After the events in Paris in January at Charlie Hebdo, I posted a line from the English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s play Cardinal Richelieu, now a well-known quote: “The pen is mightier than the sword”, under a title quoting Jesus (John 8:32), “The truth shall make you free.” This cartoon said it better:
Today, a different image speaks of last evening’s horrors in Paris:

What else can be said, other than statements of anguish and outrage?
This was not, like Charlie Hebdo, an attack on freedom of expression, but an attack on the people of France, an act of war. Here is an excerpt from ISIL’s announcement claiming responsibility:
“The stench of death will not leave their noses as long as they remain at the forefront of the Crusaders’ campaign, dare to curse our prophet, boast of a war on Islam in France, and strike Muslims in the lands of the caliphate with warplanes that were of no use to them in the streets and rotten alleys of Paris.”
The targets of the multiple attacks- a soccer stadium, a restaurant, a music hall- were gathering places for people, young people mostly, enjoying the start of their weekend. As with the January attacks, the choice of targets is symbolic.
The goal of the attacks is clear. One young man, who lived near Bataclan Music Hall, when interviewed by phone on CBSN last night, was asked what he was feeling. Fumbling for words, he replied, “We are not safe.” It was true in Paris yesterday. It’s equally true in my hometown today. “There is no safety this side of the grave”, in the words of Robert Heinlein. It’s a lesson life- and loss- eventually teaches.
That doesn’t mean that we must live in fear. Consider the ISIL quote. The purpose of terrorist acts is to cause terror. Terror leads to appeasement, yielding power to the terrorists. And history teaches that there is no end to the cycle of appeasement: the more you give, the more they take. Ask your father, and his father before him. Actions made in fear are seldom rational. The backlash of non-Muslim Frenchmen against the Muslims in their land will be of this sort. So was the reaction of the Polish government in closing its borders to refugees in the wake of the Paris attacks.
How do you overcome fear? You arm yourself. I don’t mean in the Second Amendment sense, although I don’t not mean it, either- that’s a discussion for another time.
You conquer fear by facing it. “There is no illusion greater than fear.” – Lao Tzu. “If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.” – Marcus Aurelius.
You start by knowing your enemy. The question of the gunmen’s identity has been raised. At least one of them, killed at Bataclan, has been identified as a French extremist. Two others, at the football stadium, were found to be carrying Syrian passports. If these reports are correct, it seems that extremists both internal- home grown- and external to France were involved. Sophisticated coordination was involved in the five or more simultaneous attacks. But even a home grown, ‘lone wolf’ terrorist would not necessarily be a Frenchman, regardless of the country on his passport.
George Packer’s recent New Yorker article “The Other France” describes life in the banlieues, suburbs outside of the Paris beltway, regarded by many as slums occupied by immigrants (although most of the residents are children of immigrants, born in and citizens of France.) The residents of the banlieues are largely self-segregated by a collective group identify: communautarisme. Communitarianism, or communalism, is the belief that individuals don’t exist independently of their cultural, ethnic, religious, or social beliefs and backgrounds. This alienation from identify as Frenchmen, by both banlieu residents and the rest of the French population, is striking. As an American, I can’t help but find similarities to our urban ghettos, between Bondy and west Baltimore.
I also wonder if the Internet and social media don’t acerbate the problem. A child of North African Muslim parents can easily find community as such on the web. John Kasich was holding a town hall meeting last night when he received news of the attacks. When asked, he remarked as follows, according to the Washington Post: “The root cause is this: People have to assimilate,” Kasich said. “And what are we doing to create a situation where they must assimilate.” I believe that the Internet, with its narrowcasting, makes that less likely.
The melting pot is no more.