NCJ Number
167810
Date Published
1996
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Since the days of the old West, Americans have used brutality to achieve ideological ends; recent terrorist acts on U.S. soil show that this cultural tradition endures.
Abstract
Most of those who use various American media to promulgate their ideas maintain that domestic terrorism is an atypical manifestation of a few radicals. The problem is not that the militias have been mysteriously infiltrated by extremists, but that the Federal Government has, especially in the past 2 years, been inflated into an imaginary hate-object that triggers action by those prone to try and solve problems with violence, a strategy woven into American culture. With the help of "mainstream" right-wing paranoia fueled by various media personnel, some view Bill Clinton is an illegitimate President, liberals as the enemies of normal Americans, gun control as a conspiracy to tyrannize the populace, and the New World Order as a conspiracy by foreign bankers. These are the ideas of Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and the National Rifle Association. Although those who use the mainstream media to promulgate such ideas disavow violence, many of those who absorb and are motivated by their ideas are convinced that the country can only be saved through violent acts against the perceived enemy. As long as there are those in mainstream American culture who persist in viewing life as a simplistic and serious conflict between ideologies, there will always be adherents who believe that when all else fails to achieve victory, violence must be used.