How likely are you to die in a car accident, or from a heart attack, or just some other stupid accident/conincidence?
The difference is in people's minds. Two major things stand out about terrorism:
1) It's rare. If a bomb blew up once a week for a decade, nobody would pay it any attention. Some ten years ago, I used to hear at least one gunshot every night in my neighborhood. Nobody gave the shots a second look because it was so common. Plane crashes get the same kind of attention. But look at natural disasters. If central New Jersey (where there are still lots of farms) suddenly was struck by a 7.0 earthquake, it would be the hottest thing since 9/11. But if it struck LA, it wouldn't be thought of as anything out of the ordinary.
The big question is why is happens. The answer is surprise. People don't like being surprised. It breaks their (usually false) sense of security. It destroys certain preconceived notions, some of which people might have had since they were very young. So when they are surprised, they start anticipating when they'll next be surprised. The anticipation causes fear. And in a society where blaming other people for one's own problems is the social norm, people will find the easiest person to blame for this fear. The most obvious target for this blame would be the politicians.
2) People generally perceive a measure of control over most other ways of dying. With diseases, people eat healthier, exercise, etc. With accidents, people take preventative measures. They pay more attention when driving. They look boths ways before crossing the street. In dangerous neighborhoods, people sleep with a gun nearby.
But terrorists now...they could be anywhere, anyone. The only thing people know how to do to prevent become victim to a terrorist attack is to isolate themselves from everyone else. But that's not possible for most people. So they feel helpless. They are anything but helpless, but they don't and won't know this until somebody teaches them. But in a nation (specifically the US, where the draconian laws as a result of terrorism began) whose people haven't ever had to face an attack on its soil since the Civil War (WWII arguably, but that was Hawaii, and not part of the Union until later), there's nobody to teach people the things they can do to prevent becoming victimized by random explosions. Again, they play the blame game, and the politicians end up taking all the heat.
The general lesson to be learned from all of this is that the politicians are not always the ones to be blamed for giving the collective rear end of the people the shaft. If the people cried out against the diminishing of their freedoms and the sensationalist news reporting that feeds their fears, these things just wouldn't happen. But society wants these things. People want to feel safe.
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How likely are you to die in a car accident, or from a heart attack, or just some other stupid accident/conincidence?
The difference is in people's minds. Two major things stand out about terrorism:
1) It's rare. If a bomb blew up once a week for a decade, nobody would pay it any attention. Some ten years ago, I used to hear at least one gunshot every night in my neighborhood. Nobody gave the shots a second look because it was so common. Plane crashes get the same kind of attention. But look at natural disasters. If central New Jersey (where there are still lots of farms) suddenly was struck by a 7.0 earthquake, it would be the hottest thing since 9/11. But if it struck LA, it wouldn't be thought of as anything out of the ordinary.
The big question is why is happens. The answer is surprise. People don't like being surprised. It breaks their (usually false) sense of security. It destroys certain preconceived notions, some of which people might have had since they were very young. So when they are surprised, they start anticipating when they'll next be surprised. The anticipation causes fear. And in a society where blaming other people for one's own problems is the social norm, people will find the easiest person to blame for this fear. The most obvious target for this blame would be the politicians.
2) People generally perceive a measure of control over most other ways of dying. With diseases, people eat healthier, exercise, etc. With accidents, people take preventative measures. They pay more attention when driving. They look boths ways before crossing the street. In dangerous neighborhoods, people sleep with a gun nearby.
But terrorists now...they could be anywhere, anyone. The only thing people know how to do to prevent become victim to a terrorist attack is to isolate themselves from everyone else. But that's not possible for most people. So they feel helpless. They are anything but helpless, but they don't and won't know this until somebody teaches them. But in a nation (specifically the US, where the draconian laws as a result of terrorism began) whose people haven't ever had to face an attack on its soil since the Civil War (WWII arguably, but that was Hawaii, and not part of the Union until later), there's nobody to teach people the things they can do to prevent becoming victimized by random explosions. Again, they play the blame game, and the politicians end up taking all the heat.
The general lesson to be learned from all of this is that the politicians are not always the ones to be blamed for giving the collective rear end of the people the shaft. If the people cried out against the diminishing of their freedoms and the sensationalist news reporting that feeds their fears, these things just wouldn't happen. But society wants these things. People want to feel safe.