Ramblings of a Wayward Code Slave

This weekend is Mother's Day and is a little over one year since my mother died. She passed away in Laurel, Mississippi, the town where she grew up, got married, and wound up spending most of her life. She was also someone who cherished family and history, both of which are important to Laurelites. So tonight when I was cleaning out my nightstand I ran across a newspaper clipping and I knew what I had to do. It required scanning it into the computer in two parts, downloading the trial version of Photoshop CS3, and using it to layer and merge the clipping into one piece again but the hour I spent on this was worth it. It's now protected from water, heat, and my error-prone filing system.

So in honor of my mother and maternal grandparents I present the computing world with a story from the Laurel Leader-Call from May 23, 2001.

I can't seem to check out Google News without seeing at least one article with the word 'terror' embedded somewhere in the title. These days you can't go through the day without seeing or hearing the word at least once unless you like living in a complete news blackout. But what's in a word?

Thanks to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, we have
Main Entry: ter·ror
Pronunciation: 'ter-&r, 'te-r&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French terrour, from Latin terror, from terrEre to frighten; akin to Greek trein to be afraid, flee, tremein to tremble -- more at TREMBLE
1 : a state of intense fear
2 a : one that inspires fear : SCOURGE b : a frightening aspect terrors of invasion> c : a cause of anxiety : WORRY d : an appalling person or thing; especially : BRAT
3 : REIGN OF TERROR
4 : violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands terror>
synonym see FEAR
- ter·ror·less /-l&s/ adjective


So terror is a state of intense fear and, in the context used in the news, it would be appropriate to say a state of fear induced by revolutionary groups to get what they want. The problem is that we need a new word -- terror has little to no meaning any more. We have terror acts, terror threats, terror suspects, terror risk management, anti-terror training, and the list goes on. Terror used to be a word that was fairly reserved and had a specific meaning and evoked a particular emotion when used. Now it's just another word.

It's kind of like profanity if you'll grant me the time to draw the parallel. Modern war movies like Full Metal Jacket use profanity to the point where it is no longer profane, it's simply ignored. If forced to be around someone who talks like that in real life it might offend someone at first but then the person will gradually adjust and find that he or she is filtering out the colorful words. The point here is that a person can get used to just about anything he or she reads or hears by building selective desensitizing filters.

So back to terror. The word is meaningless now as it's overused and misused to the point of being utterly superfluous. The 2001 attack on the World Trade Center was indeed a moment of true terror but then the "War on Terror" phrase was coined and the government and media wanted to connect everything in to that. So we have terror this, terror that, and terror the other. We read about a "possible terror incident investigated" and discover that it's some poor slob of Arabic descent who packed a Swiss army knife in his luggage. To me a "possible terror incident investigated" is if someone sees the outline of a gun in the x-ray machine. Terrorism and terror have become catch-all words for something that should still be very specifically defined, but isn't.

Perhaps it's more than just the words. Ben Franklin once said that those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither. Isn't that what we've been doing for the past five years? Isn't terror just a metaphor for our sacrifice of personal freedoms and civil liberties to the government? And the government has been more than willing to take them, hasn't it? If you get the chance sometime, read the Patriot Act. If you do you'll see the broad-based actions that the government can now take against its own constituents. What amazes me is that there is a nontrivial segment of our population that's actually cheering them on. I don't think I could say any more about that than P.T. Barnum already did with his immortal quote.

The problem we're running into is the difference between democracy and government. The purpose of government is to govern, i.e., control. The purpose of a democracy, or in the case of the United States a republic, is to control with the consent of the people and no more than the people are willing to consent. This check and balance works as long as the people don't give up more rights than they should. But, not listening to Ben Franklin's warning, we started willingly coughing up our rights after the 2001 attacks and we weren't terribly specific about which ones. We now have a Department of Homeland Security, a branch of the government dedicated to monitoring us, which is contrary to everything I've learned about our history and government both as a student and later a taxpayer. We have dramatically expanded capabilities for the FBI and other domestic agencies. And they all use the word terror. And terror now has no meaning so we feel safer. Are we safer? No, just more domesticated -- like cattle. And we all know what eventually happens to cattle.