TERRORISM AS CREATIVITY

Terrorism is “the systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2005). Terrorism has a long history, and it affects almost every nation on earth: The terrorist activities of September 11, 2001 (abbreviated here as 9/11) brought this home with particular force. Terrorist actions such as 9/11 have two properties that are of particular interest for the present discussion: They must surprise the people against whom they are directed (otherwise the intended targets will implement appropriate prevention or avoidance measures), and they must be effective. If they do not have any concrete effect (such as killing people), they are a failure and even may lead to loss of resources for no gain, “gain” being understood in terms of dealing out death and destruction. This means that in order to cause a climate of fear, the malevolent products of terrorists must satisfy the two basic criteria of creativity (novelty and effectiveness). Thus they are an example of the dark side of creativity – indeed, because they deliberately seek to cause harm, of malevolent creativity.

Unlike most people and organizations that generate effective novelty, terrorists function more or less outside the conventional moral system. In terms of Sternberg's position (Chapter 17 of this volume), they do not concern themselves with the common good (although terrorists often claim that they are pursuing a higher-order common good, even in the societies they claim to be defending their work is often rejected or condemned), so they are not affected by moral considerations.