Paris

Paris has been making the headlines over the last few days and it is hard not to reflect upon the awful events that took place there last Friday and their implications. Events such as this shift the boundaries that I was talking about yesterday, temporarily, in some cases, but often more permanently. For those left injured or bereaved by the killings, life will never be the same again - they will forever see the world through different eyes. For those of us more distant from the suffering, life will probably go on much as before, at least for the time-being. That said, the twists and turns of history are unpredictable and sometimes the road bends sharply without us noticing... until it is too late.

For politicians and senior policy makers this is clearly a critical moment, especially in France, but elsewhere too. How they respond will, in some way or other, change the course of history. Whether the resulting deflection is major or minor, for better or for worse, may depend upon what is truly motivating our leaders and those that influence them. Are their reactions governed by emotion or reason, altruism or self-interest? Is anger and outrage so great as to deny the possibility of a clear headed analysis of the costs and benefits of different policy responses? How many politicians really believe that an aggressive response to terrorism will make us safer? How does domestic politics affect the calculus? How big is the gap between 'being strong' and 'appearing strong'?  It seems to me that now is one of those times when political leaders (and journalists, too) need to think very consciously about what motivates their own personal and collective reactions to the terrible events in Paris. It might also be helpful if they focused  more clearly on what motivates ISIS and the people it recruits.

Despite what the headlines currently suggest, the boundary between good and evil has always been negotiable and porous. Good people do bad things, bad people do good things;  few people are truly evil and there are very few saints. However, times like these test the balance between good and evil. They risk pushing us into a world where good people are more likely to do bad things, and where genuinely bad people find increasing opportunities to prosper.