Terror State

The global community once again finds itself in a state of recoil in the wake of the most recent ISIS-sponsored attacks that devastated Brussels this week. State officials scramble to tie up lose security ends and Belgians begin to mourn the sudden loss of their compatriots. Needless to say, the recent chain of terrorist attacks, most notably in Paris, San Bernardino, and now Brussels, have thrust terrorism into the forefront of Americans’ minds as the most menacing threat to our safety.

So too then should bathtubs, car accidents, and lightning because Americans are more likely to die from any one of these three than during a terrorist attack. This is most certainly too bluntly put, but it is a reality that has been so diluted that the public now finds itself in a constant state of heightened awareness to the possibility of an impending terrorist threat. This inflating sense of danger stems from a source that is so exotic and unfamiliar that is has begun to take hold of the American psyche. Do we overemphasize terror? Yes. But there’s not much a government can do about that, especially when dealing a media that is complicit in exacerbating the sense of vulnerability that terrorism already invokes. Attacks such as the ones engineered by ISIS are a different bread of violence meant to illicit fear and panic. The effect on the public consciousness is so much more potent than any other dangers Americans accept as part of their every day. “Comparing it to shark attacks is apples and oranges, and that’s the challenge for anyone trying to communicate risk,” says Juliette Kayyem, who served as an assistant Homeland Security secretary under Mr. Obama. Some may argue for over-cautiousness, “better safe than sorry,” when it comes to the lives of American citizens. However, this visceral fear of terrorism leaves us vulnerable to dangers that we do not even recognize. It has repeatedly led us to adopt policies that are ill-advised and counterproductive, such as the invasion of Iraq. It has led to the revival of archaic WWII rhetoric and crowd-pleasing calls for the torture and barring of Muslims that even Republican security experts agree are outrageous. It has led us to ignore much more alarming, less glamorous global security concerns like the rapid progression of climate change that threatens to alter the very face of our planet. Tragedies like the most recent in Brussels are jarring and heartbreaking, but it is these events that bring to light how our culture’s fascination with novelty and excess has transformed into a fixation on the grotesque and the shocking. While the destruction and violence which ISIS embodies is an affront to free persons around the globe, it cannot be forgotten that fear and panic are just as much a facet of that agenda.

- Andrew Armstrong