Philippine E-Journals

911: Anthropology to the Rescue

Corazon T. Toralba

Discipline: Political Science

 

Abstract:

911 are telephone numbers associated with emergency; however, after the so-called “infamous day,” September 11, the word stands for terrorist attacks. Terrorism as psychological weapon used to press demands has long been around. While the 20th century has been besieged by two world wars and the threat of communism, it seems that the 21st century would be characterized by terrorism as real threat to humanity. The reasons offered are poverty and religious fundamentalism. Whatever it is, a perceived sense of injustice lurks behind such attitude, that is, the present state of affairs is not what it ought to be. Such perception is due to a deep anthropological belief that some are more human than others rooted in the denial that there is a common nature that would be responsible for the fundamental equality and the forgetfulness that equality does not mean identity. Using Aristotle’s notion of what is human and complementing it with Wojtyla’s notion of the person, the threat of terrorism could be minimized if “anthropological wealth” is recognized and respected.