Defining Terrorism

Since terrorism is a loaded word, I decided to classify it.

I would say, since terrorism is broadly defined as the use of violence to achieve an ideological goal, it is intended to establish a sense of order to the world. And since bringing order to the natural world is brought about by setting rules, such rules define a method or discipline. Since the concept of discipline is closely tied to the modern system of education, where we learn to observe the world through various segregated disciplines or branches of knowledge, I would say discipline begins with schooling. And hence, terrorism begins at schools.

That is not to say all schools, or the concept of education falls under the same category. A "school" in a modern day interpretation is an educational institution of any sort. However, I'm referring to the concept of "schooling", where a student is made to understand the world through fields of study associated with separate angles.

A simple example which makes a difference is saying "this is a phone" instead of "we refer to this by the name phone".

Classes of Terrorism

• Class 1 Terrorism: Private Humiliation
  • When a teacher asks the class leader to note the names of students who are making noise in her absence so that she can make them stand at the back of the class.
• Class 2 Terrorism: Public Humiliation
  • When a teacher makes the students who did not submit homework stand outside the class.
• Class 3A Terrorism: Physical Punishment
  • When a teacher beats the students who did not submit homework with a stick.
• Class 3B Terrorism: Collective Punishment
  • When a teacher punishes the whole class because one person committed a mistake.
  • I ranked this alongside physical punishment because a teacher is not likely to resort to this without a high sense of anger and lack of a rational means to establish the intended order. Punishing an innocent person and taking out too much anger on a person are somewhat equally bad, morally.
  • For other classes, I've grouped Collective Punishment separately, as this can be generalized outside schools.
• Class 4 Terrorism: Mental Abuse
  • When someone mentally pressures a person to achieve a goal
• Class 5 Terrorism: Mentally Abuse Relatives
  • When someone mentally pressures uninvolved people close to a person to achieve a goal.
  • Abusing someone close to someone is worse than abusing them directly.
• Class 6 Terrorism: Physical Abuse
  • When someone harms a person physically to achieve a goal.
• Class 7 Terrorism: Physically Abuse Relatives
  • When someone physically harms uninvolved people close to a person to achieve a goal.
• Class 8 Terrorism: Murder
  • When someone kills a person to achieve a goal.
• Class 9 Terrorism: Murder Relatives
  • When someone kills people close to a person to achieve a goal. These are what we ordinarily refer to as terrorist attacks.
  • People related to the government of a country can include either non-combatant military personnel or civilians.

Some of these punishments can be grouped, for example, making a student stand outside the class may also be physical punishment to an extent.