Looking Backward at Terrorism
Nice essay on the danger of too much security:
The great lie of the war on terror is not that we can sacrifice a little liberty for greater security. It is that fear can be eliminated, and that all we need to do to improve our society is defeat terrorism, rather than look at the other causes of our social, economic, and political anxiety. That is the great seduction of fear: It allows us to do nothing. It is easier to find new threats than new possibilities.
A decade after 9/11, we look backward and find ourselves in all-too-familiar surroundings. We have, in fact, accomplished very little. We have yet to do any of the serious thinking that might carry us beyond the banal, stifling quest for security. That kind of thinking would require us to have a different relationship to fear: a willingness to accept it, even cause it.
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Richard Steven Hack • August 19, 2011 2:08 PM
Excellent little article.
I highly recommend everyone watch the movie “V for Vendetta”. The most important scene in the movie – perhaps in any movie – is the scene where Evey loses her fear. The second most important scene is the finale where a huge mob loses its fear.
This is also why I recommend martial arts be taught to every child. Once you learn to deal with the immediate fear of being attacked – which goes directly to the basic primal fear of every human which is what guides almost all human behavior – the fear of death – it’s much easier to learn to deal with more of life’s fears.