To us, America's fear of terrorism is like a cat being afraid of a mouse. Actually, it's worse than that, because all the terrorists in all the world amount to no more than an anemic mosquito on the snout of a whale. The fact is... We're in far more danger from our own cars than we are from terrorism.
Speaking of whales, The Dominion Post - a major NZ newspaper - has organized a petition against Japan's whaling programme (HT: Luke). I'm not sure whether it'll do any good, but one can always hope -- the issue seems to be gaining political support across New Zealand and Australia, at least...
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Yeah, but it's kind of like urging a depressive to stop being sad. Terrorism isn't exactly external to our society, it's tied up with it, and any solution needs to be a societal change. Then Bush and Guliani whine that that's what the terrorists want, to change our way of life. So what? The changes we're afraid of (or that Osama demands) are hardly any more than political delusions, whereas the changes needed (like, stop raping the third world for its resources) could conceivably shut up the radical militants. The first thing to do is to shake off those political delusions...
ReplyDeleteThat's my soapbox speech.
Good sentiment - but two problems -
ReplyDelete1) our media will not let us stop being afraid. It is one of the most intrinsic parts of our system that we have that sort of media. It might well be easier for us to for example "stop liking buying stuff".
It is a little like how we react very strongly to cases where innocent people are convicted or get excited over voting between parties where it makes little practical difference.
2) I think terrorism is CURRENTLY a mosquito to America. I don’t think that will remain the case in the long term. I also think the argument behind that is compelling.
of course that makes stupid foreign policy all the worse.