Paper short abstract:

This paper will suggest that a common discourse used to understand the 'war on terror' since 9/11 is based on this concept of 'madness'. The concept allows for the 'other' (individual or group) to appear as irrational and therefore a threat to the stability of a moral consciousness.

Paper long abstract:

Michel Foucault stated, when writing on the birth of modern psychiatry in the 18th Century, that "madness is childhood". In other words, to care for the insane was the equivalent of caring for a child. Like a child, the insane lacked rationality and maturity leaving them in need of moral authoritarian guidance in the hope of reforming them back into socially acceptable individuals. This paper will argue that a common discourse used to understand the "war on terror" since 9/11 within politics, the media, the arts, academia and the everyday, is based on this concept of "madness". The concept allows for the 'other' to appear as irrational and therefore a threat to the stability of a moral consciousness, be it on an individual, group, national or global scale. The ease with which this discourse is used allows it to be appropriated by individuals and groups of both the 'pro-war' and 'anti-war' dispositions. Therefore, it transcends boundaries of opinion.

This paper will explore whether a discourse of "madness" goes further than one group dehumanizing the other group, by discussing whether it is also located within ourselves on an unconscious level. I will illustrate this point by presenting an ethnographic description of my walk home after the July 7th bombings in London. The walk started in Edgware Road and ended in Brixton. It illustrated a key point that normality in the immediate post-bombing environment becomes abnormal. Many everyday activities such as eating lunch in a restaurant or exercising in Hyde Park were deemed "mad" by those I chatted to while walking: normality therefore becomes irrational. On a broader scale, the day led me to question whether experiencing "terror" in my own back yard allowed individuals the "privilege" of claiming membership to a club of authenticity; in other words, to be bombed makes me belong.