Terrorism is not as bad as we are made to think.

Posted on by Opher

Every death is a tragedy. Every injury too. Terrorism is deplorable, evil and disgusting. The fact that somebody actually sits down in cold blood and plans ways to kill and mutilate innocent civilians is almost beyond belief. Those people are heartless scum. The act is somehow made worse when it is religiously motivated. For anyone to believe that any god would be pleased that they have mutilated women and children shows some sick thinking. For any religion or sect to believe that it alone has the correct insight into the thinking of god is arrogant stupidity. For any terrorist bomber of innocent people to believe they will be rewarded by any god and wake up in paradise is fanciful brain-washing. No sane god would sanction such a thing. If there was a god, which I do not believe, they would certainly book those callous terrorists into the worst hell imaginable.

Terrorism is horrendous because it is designed to terrorise. It is intended that the fear it creates is out of proportion to the reality. It is designed to produce terror and division.

To that extent Islamic terrorism has succeeded. It has produced widespread fear, division and hate. It has produced racism aimed against the peaceful Muslim community, distrust of Muslims and a rise in fascism and xenophobia. This fear was used extensively in the Brexit and Trump campaigns to divide and create hysteria which could be directed to produce a populist result. We now have what the terrorists set out to produce – chaos and division. Both Brexit and the election of Trump have brought Britain and the US into unnecessary chaos and division, stoked up hatred and emboldened fascist minorities.

I contend that this fear is out of proportion. Terrorism is horrendous but the terror it has produced, resulting in this chaos and siege mentality, is nowhere near as great as it appears in our imagination.

By creating such disruption and public fear the terrorists have achieved what they set out to do. They have made us weaker and divided us. Without this exaggerated fear they generated, neither the harmful disarray of Brexit or damaging election of Trump would have happened. Xenophobia, the fear of immigrants, demonising of Muslims and Mexicans, the building of walls, tightening of immigration laws, exclusion of foreigners, all go against natural warmth of welcome and openness of our culture. We have been fed lies about rape, murder, crime, terrorism, jobs, religions, no-go areas, Islamification and threats to our culture that are out of proportion to the reality. Yes there has been too much mass immigration and not enough integration. Yes there has been some crime, some rapes and areas where there are concentrations of minority groups. But these have been built up out of all proportion. Most immigrants are not extreme or terrorists but are grateful for being given a haven. They have escaped from war, starvation and horror. They have a new start.

Is this response to terrorism justified? I think not.

I am not belittling the effects of terrorism. It is horrendous. I am merely putting it in proportion and saying that it is not as bad as it appears. The horrors in the news show the terrible outcomes but the incidents are relatively few and minor in light of the bigger picture.

Death and injury are unfortunately part of everyday life. People are killed, maimed and become terminally ill all the time. Every one of those deaths, diseases and injuries is a tragedy for individuals, families, friends and colleagues. We are all touched by it. But terrorism plays a tiny part in this overall scheme of things.

I will illustrate what I mean by the statistics from the UK. I chose a 15 year period from 2000 – 2015.

All Deaths in UK (aprox) – 7,500,000

Deaths from road accidents – 51,006

Deaths from murder – 6,750

Deaths from Air crashes (estimate) – 6000

Deaths from terrorism – 90

In fact the deaths from IRA terrorism in the 1980s was much worse. Yet the effect of those terrible 90 deaths (and the hundreds of people maimed and injured) creates a public fear that is out of all proportion. You are 566 times more likely to be killed in an accident on the roads yet we do not get totally paranoid about driving. We accept that as a fact of life, an acceptable risk. Is that because we are under the illusion that we are somehow in control of what happens on the road? As someone who has survived a serious accident I know that we are not. When something happens at speed there is nothing you can do.

Terrorism plays on our psyche because of the deliberate callous act of mass murder. Yet your chances of being caught up in it are minimal.

I believe it is time to put this illogical fear out of our minds. We cannot allow the terrorists to win like this. These brainwashed evil extremists should not be allowed to cause such division, hatred and mayhem. They are not the menace we think they are. It is time to put the threat in proportion. Terrorism’s whole purpose is to achieve this reaction from us. We cannot let them do this.

