4 ms·

Excellent comment! Although of course one has to remember that the impact of terrorism cannot be measured purely by a body count. There is a strong symbolic dim

by veddox 11y ago

Excellent comment! Although of course one has to remember that the impact of terrorism cannot be measured purely by a body count. There is a strong symbolic dimension to it - if al-Quaeda had killed a few thousand people in some remote town in America instead of targeting the World Trade Center, the response would have been much different.

saiya-jin 11y ago
this happens when emotions take over rational thinking and decision process. as non-american, and apologies upfront to our US friends, whole WTC was more like 'meh', just another ugly day, what's the big deal... no reason to prefer some clerks over some other kids/women hacked with machetes, smashed by earthquake or other tragedies happening left and right. Manmade or not, not a big difference But when emotions kick in, when YOU feel YOU are attacked (and those are some powerful emotions!), proportions change, and you just want to nuke 'em to hell, twice. I think I react in similar way in... +- similar situations (more personal ones rather than attack on the nation). Sad story that whole USA got swayed into blind acceptance of any security measure to stop that ugly terrorist
cm2187 11y ago
It is very much like the risk of flying. The media got the message and now, pretty much anytime a plane crashes, will repeat again and again that the risk is extremely low and that it is safer to take a plane than cross a street. For terrorism (or any disease for that matter) they do exactly the opposite. The message is pretty much "this could happen to you". The reality is that plane crashes in Europe probably killed a multiple of what terrorism killed the past few years. We have 100+ deads in a single accident at least once a year. Us being afraid of terrorism is like an elephant afraid of a mosquito.

4 ms·

Excellent comment! Although of course one has to remember that the impact of terrorism cannot be measured purely by a body count. There is a strong symbolic dim

by veddox 11y ago

saiya-jin 11y ago
this happens when emotions take over rational thinking and decision process. as non-american, and apologies upfront to our US friends, whole WTC was more like 'meh', just another ugly day, what's the big deal... no reason to prefer some clerks over some other kids/women hacked with machetes, smashed by earthquake or other tragedies happening left and right. Manmade or not, not a big difference But when emotions kick in, when YOU feel YOU are attacked (and those are some powerful emotions!), proportions change, and you just want to nuke 'em to hell, twice. I think I react in similar way in... +- similar situations (more personal ones rather than attack on the nation). Sad story that whole USA got swayed into blind acceptance of any security measure to stop that ugly terrorist
cm2187 11y ago
It is very much like the risk of flying. The media got the message and now, pretty much anytime a plane crashes, will repeat again and again that the risk is extremely low and that it is safer to take a plane than cross a street. For terrorism (or any disease for that matter) they do exactly the opposite. The message is pretty much "this could happen to you". The reality is that plane crashes in Europe probably killed a multiple of what terrorism killed the past few years. We have 100+ deads in a single accident at least once a year. Us being afraid of terrorism is like an elephant afraid of a mosquito.