More Norman Geras

An interview with Norman Geras

Is it too difficult for many liberals and lefties to really engage with the horrors of (and implications of) recent terror attacks on civilians? As Norman Geras suggests, we come up with arguments that 'contextualise' acts of terror or suggest that, for example, the US 'asked for' 9/11 (see Zizek?), or argue that there is a moral equivalence between the US and Bin Laden, al-Qaida, and the Taliban. I can't accept Geras' political conclusions and I have done a fair bit of 'contextualising' myself but he is worrying away at some really important issues. The questions that arise out of this for me relate to a) the capacity (or is it necessity) of people (on all sides) to suspend supposedly universal standards of human rights when it suits them b) that we all find it easier to deal in absolutes and certainties than with complexities and disappointments.