Here is an ensemble of recently published reflections on the Paris attacks by notable thinkers.
Slavoj Zizek writes:
There should be no “deeper understanding” of the ISIS terrorists (in the sense of “their deplorable acts are nonetheless reactions to European brutal interventions”); they should be characterized as what they are: the Islamo-Fascist counterpart of the European anti-immigrant racists—the two are the two sides of the same coin.
Etienne Balibar writes:
So what can we do? At all costs, firstly, we must reflect together and must resist all fear, amalgams, and impulses for vengeance. Clearly, we must take all necessary measures for civil and military protection, for intelligence and for security, in order to prevent terrorist actions or to counteract them, and if possible to judge and punish the perpetrators and accomplices involved. But, in doing so, we must demand the most complete vigilance on the part of ‘democratic’ states with regard to acts of hatred towards those nationals and residents who, as a result of their origins, beliefs, or ways of life, are singled out as ‘the interior enemy’ by self-proclaimed patriots. And further: require that the same states – when reinforcing their security devices – respect individual and collective rights which are the foundation of their own legitimacy. The examples of the ‘Patriot Act’ and of Guantanamo show us that this is not so easy.
Bruno Latour writes:
But what makes the current situation so much more dismaying is that the crimes committed on 13 November have occurred within a few days of another event about to take place that involves tragedies of a different kind, ones that will require that we come with very different answers to wholly different threats that have nothing to do with ISIS/Daech. I am referring, of course, to the World Climate Change Conference in Paris, the COP21, which we are now liable to deem less serious, less urgent than the police response to the bloody escapades of those machine gun-toting lunatics.
Joggerfry 