[lit-ideas] Re: Europe's September 11 ?
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 22:33:26 +0900
On 2004/03/12, at 22:01, Teemu Pyyluoma wrote:
> Omar and John are over-reacting. After all the attack
> was timed three days before the election, and it is
> quite normal to assume that terrorists have a
> political motive. So I don't see what's so Bushie
> about calling it an attack on democracy, although it
> may be jumping to conclusions.
>
Perhaps we are over-reacting a bit. Political seasons do that to one.
> Ultimately the world we live in is secure because vast
> majority of people are decent human beings. But the
> amount of damage a single person can do keeps growing
> (this is sometimes refered to as force multiplyer
> effect of technology.) Facism isn't the answer though,
> there is very little evidence that totalitarian
> regimes any safer than liberal democracies and plenty
> to the contrary, but I fear that we may learn that the
> hard way.
>
> Now someone please tell me I'm wrong.
You are, I fear, all too right, and the only "cure" I can think of is
to adopt a kind of olympian callousness, noting, for example, that far
more people die each year in major earthquakes all across Asia, from
Turkey to China, from typhoon-induced flooding in the Bay of Bengal,
from AIDs in central Africa, or from traffic accidents in the USA or
Japan, and the chances that any one of us will wind up a terrorist
victim are measurably smaller than those that we will die of household
accidents or an unexpected illness. As a British friend who lived in
London throughout the period in which IRA bombers were making things go
boom there, you learn to carry on and not think the sky is falling.
Terrorism loses much of its point if martyrdom is received with public
indifference (while, of course, serious police work goes on).
John L. McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama, Japan 220-0006
Tel 81-45-314-9324
Email mccreery@xxxxxxx
"Making Symbols is Our Business"
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