This From the Critical Thinking File
Last year, security expert, Bruce Schneier, published a piece in Wired News entitled Refuse to be Terrorized. It is still current today.
His thoughtful analysis very clearly lays out how much being terrorized is a choice, one possible outcome in the wake of terrorist acts. He cautions against over reaction, and shows how such over reactions actually play directly into the hands of the terrorists.
On a national and international policy level, he points out that:
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. And if we're terrified, and we share that fear, we help. All of these actions intensify and repeat the terrorists' actions, and increase the effects of their terror.
And in the final paragraph he suggests that we acknowledge that living involves taking risks, and living fully involved thinking clearly about managing those risks.
The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn't make us any safer.The article is a rich field of hyperlinks, each one leading to more interesting nuggets. Worth a read.