Conclusion: Can We Imagine a Terror-Free World?

Abstract

In exploring the role of terrorism from above and below in the capitalist world system, this book has taken Christopher Columbus and Osama bin Laden as symbols of terrorism from 1492 to present. States, powerful individuals, corporations, and certain ethno national groups that have continued to benefit at the cost of indigenous Americans see Columbus as their pioneering hero, and celebrate him while descendants of surviving indigenous Americans and other progressive forces who know about the tragedies of terrorism and genocide that he, his associates, European colonial powers, and their descendants committed consider him the initiator and father of colonial terrorism. Those who celebrate Columbus do not recognize or deny the crimes commit ted against humanity in the Americas by Columbus, the European colonial powers, and their descendants because they do not want to take moral, ethical, and intellectual responsibility by admitting the historical mistakes of previous generations and the capitalist world system that they still worship for protecting their ethno-national/racial benefits. For instance, the US Congress by its joint decision of April 30, 1934, passed a resolution, and President Franklin D. RoosevelL signed an order creating a national holiday known as Columbus Day to commemorate Christopher Columbus’ deeds in the Americas.