The 9/11 vents have left an American people riddled with pain and trauma
with deep wounds, both physical and psychic. The days following this attack were
marked by a situation of permanent psychosis, marked by fear and uncertainty,
because it was an almost apocalyptic situation. The reaction of George Walker
Bush’s administration was, first, to consider this attack as an act of war
against the United States of America by inventing a motive for war, casus
belli, and finally by equipping itself with discursive, political, propagandist
means to forge an ultimate conviction of a war case with the full support of
the American people. Fear is a form of intrinsic motivation, and, above all, it
can be produced by a number of endogenous as well as exogenous factors.
Neoconservatives have understood the manifestation of this natural phenomenon
and know how to use it to legitimize imperialist agendas. This study aims to
revisit this context of production and promotion “Apocalyptic” Discourse to
Provoke National Adhesion to a Controversial Conflict.
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