Fri, 15 Sep 2006

Bruce Schneier Blasts Politicians, Media

To answer the rhetorical question posed by the Slashdot poster: Yes, the terrorists are laughing at us. Schneier is spot on with this:

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets, or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.

And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want.

Every little freedom we lose, every little change we make to our routines avoid perceived danger is a small victory for terrorism. Precisely because it's terrorizing us.

We could use a healthy dose of societal courage right about now.

In his latest newsletter, security author Bruce Schneier delivered a scathing critique of politicians and the media for promoting fear and ultimately doing exactly what the terrorists want. Citing several cases of false alarms, Schneier writes: 'Our politicians help the terrorists every time they use fear as a campaign tactic. The press helps every time it writes scare stories about the plot and the threat... Our job is to think critically and rationally, and to ignore the cacophony of other interests trying to use terrorism to advance political careers or increase a television show's viewership.' Are the terrorists laughing at us?

(link) [Slashdot]

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