A kick in the head
Sep. 13th, 2001 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksI've been hearing more and more about how the US got what was coming to it. This is to all those who think this way: it's easy to say things like that when you believe you're not at risk. But don't you for a moment believe that just because you're not in the US or the Middle East or the UK that you are immune from terrorist attack. No one is safe, anymore. And don't brush it off by saying this has always been the case, because it hasn't - not like this.
Up to now, terrorist activity has been limited to the territory in contention or adjacent regions. Although the capability for a coordinated strike on completely distant targets as symbols was always present, nobody had actually done it. The fact that it now has been done changes it from a possibility to reality. And be sure, now that it's shown that it can indeed be done, it will be done again.
It's like the four-minute mile. It was possible, but nobody actually ran it in four minutes for decades. Then it was done, and suddenly, people began to run four-minute miles all the time. The Universe has a funny way of taking a phenomenon, waiting for it to actually happen, and then repeat it. Call it the morphogenetic field. Call it the cluster effect. Call it coincidence.
Think on it. Sydney Harbour destroyed as a sign of protest against the oppression of the Aboriginal race? The Petronas Towers blown up as a warning to Islamic countries who have dealings with the decadent West?
The ante's been upped. The unthinkable is now not only thinkable, but a done deal. We are all of us, living under the gun.
Who's next?
Up to now, terrorist activity has been limited to the territory in contention or adjacent regions. Although the capability for a coordinated strike on completely distant targets as symbols was always present, nobody had actually done it. The fact that it now has been done changes it from a possibility to reality. And be sure, now that it's shown that it can indeed be done, it will be done again.
It's like the four-minute mile. It was possible, but nobody actually ran it in four minutes for decades. Then it was done, and suddenly, people began to run four-minute miles all the time. The Universe has a funny way of taking a phenomenon, waiting for it to actually happen, and then repeat it. Call it the morphogenetic field. Call it the cluster effect. Call it coincidence.
Think on it. Sydney Harbour destroyed as a sign of protest against the oppression of the Aboriginal race? The Petronas Towers blown up as a warning to Islamic countries who have dealings with the decadent West?
The ante's been upped. The unthinkable is now not only thinkable, but a done deal. We are all of us, living under the gun.
Who's next?
