In the wake of the horrendous jihadist attacks in Paris, one would expect journalists to confront politicians with some very hard questions like: "What do you want to do now?" "How will you stop this insanity?" "Please, give us some clear and straight answers."
But, no. I only heard journalists asking the politicians some very soft and therapeutical questions: "How do you feel?" "What is your emotional reaction to this?"
As liberal democracies assess the threat that ISIS poses and try to understand what motivates those who are attracted to it, an analogy springs to mind. Like the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century — Nazi and Communist — and like North Korea today, ISIS aspires to attain complete control of those whom it governs, and to totalize all moral and legal norms within the territory that it controls. And like Communist regimes, ISIS is more than willing to kill its own people, particularly dissenters. It employs the tactics of totalization to achieve the strategic goal of eradicating all pluralism, all differences, all distinctions and duties that it has not itself specified and dictated.
Yet if ISIS is totalitarian then it is a different species from those we have fought before. The Communists totalized the norms and institutions of society in order to consolidate power. ISIS consolidates power in order to totalize norms and institutions. The object is not to make everyone completely subject to a ruling class, as it is for Communists. Rather, the goal is to make everyone completely subject to a particular interpretation of Islamic law, including the ruling class.
