International Law

Refusing to be Afraid

By Karl-Friedrich Lenz

Bruce Schneier links to a campaign that wants people to tell politicians to stop being afraid. They have this text as a petition:

I am not afraid of terrorism, and I want you to stop being afraid on my behalf. Please start scaling back the official government war on terror. Please replace it with a smaller, more focused anti-terrorist police effort in keeping with the rule of law. Please stop overreacting. I understand that it will not be possible to stop all terrorist acts. I am not afraid.

The first order of business when dealing with terrorists is to refuse fear. That is what the terrorists want. You need to deny them that, whatever they might come up with.

However, while I support this campaign, there actually is plenty to fear. Human rights are in bad shape and might be gone soon completely. While the terrorist risk is indeed small compared to even minor risks as traffic accidents and completely irrelevant compared to the real danger of global warming, the risk of losing all liberty to a security machine running amok is quite real.

Full post as published by Lenz Blog on December 21, 2007 (boomark / email).