Discourse of terrorism can be defined by looking at the definitions of discourse and terrorism separately, and then adding the two definitions together. Discourse is simply the communication of thoughts and ideas. This communication can be done through talking, music, and various forms of other media, such as comedy. Terrorism can be defined as acts of violence that are used to created compliancy in a group of people, or even a whole nation. Therefore discourse of terrorism is the way that media, music or even comedy communicates the idea of terrorism to a group of people.
To depict how discourse of terrorism has had an effect in America, I would like to focus on the time period directly after 9/11. The initial reaction most people had was one of mourning and a sense of deep loss. A benefit concert, America: A Tribute to Heroes, was held on September 21, with songs like Imagine, Love is in Need of Love, Redemption, and Livin’ on a Prayer were all part of the playlist, all songs that did not have an obvious intent of war, or any kind of retaliation. This concert was very subdued and respectful, yet expressed the overall mixed reactions that all American’s were feeling.
A month later, a very different concert was held. A Concert for New York City, was also a benefit concert, but it went much further than that; it was the beginning of a political climate change. This concert featured songs that when written, had no intent of vehemence or revenge, but had been reshaped to embody these ideas. Songs like No I Won’t Back Down, Who Are You, Wanted Dead or Alive, were now being morphed into songs that were pro war and rather vengeful. Bon Jovi, the same band that had performed at America: A Tribute to Heroes with a song depicting an idea of peace, and togetherness just one month prior was now performing a song laced with retaliation. This group was not the only one to change their opinions. Many artists, who had at first discouraged war, were now in support of what the George W. Bush administration was planning.
What caused such a radical change in such a short amount of time? The answer relates back to the concept of discourse of terrorism. The new approach that was put in place was very bitter and vindictive. Americans jumped on board with this idea that we must go to war, and we must fight back. This concept was everywhere, especially in music, and country music led the way. Toby Keith became the front man of this movement. His song, Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American) can make anyone feel saturated with patriotism. He uses obvious symbolism such as Uncle Sam, the statue of liberty, eagles, and of course the American flag. This is all great for making American’s proud, but the real purpose of the song is clear with lyrics like “Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage: This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.” This song and many other songs that were coming out in the years following September 11th were a call to war.
Country music, though very important to this movement, was not the only genre of music in support of the war. Countless popular songs, and even rock songs, which have always been famous for rebelling against such institutions, were now associated with war efforts. This pent up anger eventually led to the hatred that now runs rampant in our country. We as Americans do not even notice the racism that is fed to us on a daily basis. We relate terrorism to all of these ideas of the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Muslims, and most of us don’t even know the difference between these things, and the groups of people related to them.
This racism even spilled into entertainment. A comedian who has risen to fame during the post 9/11 years, Jeff Dunham, uses explicit racism in his act. He is a ventriloquist who has a puppet, named Achmed, who is a suicide bomber. The racism doesn’t stop there; Jeff Dunham portrays this terrorist as a dumb witted man, who failed to do his job correctly as a suicide bomber, and is now dead. In his act he goes on to make jokes about the belief that after death, Achmed would receive 72 virgins. What is really chilling about the performance is when Achmed tries to tell a joke about Jewish men, and then a joke about Catholic priests, Jeff tells his puppet that he does not want that kind of racism in his act. This kind of ‘comedy’ is reminiscent of the treatment of Jewish people during the Nazi Germany era, in which the race was made fun of and demonized to the point that it became socially acceptable to be racist towards them. This racism led the citizens to believe that it was tolerable to exterminate members of the race.
All of these examples of media and music stabilize the idea of terrorism. One artist who destabilizes discourse of terrorism with music is British rapper, Lowkey. In his music he makes very bold statements that most Americans have never heard. Lowkey takes a step back, and points out that America is fighting terrorism with terrorism. The definition of terrorism, as stated before is to use violence to control a group of people. America has attacked many countries, killing many civilians. One could say that Lowkey is not objective enough, that he puts too much blame on America. Whatever your standpoint on that may be, it cannot be argued that it is not beneficial for people, especially for us Americans to hear this kind of point brought up against us.
I think it is important to take all of these cases into consideration before making a conclusion on who is right or wrong in this war. I would hope that most would come to the conclusion that fighting fire with fire will not work, and history shows that it has never worked. What is important is that we as Americans learn from our mistake of not reviewing all of the information before falling in line behind a leader. It is crucial to not let emotions, but logic affect our decision of whether or not to engage in war.
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