2. Another strategy of magical thinking is “say a magical word, like ‘abracadabra!’ or ‘open sesame!’, and the big bad boo-boo will go away.”
We can see this strategy play out in the invocations to politicians to say the words “radical Islam” as if the act of saying the words could change reality.
3. The third strategy is “I can manipulate the situation to my benefit because I have secret knowledge of everybody’s true motivations.”
This strategy manifests itself in narratives like “Terrorists killed because they want us to hate refugees, so let’s resist and, instead, embrace refugees to thwart terrorists.”
The only adult alternative to these childish manifestations is to find a way to accept the disturbing fact that bad shit happens to good people and bad shit can happen to us at any time. Finding a way to be at peace with this knowledge and not let it destroy one psychologically is a sign of psychological maturity.
I sincerely hope that people understand that I’m not asking anybody to avoid the words “radical Islam” or to do any harm to refugees. I like the expression “radical Islam” and I think it’s insane to blame refugees for the Paris attacks. The post is about magical thinking that is revealed in all aspects of people’s lives, not just in discussions about terrorism.
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