UPDATE: See also Nicholas Gets "Panglossed."
Posted by Nicholas | Having reviewed some of the recent ruminations of Michelle Malkin and The Drudge Report, I am bemused by the level and intensity of their fear of terrorism, and the narrowness of its focus, as if no other dangers existed if only this one could be eliminated or controlled. Perhaps I find it strange because I grew up in London during the Seventies, when dying as a result of terrorist attack was certainly possible, and understood to be possible. On three separate occasions, I was close enough to car bombs---which, thankfully, wasn't close at all---for me to hear the windows rattle when they detonated. We carried on, mostly because there was no other choice, but also by understanding that life in the modern world---just like life during all periods of human history---was a risky business.
What about other ways of dying badly? What about, for example, dying slowly and agonizingly of cancer because you delayed too long in seeking medical attention because you had no insurance and spent the money on paying for repairs to your car so you could go to work? When I first moved here from the UK, I simply could not comprehend it when a friend told me that she was having a tooth pulled because she couldn't afford the cost of a root canal that might have saved it. It was the difference for her between $75 and $1200, which I had to agree was a substantial amount of dosh to be spent for a service she absolutely would have preferred not to need.
What about the risk of dying of avian flu or in some other nasty epidemic? Or even of something commonplace, such as ordinary flu? What about having someone plough into the side of your car? What about slipping in the bathtub or being struck by lightning? What about dying in a hurricane when a tree comes through the roof or when your car overheats as you're trying to evacuate (as might well have occurred during Hurricane Rita, but thankfully did not)? What about dying of a heretofore unsuspected allergy to peanuts, bee venom, shellfish?
What about all the many, many ways of dying that the government will never be able to control and that no person can predict? I don't mean to be morbid; I merely want to point out that the constant and well-nigh hysterical fear of terrorist attack evinced by some persons from the American "right" reflects a sort of tunnel vision in analyzing---and particularly in accurately weighting---the risks that we all of us face every minute of every day.
Americans have always seemed to me to be abnormally frightened of dying. But frightened or not, to become so fixated on one sort of risk that you can no longer consider any of the others strikes me as slightly unbalanced. Of COURSE you must take reasonable precautions, but we British have a much longer experience than you Americans with terrorism and perhaps a more realistic attitude. The goal should be to minimize the risk and this requires something more concrete than merely a "global war on terrorism;" it requires that you educate citizens to pay attention to their environment and to take responsibility for noticing suspicious activity and alerting the police. It also requires police (and military personnel) who are trained as far as possible to deal with the possibility.
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