Terror and extremism are the two main themes of all the articles in this introductory group, but really they are the same topic. Extremism is the wish to make your will prevail by silencing your opponent, and terror is the expression of that wish by silencing anyone at all. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to extend that contention very far without being branded right wing by purported left-wingers whose own position echoes totalitarian fanaticism in every respect. In the atmosphere of diffidence, not to say nervousness, which is generated by such a threat, there is a terrible temptation to deal with these questions by brushing them under the carpet; and perhaps, in the aggregate if not separately, they are anyway simply too daunting to face. In my essay on Isaiah Berlin, I conjectured that to a certain extent even he, one of the most prominent political thinkers of his time, dodged the issue. It could just be – you can hear the suspicion forming in the distance – that wishful thinking is an occupational hazard of liberal democracy.