Don’t let the evil, brainwashed monsters win. Unite and reach out. We’re better together. Let’s build a caring, open society, not a fear-ridden xenophobic culture skulking behind walls.

 

29 thoughts on “Terrorism is not as bad as we are made to think.”

  1. Totally agree. Many Western right-wing politicians use FEAR only to gain more (frightened) voters. It’s an old strategy used by so many mala fide leaders since the day people walked this planet. All populist leaders, then and now apply the same old tric: They tell the people over and over again that there’s one evil enemy out there who causes ALL problems. Scared people don’t really think, they follow those LIARS and actually believe that THE ENEMY is responsible for all their own troubles. As a most dangerous consequence fascism inspired leaders are elected & hate and intolerance and WAR take over. Check history, you’ll find the same old story over and over again.

    1. So true. Scared people stop thinking, and they don’t know what to think, because of a mainstream media that colludes with the terrorism narrative. A companion age-old tactic, which a free press is supposed to check.

      1. JoAnn – so true – we don’t have a free press do we? It is scaremongering and sensationalism with political overtones.

  3. So true, so true, so true! In America, and around the world, the fear of terrorism is way out of proportion. Not that we should rest easy. Climate change and environmental pollution are working hard to do everyone in.

    1. JoAnn – no, you are right, we should not rest easy – just do our best to eradicate it, not let it dominate our thinking or influence who we elect, not be used by the populists, not let it affect what we do and fpocus on the real dangers – as you point out – pollution and global warming.

  5. This means that it is our reaction to the event that is really holding us paralyzed, rather than the incident itself. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Thank you for the quality post!

    2. Or as FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) said ” we have nothing to fear but fear itself”.
      Opher will know the paranoid parents who drive their children to primary school when it would be better for them to walk as we did!

      1. Trevor – a good quote. Nice to hear from you. Yes – the paranoia runs deep. Parents nightmares are restricting the quality of the lives and health of their children. The obesity epidemic is one result and will kill a lot more of them than ever would have resulted from the dangers on the roads or from paedophiles. I’m just glad that I, and my kids, enjoyed a life that was unfettered, spent largely outside with nature and was all the richer for it.

  6. Couoldn’t agree more. The media has a lot to answer for. Since it’s explosion into our lounges, horror of all kinds is broadcast, with very little to counterbalance it. It started with the gulf war and has not stopped since.

    1. I feel manipulated by it. It is as though they want us to fear. They can use that fear to do all manner of things.

      1. Indeed – that’s why it’s so important to be vigilant and discerning. You can’t be manipulated if you are aware of the potential to be and ensure your facts.

  9. You must remember in the terrorist mind we are not innocent civilians nor do they consider us to be human. We are sub human apostates who deserve contempt and disgust.
    You are quite right about statistics but who is to blame for the distortion ? We must apportion blame on the public and the media ; the media for supplying continuous horror stories and the public for wallowing in the grim facts. The same is observed in murders ; the more dreadful the deed the larger the printed space it gets. I wonder if the media were closed down whether the terrorists would lose there desire for bizarre acts.

    1. A pertinent observation Kertsen. We are indeed subhuman apostates and they are mindless, morononic, brainwashed harbingers of intolerant medieval evil.
      Perhaps you are right? The media is providing oxygen to the flames.

  10. Take away the moral mind and a man can be anything he wants to imagine . Robert Mugabe was once a communist but he soon began to live like a King , and stepping off the stage he takes his kingly delusions and his treasure with him.

    1. Yes – most people succumb and sell out their ideals – but some don’t.
      Robert Mugabe is a wicked man. He should be stripped of all his ill-gotten gains. While people starved he robbed them.

  11. Maybe they still believe they are in their ideal period , like the rich man who blew the trumpets and poured gold into charities purse and the widows mite.Apparently Mr Mugabe’s wife was a great supporter of charity. There is a curious conundrum that it was the generous slave holders who held up abolition.

  12. Indeed but it must surely make us consider charity on a global scale when one third of the glob e live on two dollars a day.

    1. The people in Zimbabwe could have lived at a much higher standard if they had not been robbed blind by Mugabe, his wife and their cronies.

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