Abstract
Terrorism as the calculated use of violence or the threat to violence through the employment of intimidation and violence in order to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature has taken a global dimension and at alarming frequency such that any curious mind cannot afford to over look. Its persistence despite global condemnation and effort at curbing it naturally evokes curiosity regarding its root cause(s). Scholars have tried to dig out its root causes ranging from poverty, lack of education, religious fanaticism, psychological malady and political reasons and so on. Solutions however differ based on its perceived causes. The question is why terrorism has continued unabated. This paper believes that since human actions are elicited by the idea of the good then terrorism as a human act is based on a disoriented perception of the good. This disoriented perception is premised on a more primordial cause, an ontological lacuna that can be tagged a “search for meaning” which the terrorist tries to fill by his terroristic act. This gives the terrorist a sense of fulfilment and relevance. The panacea, the paper submits, is in a metaphysical deconstruction and construction of the terrorist mind-set based on an ontology called affective humanism.
Highlights
No era has witnessed the rise of the phenomenon of terrorism than the 21st Century
Scholars have tried to dig out its root causes ranging from poverty, lack of education, religious fanaticism, psychological malady and political reasons and so on
Apart from few countries like Sudan and Israel where political reasons are adduced as the root cause of terrorism, the upsurge of religious related terroristic activities like Boko Harom, Isis, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Azzam and so on inclined many to isolate religion and religious fanaticism as its sole root cause
Summary
No era has witnessed the rise of the phenomenon of terrorism than the 21st Century. Stories of terrorist activities rant the airwaves, fill pages of newspapers, and are topics for discussion in local and international fora. Apart from few countries like Sudan and Israel where political reasons are adduced as the root cause of terrorism, the upsurge of religious related terroristic activities like Boko Harom, Isis, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Azzam and so on inclined many to isolate religion and religious fanaticism as its sole root cause. This must have informed the definition of terrorism as “the opinions and actions that create social panic, endanger public safety, infringe upon personal rights and property, or coerce state organs and international organizations by means of violence, destruction and intimidation in order to achieve their political and ideological purposes”. It is germane to analyze the nature of man based on existentialist perspective because according to Grene (1957, 1995) “it is the nature of man to ask the all important question, what it is to be? This question to him, is both existential and metaphysical”; the necessity to carry out an existential analysis of the nature of man
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