Terrorism? Or just plane silly?
So there’s this guy. In the midst of the snowmageddon which befell our proud island recently he tweeted about Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster, from where he had plans to fly and which had been closed due to snow, “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”. LOL indeed. The majority of his followers took it in the ill-advised yet joking spirit in which anyone with more than two functioning brain cells would clearly see it was intended. Someone, however, and it’s unclear whom, decided to notify the police of this impending terrorist threat.
So far, so bad. But it gets worse because, on receiving this red-hot tip off, the Police utterly failed to notice the intended humour and went and arrested the clown under the absurd terrorism laws - you know, the ones which allow pensioners to be ejected from party conferences for speaking the truth and photographers to be hassled by the police for, like, taking photos and stuff. I mean fuck. Seriously?
Now, you’ll get no argument from me about how actual terrorism (of which there is an almost infinitesimal amount) is no laughing matter because, frankly, being blown to smithereens by a suicide bomber would be an inconvenience beyond even the healing powers of a nice cup of tea. You will also get no argument from me if you assert that jokingly threatening to blow up a minor English airport isn’t the best idea in the world. But there is an important principle at stake here. We live in what can broadly be described as a liberal democracy. We have the freedom to express ourselves in whatever way we wish so long as a) it doesn’t overtly upset other people and b) it stays within some rules designed to shield us from our own lunacy.
So where did it all go wrong? Well, our rights have been eroded by ill-conceived legislation brought about in the years since the terror-go-round started in 2001. We live in the shadow of ‘global terrorism’ which, just like the recent recession, swine flu and, indeed, snowfall it is convenient for the government to claim is the Worst Thing Ever. In this they’re aided by a complicit media industry who, with an overabundance of airwaves, are having to sensationalise everything in order to fight a losing battle for the ever-decreasing attention span of human beings. They’re also aided by a complicit human race which is desperate for things to fear because it gives them something to worry about. Worry, it seems, is a basic human need.
Well here’s a sensational titbit for you: you are much more likely to be killed by a member of your own family than by a terrorist. And another one: terrorists have not started, and will not start, giving the world a week or so’s notice of their intention to attack, via a public Twitter post.
Throughout history there has always been a minority of people who claim to be willing to kill themselves, their compatriots and their enemies in the name of their cause. There has also always been an even smaller minority who are actually willing to do it. But it only takes one. Once terrorists have the attention of their enemy they need never kill again. All they need do, as in the case of the Christmas Day debacle, is show that they’re still there, trying to come up with ever more ingenious methods of doing so. The reason is simple. They don’t want us dead, they want our unconditional surrender. They will not rest until their cause is victorious. The way the terrorists win is to make us change our way of lives to fit in with how they think our lives should be lived. Someone getting arrested as a ‘suspected terrorist’ for making a joke on Twitter means that the terrorists have already started to win. We keep tightening security until it becomes impossible to live the life of liberty that western society has fashioned through the generations because they have the upper hand. They are willing to die for their cause and they know we are not.
Well I am and you should be too. I’m willing to accept an increased risk of death to avoid the indignity of invasive security and surveillance which is blighting the western world. Does that make me a ‘suicide liberal’?
