The uses of terror

I mean no disrespect to the dead when I say that Islamist terror in the developed world can seem a pathetic affair. Instead of fanatics executing elaborate plots to attack the Twin Towers and Pentagon, we have ‘lone wolves’ radicalised online, who more often than not turn out to be mentally deficient losers, rather than grand villains executing an intricately planned conspiracy. There is a temptation to dismiss the killers as freaks. Like violent storms, they just happen. And like violent storms, there is little you can say about them and even less you can do to stop them.

If it ever made sense, dismissiveness is now a clearly inadequate response. A little fear goes a long way. While we may have seen nothing like the 9/11 attacks in the last 15 years, actual violence and the fear of worse to come is moulding societies. The propagandists of dictatorship are the most blatant exploiters of other people’s deaths.