TERROR
More bombings in London today. These ones didn’t seem to be very successful, though, thankfully. After 9/11 I always said that if the terrorists were really smart about terror, they wouldn’t have crashed all the planes in one day. They would have one (maybe two to hit both World Trade Center towers) and then waited, then struck again, and again. The best way to cause real terror and affect a society is extended, small campaigns. Look at Israel. They have bombings there almost weekly it seems. Hitting somebody once doesn’t cause terror. It might cause anger or fear, but terror is a different beast.
A more benign example is movies. The Exorcist is a movie of terror. It’s slow, crawling, shadowing horror. Something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not a terror movie. It’s a scare movie. The 9/11 attacks were horrible, but they didn’t cause long-lasting terror in people, except maybe in NY. Bombings in random places killing dozens week after week would cause terror because it’s unknown. You wouldn’t know where to go to be safe. The damage to the economy if people started staying home en masse would be terrible, for sure. Of course the next step would be bombing random homes so that even that ultimate sanctuary isn’t safe. But who knows if these people are thinking long-term. Who knows if these aren’t just copycats?
Technorati Tags: grommes, terrorism
A more benign example is movies. The Exorcist is a movie of terror. It’s slow, crawling, shadowing horror. Something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not a terror movie. It’s a scare movie. The 9/11 attacks were horrible, but they didn’t cause long-lasting terror in people, except maybe in NY. Bombings in random places killing dozens week after week would cause terror because it’s unknown. You wouldn’t know where to go to be safe. The damage to the economy if people started staying home en masse would be terrible, for sure. Of course the next step would be bombing random homes so that even that ultimate sanctuary isn’t safe. But who knows if these people are thinking long-term. Who knows if these aren’t just copycats?
Technorati Tags: grommes, terrorism