Terrorism is in the Eye of the Beholder

Fueled by a national idea of manifest destiny, the United States of America (USA) has believed its expansion of control and power has been inevitable. As such, the imposition of their hegemony throughout the world was considered natural and necessary for this self-fulfilling prophecy. However, is the driving vehicle of capitalism, as a western conception, natural and necessary for the success of countries? It has proved to be working for the Western World, justifying its necessity through their economic modernization. Even poverty has been considered a part of the process: “But at least for the next several decades, the discontent of poorer nations does not threaten world destruction. Shameful as it undoubtedly may be, the world has lived at least two-thirds poor and one-thirds rich for generations. Unjust as it may be, the power of the poor countries is limited”(Galenao). The western world had transferred the divisions of labor to a global scale- hence the development initiatives, like family planning, are the bourgeoisie's attempt to suppress the turmoil within and overall power of the proletariate

With the belief in the superiority of capitalism and western lifestyle it is cumbersome (to the west) as to why “Castro continues to enjoy the support of the masses,” and Cubans need “to face up to the fact their union with Castro is turning out badly.”(Chomsky, xiv). Disagreement and challenge to this opinion, in a Cubans case by supporting Castro, put those countries in ‘the others’ category: there exists the west and the rest. The United states, according to Chomsky, has a mafioso method for coercing compliance: Chomsky’s Mafia doctrine states, the godfather does not tolerate disobedience and uses his goons collect the debt and set a precedent: disobedience is not acceptable. Despite inflicting terror, these actions are in the interest and protection of the american peoples and their freedoms from the possible threat to their private property rights.

It is the terrorist that is then defined by the west and shouls be considered a social construction that helps emphasize and stratify the difference between ‘us and them’. When, in reality truths and idioms can be social constructions which challenges the binaries of right and wrong, good and evil, capitalism and communist, freedom-fighters and terrorists.