The Atlantic

The Problem With Calls for 'Resilience'

Why shouldn't a community fear random violence?
Source: Peter Nicholls / Reuters

In the wake of a terrorist attack like Monday’s in Manchester—and the far too many others around the world recently—press coverage can follow a particular pattern. There’s the immediate scramble for detail; the death toll that ticks gradually upward; the testimonies pouring in from the scene and the descriptions of the truly brave and compassionate members of the community who pull together to support total strangers in their suffering. There are the searing biographies of the innocents cut down, which somehow always seem to

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