as such, fundamentalist tendencies are embodied by everyone, religious radical and secular liberal alike. Fundamentalism, defined as the incapacity and/or unwillingness to acknowledge difference, contributes to a violent dehumanizing of the other and discloses a profound need to rethink not only the language of otherness but also the global event of sharing the world.