1 MARCH 2008, Page 23

Our own enemy

Sir: Douglas Murray’s description (‘A scholar who dares to look terror in the face’, 23 February) of the terrorist mentality is spot-on: ‘narcissism, widely misconceived altruism, youth, envy, mental and sexual dysfunctionalism, will to destruction and utopian absurdity’.

Unfortunately, this list also applies to much of Western society and its infantile preoccupations: the celebrity culture, foreign aid, the youth cult, the consumer society’s pig philosophy, bingeing and psychotic visions of ‘saving the planet.’ We get the enemies we deserve.

Revd Dr Peter Mullen

London EC1