2023-10-23 04:19:00
Three false bomb threats in our schools following the attack: up to 2 years in prison for the author, or even 5 years if the author threatens himself
Certainly, Lassoued’s targets had the nationality of a country (Swedish) which is a model of freedom of expression and where certain opinion leaders have not spared the Koran. But also, there is, in the background, an Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a Hamas leader who calls for a war beyond the borders of this bilateral conflict.
Olivier Luminet is professor of psychology at UCLouvain and research director FNRS (National Scientific Research Fund). He analyzes for us the emotional shock caused by this attack.
Olivier Luminet is professor of psychology at UCLouvain and research director FNRS (National Scientific Research Fund). ©Dieter Telemans
Olivier Luminet, since the attack in Brussels, have we been in a purely irrational collective psychosis?
“There is a general psychosis but with different gradations. Fear is higher in Brussels than elsewhere. We had already experienced these nuances following the attacks of 2016. Between rational and irrational fear, there is a balance. There are contexts, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Hamas leader’s call for war, which increase the probability that other attacks will occur here. There is also a feeling of vulnerability that spreads suddenly, brutally. The fact remains that, statistically, in terms of probability, in Belgium, there is less risk of dying from an attack than from driving a car. We can make an analogy with plane crashes. They are highly striking. Suddenly there are many, many deaths. Images of the crushed carcass playing in a loop on television strike people’s minds. But, statistically, transport by plane remains safer and less risky than by car.
Should schools be closed?
“Here too, we can make an analogy with the school closures following 2016. Schools are children and they represent the pinnacle of what must be protected. Football matches are not prohibited, for example. While the risk is low, although I would never say it can’t happen. Of course, there was this French teacher killed in a school in Arras. But closing a school in a climate like this is not a good reflex. Children or teenagers will find themselves alone or with their grandparents. They will see, on television, on their tablet or smartphone, in a loop, the news, the videos, the face of the killer, which fall all day long, without this educational contribution from teachers who can explain things to them, open debates in class to find out how they feel regarding it all.”
Will this collective psychosis last?
“Unfortunately no. Let me explain. We are coming out of a succession of anxiety-inducing crises and here we are once more. Covid, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, purchasing power… And now, a terrorist attack which, in fact, is just another traumatic episode. The context is such that the phobia of being the victim of an attack will, in the medium or even short term, if other terrorist acts do not occur, be drowned in a magma of currently distressing parameters. There will be, and perhaps already is now, a melting pot.“
All right. Except that Covid was an invisible enemy. The risk of warlike repercussions from the war in Ukraine, fueled by the illusion of Russia attacking the West, was an elusive hypothesis. The energy and purchasing power crisis is ultimately only financial and material: we are afraid of not making ends meet but not of dying. Here, we have a killer and identified victims, whose photos are widely distributed…
“Exact. There is another dimension here. We are witnessing all of this. And we have the impression of finding ourselves watching a film. While knowing that it is reality. An attack has a visual impact that is much more striking than the successive crises that we have experienced and are still experiencing. In addition, the victims were going to attend a football match. The most child-friendly activity. We are far from the visit of a head of state.”
How do you analyze false bomb threats? This Thursday, the schools of ‘t SJIBke and SJIB in Betekom in Flemish Brabant, and the Institut Sainte-Marie in La Louvière were evacuated following a false bomb threat. In La Louvière, the students were evacuated and “stored” in a sports hall….
”One of two things. Either they are unconscious pranksters, individuals who act alone, keen on jokes in very bad taste without any perspective. With, as a result, a risk of contamination. We learn that some people do this, we are going to do the same thing. Either these acts are the result of consultation with a strategic goal. People who have given themselves the word to prolong murderous terrorism with psychological terrorism. And, to this end, what might be more effective than putting a school on alert. At this stage, there has never been an act in Belgium, namely a real bomb planted in a school. The trouble in people’s minds is that it’s not certain that this will never be the case.”
False bomb threat at the Institut Sainte-Marie in La Louvière: “the rate of absenteeism this Friday was quite high and I regret it”
When it comes to false bomb threats in schools, do we continue as if nothing happened?
”The role of teachers will be essential here. It won’t be enough for them to say, ‘It was a false alarm, don’t worry.’ But to open a space for collective discussion in class, to encourage students to put into words what they felt and to share them in order to exorcise their fear. “How do you feel following what happened.”
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