Talk:Terrorism/Archive 1

Images
Want any more for this? Stephen Ewen 00:21, 27 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Yes this could use some more images. --Charles Sandberg 05:45, 27 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Charles, about the AK-47 image caption. "...low cost and high numbers."  I would recommend a chance to "...low cost and high availability."  Additionally, if the AK-47 is a highly reliable weapon, it's probably worthy of mention as a reason why it's popular.--Robert W King 09:13, 28 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Done --Charles Sandberg 15:46, 28 June 2007 (CDT)

Definition
I've taught this topic before in philosophy classes and one of the most difficult aspects of the topic is, of course, the definition. We must, therefore, get that topic right. "Terrorism refers to any act, usually violent, meant to coerce behavior for political ends." This will not do. By this definition, all arrests by police officers are terrorism, given the "political end" of maintaining law and order. I'm not sure we should begin with any particular definition at all, since there is no agreed definition. Also, there are some who deny the existence of "state terrorism," or who find the concept problematic. Therefore, to assert, without qualification, that "armies, police, and intelligence services" commit terrorism is to take a stand on that issue--which is contrary to CZ:Neutrality Policy. One last thing: I should think the obvious first example to give of a terrorist act would be the destruction of the World Trade Center, the most devasting and consequential single terrorist act ever--thus, we ought to have a picture of that at the top, before we have one of the OK City Federal Bldg bombing. --Larry Sanger 17:34, 5 July 2007 (CDT)
 * About 911, I was thinking about doing that and putting Oklahoma City down in the history section. --Charles Sandberg 17:37, 5 July 2007 (CDT)
 * The opening paragraph is a suitable encyclopedia-style definition; do not just read the first sentence! The article then does an unusually good job of discussing the definition issue, with citations and quotations from multiple authoritative sources. If someone has changes to make, please make them on the draft page. We need to get approvals moving along and changes in text or illustrations will just delay matters.Richard Jensen 17:42, 5 July 2007 (CDT)
 * I agree with Richard; the fullest sense of the term is extremely difficult to capture in the first sentence, but the first several sentences do so, and quite well. As for the image of the Oklahoma City bombing, I actually would strongly prefer it over one of 9/11, as it is a reminder that, however egregious 9/11 was, that this article is not about that event only, but about a complex social phenomenon which is not easily generalized. Russell Potter 17:59, 5 July 2007 (CDT)
 * I was thinking the same you were Russell, when I put the Oklahoma City pic in. I think we should keep it instead. --Charles Sandberg 18:20, 5 July 2007 (CDT)

Bad sentence in first paragraph
"Terrorists seek to obtain the influence among the population through the publicity of this violence" -- I don't know what, if anything, this means. It sounds like a very bad translation to me. Hayford Peirce 19:04, 5 July 2007 (CDT)


 * Thanks for noticing this -- have had a try at fixing it. Russell Potter 19:13, 5 July 2007 (CDT)

Infelicitous writing of first paragraph
There are only six sentences, a couple of which are quite long and have a genuine cadence to them. But of these six, four of them begin with the words "Terrorists" or "Terrorism". This is needlessly repetitious and grating to the eye and ear. The first two sentences, I think, could be merged, perhaps along the lines of: "Terrorism refers to any act, usually overtly violent, meant to coerce behavior for political ends, generally by bringing fear to a civilian population in order to obtain a specific political goal." I *really* dislike those two sentences -- each of them as a stand-alone is OK, but together they're bad. Hayford Peirce 19:20, 5 July 2007 (CDT)
 * yes but let's approve it tomorrow and then make small changes. Richard Jensen 19:25, 5 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Larry says that this is a very important article for him and CZ and that it should be as good as possible. Why not take a little time and polish it to perfection first?  Why approve something that we *know* needs improving? Hayford Peirce 19:36, 5 July 2007 (CDT)
 * The new tag gives us 3 days. I think that's fine.  Despite the headline I recently saw in the Weekly World News (Rome was built in a day!) the whole philosophy of our Approval process is geared to the idea of continual improvement.  There's no "perfection" in this model, just the collective work of us all in (to quote Dr. Seuss) bettering and bettering the entry. Russell Potter 19:46, 5 July 2007 (CDT)

I think the first sentence of the article should say something true, or at least not obviously false, taken in itself. Before my recent addition, it said something obviously and straightforwardly false; now it's a little less so with "and usually against civilians." Hayford, your addition might also be an improvement. The fact that other sentences are intended to qualify it does not make its falsehood less problematic, I think.

Also, as to the picture, I am not persuaded by the argument that the OK City bombing picture is better because, if we use a picture of the WTC, people might think the article is only about 9/11. I doubt anybody would draw that conclusion. We should use a picture that is of either the most important, or else a representative act of terrorism--or else a montage. If representative, it should be Islamic terrorism, because most terrorism in recent years has been Islamic terrorism. This is true, even if it is not exactly PC to say it, and we do our readers a disservice by pretending that it is not. The OK City bombing was pretty unusual. Actually, for future reference, I think a montage would be best.

Finally, if we can do a better job than the Wikipedia article, I think we should. --Larry Sanger 20:02, 5 July 2007 (CDT)