Initial Responses

“The category of goodness arises with and through the naming evil; in this temporal reversal, goodness is dependent on a prior identification of its opposite for its content and character. Goodness is produced by retrospectively positing a moral self that seems to exist before “the evil enemy”, even as it emerges through and from the antagonistic relationship with evil” (Anker, 32).

Anker explains that depictions of a political event must first assign a source of “evil”, which is seen responsible for the injury to the state, in order to develop an identity of “goodness”. Goodness is, retrospectively, understood as a characteristic that is present before harm to the state is committed, and existing independent to the event despite requiring an evil to establish this identity. This is demonstrated in GW Bush’s address to the nation, as he describes the events of 9/11 as “the very worst of human nature”, which targeted the US because it is “the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world” (Address to the Nation on the Terrorist Attacks). Here Bush has identified terrorism as the source of evil and harm, and, as Anker explains, was able to shift “the qualities that make up goodness… that serves as its definite opposite” (Anker, 33). Along with taking on opposite qualities, the nation takes on the roles of both “victims” and “heroes”. In the case of 9/11, depicting the US as the victim worked to bury any missteps that may have inspired the event or displayed the US as aggressors, while also justifying and giving power to future US actions. For instance, the narrative of an innocent and unsuspecting victim ignores the decades of involvement that the US held in the Middle East and the resentment that its actions and policies had been brewing. Instead, the attacks are painted as senseless violence - seemingly not stemming from anywhere - and were committed by “enemies of freedom” (Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress). This identity, however, does not transcend the social suffering that is not produced by the named enemy and “calling attention to them is deemed an assault on the nation itself” (Anker, 34). For instance, following the attack, a high number of Muslims in America were apprehended as suspects and “little effort was made to distinguish between legitimate terrorism suspects and people arrested primarily because of their Middle Eastern names or appearance” (Anderson, 56). The apparent rise in Islamophobia, and other discriminatory actions, was not attached to the nation’s suffering as a whole and, as a result, was left largely ignored. At the same time, the narrative of “hero” is developed when looking to restore the nation’s assigned characteristics of goodness after overcoming the suffering and victimization of the identified evil. This pairing of victim and hero works to mobilize and allow the nation to “pursue freedom by violently recusing itself and the world from evil” (Anker, 39); these depictions, in turn, make the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq seem as necessary and morally correct wars, which the US must take on in order to restore goodness both nationally and globally.